“Pretty soon there’ll be no more of these pachucos.”

September 28, 2023 9:36 AM

2023 was the 80th anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles. The name is misleading because it suggests that the zoot suiters — the young Mexican, Black and Filipino men and boys who wore the flamboyant outfits (wide-legged, high-waisted, pegged trousers and coats with wide lapels and padded shoulders; zoot suit girls had their own spin)— were the perpetrators. Text and post title from the timeline (archive.org version). Short video: The Zoot Suit Riots Cruise brings back ‘a forgotten era’.

June 2, 1943: The Times publishes its 4th story in a series about “delinquent crime” focusing on Mexican Americans who wore zoot suits that begins “Fresh in the memory of Los Angeles is last year’s surge of gang violence that made the ‘zoot suit’ a badge of delinquency.”

June 4, 1943: “We’re enlisting the aid of the Marine’s for tonight’s expedition,” a Naval petty officer tells the United Press. In movie theaters throughout the city, the servicemen had operators turn on the house lights in the middle of shows so they could hunt down anyone in a zoot suits. AP reports “four of the weirdly-clad youths” were treated at hospitals, stating they were attacked by sailors. Police officers arrest 61 Mexican men and boys on the nights of June 5 and 6. The Long Beach Sun reports, “Many of the zoot-suiters are between 13 and 17 years old.”

June 10, 1943: In an article headlined “Ban on Freak Suits Studied by Councilman,” the Times reports that the L.A. City Council began seriously discussing a ban on zoot suits, and it would be a jail offense for anyone caught in the suit.

posted by spamandkimchi (13 comments total)

Thanks! I did not know the history. Somehow this history feels quite relevant today, maybe because of recent debate over immigration (serious) and dress codes (not as serious...perhaps?) I hope that some items from this amazing establishment show up on the U.S. Senate floor soon.
posted by TreeRooster at 10:08 AM on September 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

Has the US ever had a “race riot” that was started by anyone who wasn’t white? We’d do better to call them “bigotry riots” or, maybe, “localized genocide attempts.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:17 AM on September 28, 2023 [22 favorites]

More positively, I love Zoot Suits. I’m a rumpled mess, but I deeply appreciate dandies all across the gender spectrum.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:22 AM on September 28, 2023 [13 favorites]

We’d do better to call them “bigotry riots” or, maybe, “localized genocide attempts.”

pogroms?
posted by BungaDunga at 10:34 AM on September 28, 2023 [22 favorites]

"During the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, young Gutiérrez was set upon by a carload of Anglo vigilantes from Whittier, beaten up while the L.A. police watched and called out advice, then arrested for disturbing the peace.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

posted by chavenet at 10:46 AM on September 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

Has the US ever had a “race riot” that was started by anyone who wasn’t white?

We're going to have to decide what we mean by race riot and started. Wikipedia does have a whole category, including the sub-categories White American riots in the United States, and African-American riots in the United States, which includes the 1991 Crown Heights riot.
posted by zamboni at 11:30 AM on September 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

Also subject of a play by Luis Valdez. NYT review (gift) of the revival.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:30 AM on September 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

I forgot to include this previously on MeFi.
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:33 AM on September 28, 2023

Zoot suits are cool, and people shouldn't be persecuted for their fashion (nor for fashion-coded racist reasons).
But can I privately hate that "sagging" pants are coming back?
posted by Popular Ethics at 12:20 PM on September 28, 2023

The best compliment I can possibly pay zoot suits is that they are cool enough that they weren't completely ruined by the waking nightmare that was the late 90s Swing Revival
posted by thivaia at 12:31 PM on September 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

If they were good enough for Tom & Jerry they are good enough for me.
posted by inthe80s at 2:48 PM on September 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

Cherry Poppin' Daddies: Zoot Suit Riot
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:39 PM on September 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

“The present day Pachuco refuses to die!” RUBEN SANO, June 1955
posted by Devoidoid at 9:59 AM on September 29, 2023