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These youths, one stripped of all his clothes and the other badly beaten, fell victim to
raging bands of servicemen who scoured the streets in Los Angeles looking for and
beating zootsuited youths (AP).
raging bands of servicemen who scoured the streets in Los Angeles looking for and
beating zootsuited youths (AP).
On this Day: Zoot Suit Riots Begin in Los Angeles
June 03, 2008 12:00 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On June 3, 1943, sailors from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory attacked Hispanic youths, starting a week-long ethnic conflict known as the “zoot suit riots.”
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The riots began as revenge for a sailor who had been assaulted, but servicemen soon expanded their attacks to the Mexican community as a whole.
Zoot suits were a style of dress developed by Mexican-American youths during the 1930s and 40s as part of the so-called “Pachuco” culture also characterized by a unique “Calo” dialect. The suits had high-waisted, baggy pants, with long, wide coats, often worn with felt hats, pocket chains and other accessories.
For the Pachucos, the flamboyant clothing expressed freedom and cultural pride, but outsiders, authorities and some older Mexican-Americans associated the suits with violence and gang activity.
Hostility between servicemen and Mexican-American youths had been building for months before the riots, with many small skirmishes sparked by alcohol and rivalry over women. Sailor Joe Dacy Coleman was badly wounded on May 31 in a fight with Pachucos.
On June 3, approximately 50 sailors, supposedly avenging Coleman, attacked anybody wearing a zoot suit, with some even stripping their victims and burning their clothing.
Violence escalated over the next week, with servicemen attacking Hispanics regardless of what they were wearing.
Police did little to stop the violence, often choosing to arrest Mexican-American victims instead. Several local papers portrayed the Pachucos as the aggressors, though national media provided more balanced perspectives.
On June 8, the military ordered servicemen to avoid the downtown area and the violence soon subsided. The following day, Los Angeles banned the wearing of zoot suits.
Zoot suits were a style of dress developed by Mexican-American youths during the 1930s and 40s as part of the so-called “Pachuco” culture also characterized by a unique “Calo” dialect. The suits had high-waisted, baggy pants, with long, wide coats, often worn with felt hats, pocket chains and other accessories.
For the Pachucos, the flamboyant clothing expressed freedom and cultural pride, but outsiders, authorities and some older Mexican-Americans associated the suits with violence and gang activity.
Hostility between servicemen and Mexican-American youths had been building for months before the riots, with many small skirmishes sparked by alcohol and rivalry over women. Sailor Joe Dacy Coleman was badly wounded on May 31 in a fight with Pachucos.
On June 3, approximately 50 sailors, supposedly avenging Coleman, attacked anybody wearing a zoot suit, with some even stripping their victims and burning their clothing.
Violence escalated over the next week, with servicemen attacking Hispanics regardless of what they were wearing.
Police did little to stop the violence, often choosing to arrest Mexican-American victims instead. Several local papers portrayed the Pachucos as the aggressors, though national media provided more balanced perspectives.
On June 8, the military ordered servicemen to avoid the downtown area and the violence soon subsided. The following day, Los Angeles banned the wearing of zoot suits.
Headline Link: The Zoot Suit Riots
Each night, the servicemen pushed further east, aided by taxi drivers who gave them free rides into Mexican neighborhoods. Pachucos fought back, often trying to lure servicemen into traps where they would be ambushed. Local and military police did little to stop the violence until June 8, when the military issued an order forbidding servicemen to enter Los Angeles.
Source: PBS
Reactions: Bias and sensationalism in news media coverage
PBS includes articles from the Los Angeles Examiner and Daily News that sensationalized the Pachucos’ violence. One Examiner article stated, “Riotous disturbances of the past week in Los Angeles by zoot suit hoodlums have inflicted a deep and humiliating wound on the reputation of the city. The record already reveals killings, stabbings, and cases of innocent women having been molested by zoot suit gangsters.”
Source: PBS
Malaspina University-College hosts articles from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, LA Opinion and Excelsior that are fair in their coverage. “Although the youth did nothing to provoke the attack or for that matter to resist the attack, many were severely wounded, including women and children,” wrote the LA Opinion, “Supposedly the attack has been motivated by past conflicts between the two groups and has been amplified by the press claiming that Mexican youths have been disrespectful toward the servicemen, a claim without any foundation.”
Source: Malaspina University-College
Time magazine criticized the actions of the servicemen, the Los Angeles police and the local newspapers. “California’s zoot-suit war was a shameful example of what happens to wartime emotions without wartime discipline,” it wrote and added that, “Los Angeles, apparently unaware that it was spawning the ugliest brand of mob action since the coolie race riots of the 1870s, gave its tacit approval.”
Source: Time
Background: Pachuco rooted in pride and alienation
Pachuco Mexican-American youths, like many second-generation immigrants, often felt alienated from both their parents’ culture and mainstream America. They created a subculture of their own: “Rather than disguise their alienation or efface their hostility to the dominant society, the pachucos adopted an arrogant posture. They flaunted their difference, and the zoot suit became the means by which that difference was announced.” During the riots, servicemen stripped the Pachucos of their zoot suits. Reported one paper: “zoot-suits smouldered in the ashes of street bonfires where they had been tossed by grimly methodical tank forces of service men.”
Source: Smithsonian
Just months after the riots, George Sanchez published an article on Pachuco culture. He condemns theories offered by some Los Angeles officials that the Pachucos were drawn to crime by biological and racial characteristic, and accuses American society of discriminating against Mexican-Americans.
Source: History Matters
Reference: Multimedia resources on zoot suit culture and riots
The Zoot Suit Riots, a documentary from PBS’ American Experience, has a Web site that includes a description, timeline and maps of the riots, as well as pictures, primary sources and a teacher’s guide. It also includes video clips of old Pachucos reflecting on the zoot suit culture.
Source: PBS
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