Zoot Suit Riots

The topic I chose for my online presentation was the Zoot Suit Riots. The reason why I chose the zoot suits is because it shows that racial tensions go far beyond African Americans, Whites or any other race. While most textbooks and history lessons oversee the struggles that Latinos have had to face. In the early 1940s, many young Latino males wore the Zoot Suits as a statement of their generation. The Zoot Suit are men’s suits that consisted of large high-waisted balloon pants, peg-legged trousers, a long dangling chain, a long baggy coat, and sometimes a wide-brimmed hat. Young Latino males that wore these suits were called the “Zoot-Suits”. The Zoot suits referred to themselves as pachucos, this word meant punk. The Pachucos were seen as being too different, foreign, dangerous and as criminals. The media played a big part in people seeing them in this way, it was always very negative.…

In the early 1940’s inhabitants of Los Angeles experience widespread tension and conflict that ultimately led to the Zoot Suit riots. During WWII, Southern California was a vital military outpost with stations scattered from San Diego through Los Angeles, resulting in thousands of active servicemen deployed in the area. Along with these social tensions come the influence of jazz music that developed into a rich culture that flourished throughout Los Angeles area (PBS). Big band and swing music…

to describe in words, but one can hear the saxophone, trumpet, drum, trombone and bass being performed in a steady beat. The song’s intro highlights the jazz’s influence with the long note of trumpet accompany by slight drum playing and the saxophone solo after the first verse. Since jazz is the music of African American, sailors in the riots may have associated “Chicas Patas Boogie” with the minority group and attacked them during the riots. The song can also be linked to Mexican American…

stop them from expressing their culture. The Mexicans in this time period were very protective over what they owned and where they lived. If you messed with one of the Zoot Suit members then you will have to face them all. Zoot Suit members would start things with people for no reason, which would be understandable since most of them were young teenage boys who thought they were tough. Sailors soon became annoyed with these young boys and in 1943 one of the biggest riots erupted between them and…

In the early 1940’s, Los Angeles was in a world of racial disperse and discrimination that exploded in result of the Zoot Suit Riots. The Zoot Suit Riots was a series of racial conflicts between Mexican American youth and U.S servicemen because of the “Zoot Suits” that they donned upon their backs. What was once a expression of freedom within the Chicano (and African American) community was flipped into a dark portion of history. In relation to the Salem witch trials,both historic events,share…

Throughout history there seem to be events that create a culture for everyone who comes after and gives that culture meaning and embeds it into the people who it affects. One of these events happened to the Pachuca/os, or zoot suiters, who were a subculture that emerged among Mexican American youth in the 1940s, characterized by their distinctive style of dress, which included oversized suits, long watch chains, and flamboyant accessories. During World War II, tensions between white sailors and…

The zoot suit riots were a sequence of many different racial bursts that occurred between Mexican Americans and American servicemen in Los Angeles, California. These attacks developed in this area throughout the early 1940’s.Before all of the many American’s started coming to live in the Los Angeles area, Mexican Americans “Zoot Suit Riots” take their name from the high-waisted wool trousers and baggy, long-tailed suit coats then worn by many Los Angeles youths, but the violence was more about…

There are many different factors that led up to the Zoot Suit Riots. Sleepy Lagoon murder was one of the many factors that contributed to the zoot suit riots. Dora and Hank or two victims of the zoot suit riot and they thought the people who beat them were at a party. Jose Diaz was beaten and stabbed and he eventually died. The unwritten rules were that people of color should remain hidden in public, but the zoot-suiters were loud and bold. The whites saw a Mexican Americans as cultural rebels…

rejecting the American values that had long been in place. In turn, The Sleepy Lagoon trial in the 40’s, which preceded the Zoot Suit Riots, fueled racial tensions between Mexicans and white Angelenos through the riots, as Mexican youth, dressed in Zoot Suits were defying the establishment…

Like many of immigrants, Mexican immigrants, typically, did not assimilate right away. They usually continued their traditions and worked to maintain their family. The second generation of Mexican Americans were forced to live their lives with two cultures constantly clashing with the other. They spoke English at school and spoke Spanish at home; this resulted in creating their own language as a mixture of the two. They developed a dialect called caló, which is an argot that uses slang from the…