Men's Fashion and Patriotism Collided With Prejudice During the Zoot Suit Riots

Crowd gathers around beaten and stripped Pachuco. (Associated Press)

Sources of Conflict

The Zoot Adapt Riots were influenced by the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon Trial that fostered an atmosphere of detest and prejudice towards the Mexican American customs. In 1943, disharmonize broke out on the streets of Los Angeles betwixt servicemen and young Pachucos and Pachucas. During the riots which broke out on May 31, 1943 in Los Angeles, servicemen targeted Pachuco youth wearing zoot suits, who were all underage youth too young to exist drafted past the service. Servicemen physically beat zoot-suiters, stripped them of their zoot suits, cutting their duck tails and destroyed their vesture as the Los Angeles Police Department stood by and watched. The Zoot Adjust Riots have been interpreted as a clash betwixt uniformed gangs: the U.S. militaryissued uniformed servicemen, law enforcement and Mexican American youth donning a creative uniform of their ain making. Several elements fed the flame that incited these riots:

• Newspapers were eager to distract attending from the war and single out what they falsely adamant were internal enemies and thus, negatively publicized Pachuco gangs as scapegoats.
• Servicemen, who came from all corners of the U.s.a., naively formed racist attitudes about zoot suiters based on stories published by the press.
• Growing public sentiment viewed Pachuco zoot suiters as "strange," united nations-American and a threat to state of war fourth dimension patriotism.
• Law enforcement held very prejudiced views of Mexican Americans, Pachuco youth and Native Americans, as stated in the following quote:

…"they [Mexican authorities] have stated that which we are now learning the
hard manner. The Mexican Indian is by and large Indian — and that is the element which
migrated to the U.s. in such big numbers and looks upon leniency by
authorities as an evidence of weakness or fear, or else he considers that he was able
to outsmart the government." —Los Angeles Lieutenant Sheriff Edward D. Ayres

Riots of 1943: Sequence of Events

• May 31: Twelve sailors and servicemen clashed violently with Pachuco youth near downtown Los Angeles.

• June 3: L sailors exit the Naval Reserve Armory in Chávez Ravine, virtually Chinatown, attacking anyone wearing zoot suits.

• June four-5: Rioting servicemen comport search-and-destroy raids on Mexican Americans in the downtown expanse.

• June 6: The rioting escalates and spreads into Eastward Los Angeles.

• June vii: The worst of the rioting occurs.

• June 8: Major rioting ends in Los Angeles but spreads into other ports and urban centers such as Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and Harlem where African Americans dressed in zoot suits become targets.

The progress of rioting, 1943. Murder At The Sleepy Lagoon Zoot Suits, Race, & Anarchism in Wartime L.A. by Eduardo Obregon Heathen (The University of North Carolina Press 2003)

Ability of the Press

The press played a large role in shaping public opinion concerning the Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial, the Zoot Suit Riots and afterward of Mexican and Mexican Americans in the U.s.a.. This sensationalist misrepresentation of Pachuco youth and gangs was a form of yellow journalism.

Yellow journalism emerged in the early 1900s. It was sparked by the style of newspaper magnet Joseph Pulitzer and furthered by journalists working under
William Randolph Hearst, who transformed publications into sensationalist propaganda sheets in social club to increase sales. With incrementing sales, newspapers became so powerful that they began to profoundly impact public stance.

Newspaper articles written during the 1940s on Pachuco and Pachuca youth highlighted delinquency and not-conformity in behavior and language. One commodity in the Los Angeles Times in July sixteen, 1944 titled, "Youthful Gang Secrets Exposed," sought to uncover the foreign underworld of Pachuco language. The article reported: "Gang members speak a strange argot unintelligible to the uninitiated." Press reports similar this fueled mass paranoia concerning the
American allegiance of Mexican youth in the U.s.a. during war fourth dimension efforts.

Declaring an Cease to the Zoot Arrange Riots

Realizing the disastrous international effects of the riots several measures were finally taken to end the Zoot Suit Riots. Federal Government officials in Washington, D.C. placed pressure on diverse authorities officials to end the conflict. Among actions taken, the:

• Navy canceled all shore leaves and declared downtown Los Angeles out of premises to all service men.

• Mexican Ambassador in Washington, D.C. requested Secretary of State Edward Stettinius to conduct a formal inquiry into the affair.

• Printing was pressured to cease printing negative reports misrepresenting Mexican American zoot adjust-wearing youth.

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