Zoot Suit Riots

This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page.

Zoot Suit riots, June 1943

"Zoot Suit Riot" redirects here. For the swing album by Cherry Poppin' Daddies, see Zoot Suit Riot (album)

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, California during World War II, between sailors and soldiers stationed in the city and Mexican American youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored.

History

The riots began in Los Angeles, amidst a period of rising gang violence. In October 1942, zoot suiters were charged with killing Jose Diaz in a supposed gang brawl at the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir (leading to a court trial whose convictions were later overturned), in May they rioted against police shutting down an illegal gambling operation, sailors claim that zoot suiters stabbed a sailor.^[1] Sensationalized accounts of criminal zoot suiters (pachucos) menacing local citizens were featured on the front pages of many newspapers. On May 31st, 1943, a group of sailors on leave confronted a gang of zoot suiters; one sailor, Joe Dacy Coleman, was badly injured. In response, fifty sailors gathered and headed out to downtown and East Los Angeles, which was the center of the Mexican community. Once there violent conflict ensued. In many instances, the police intervened by arresting Mexican-American youths for disturbing the peace, leaving the sailors to the military justice system, in which punishment is often much more severe than in civil or criminal court. Sailors also had conflict with African Americans. ^[2] Several hundred pachucos and nine sailors were arrested as a result of the fighting that occurred over the next few days.

Of the nine sailors that were arrested, eight were released with no charges and one had to pay a small fine. Military authorities intervened on June 7, by declaring that Los Angeles would henceforth be off-limits to all military personnel.

Of the riots, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt commented, "The question goes deeper than just [zoot] suits. It is a racial protest. I have been worried for a long time about the Mexican racial situation. It is a problem with roots going a long way back, and we do not always face these problems as we should."

The riots in popular culture

• The riots are referenced in Steven Spielberg's 1979 film 1941.
• The riots were the inspiration for a play written by Luis Valdez — Zoot Suit, which itself inspired the 1981 filmed version.
• A murder mystery novel, The Zoot Suit Murders by Thomas Sanchez, employs the riots as a backdrop to the main mystery.
• A swing album called Zoot Suit Riot, featuring a song of the same name, was released by the American band Cherry Poppin' Daddies in 1997.
• Mention of the riots appear in the song People of the Sun, 1996, by Rage Against the Machine.
• The 1992 film, American Me, alludes to the fact that the lead character, Santana (played by Edward James Olmos), was conceived when his mother was raped by sailors during the Zoot Suit Riots.
• In The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, the main characters are cops involved in the riot. The movie version of the novel opens with a depiction of the riot.
• The song "Riding The Crimson Wave" by Justin And The Jets mentions the riots in the chorus.
• The riots are referenced in Thomas Pynchon's landmark postmodern novel Gravity's Rainbow.
• Fireworks, an underground film by Kenneth Anger, depicts a dream inspired by the zoot suit riots, as reported by the author as an audio commentary to the 2007 DVD release.
• The song Hey Pachuco by the jump swing band Royal Crown Revue is about the Zoot Suit Riots.

See also

• 38th street gang

References

Further reading

• Del Castillo, Richard Griswold “The Los Angeles “Zoot Suit Riots” revisited: Mexican and Latin American Perspectives”. Mexican Studies / Estudios Mexicanos, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 367-391
• Mazon, Maurizio. The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX. 2002
• Pagan, Eduardo O. “Los Angeles Geopolitics and the Zoot Suit Riot, 1943” Social Science History, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), 223-256
• Pagán, Eduardo Obregón. Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race & Riots in Wartime L.A. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2003. ISBN 0-8078-5494-8
• Zoot Suit Riots. Produced by Joseph Tovares. WGBH Boston, 2001. 60 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698; 1-800-344-3337

External links

• Zoot Suit Riots. American Experience.
• A list of newspaper articles written about the Zoot Suit Riots.
• Images and primary source documents about the Zoot Suit Riots, from the University of California

Donate to Wikimedia