Media

Pachuco’s impact on society can also be understood through its representation in the media. The popular play and movie, Zoot Suit, by Luis Valdez is significant for a few key reasons. One is that its success allowed for further Latino and Latina exposure through media. “Zoot Suit’s successes in the professional theater and the film industry opened many doors for the transmission of U.S. Latina/o cultures on stage and on screen” (Lucas 2009: 82). The play was first introduced to Broadway in 1979 and only two years later, Luis Valdez directed a filmed version of the play. Although this is important within itself, by empowering a marginalized group, the content of the movie is also key. The movie illustrates many of the challenges which pachucos faced and also illustrates the injustice from the Sleepy Lagoon Trials. “Zoot Suit argues that even while the media portrayed Mexican American youth as a terrorizing force, the Sleepy Lagoon defendants and other youth of color were being terrorized by the public’s and the justice system’s reactions to the media representation of pachucos” (Lucas 2009: 73). Apart from the purpose of demonstrating inequity, the play also brings to light personal challenges of that Pachucos had based on their identity. “Characters in the play demonstrate the difficulty of being in this space of being in between two identities but still not claiming/being accepted by either” (Fregoso 1993, 668). When viewed from as a performance by actors, outsiders to the Pachuco subculture are able to gain insight into this world.

Although Zoot Suit has power through its intersection of messages and success, the production also had its own setbacks. Those who’s real lives were involved did not have the best perception of it.  “Although Zoot Suit earned much critical praise, it was not well received by some of the real-life men and women who took part in and were affected by the Sleepy Lagoon incident and trial” (Ramírez 2006: 20). Valdez also faced lawsuits on account of invasion of privacy. Those who were affected did not enjoy some of the ways in which an event that had large impacts on their lives was portrayed. Apart from this, throughout the storyline, there was also exemplification of males and masculinity being privileged (Fregoso 1993, 670). This included elements like marginalization of women. This was not received well due to the exaggerated fashion in which this was presented, placing a further negative view on the gender differences in Pachuco and Chicano/a culture, although they were often practiced in real life events.

Themes

Gendered Double Standards

Discrimination from a larger group may bring the group being discriminated towards closer in unity, but this was not exactly the case for all Pachucos. More specifically, for Pachucas, the female partner of Pachucos. Pachucas also had their own attire but would in some instances, wear the same outfits as the men, although they often received a negative response for this. Following the theme of fashion, Pachucas were seen as their male partners accessories. “Pachucas did not receive as much journalistic attention as the men; they were usually viewed as auxiliaries in a girl’s gang paralleling the boys” (Daniels 2002: 99).  Despite not receiving the same levels of publicity, there are some key Pachucas to the Pachuco history. Bertha Aguilar, a teenage girl who was brought in the Sleepy Lagoon trials, was a significant figure in the court trials. She refused to respond to the most questions asked of her which led to criticism of ladylikeness. However, when she did respond, her improper grammar led her to be viewed as un-American (Ramírez 2006: 15). This discrimination based on language towards Pachucas was also received for another reason: speaking caló. Although language is a key form of resistance and creating a group identity, Pachucas were viewed negatively if they spoke it. “Chicana speakers of caló/ pachuco slang are seen negatively, labeled with sexually derogatory terms like ‘puta’”(Ramírez 2006: 10). This term is used to label female prostitutes. Another double-standard is created between the Pachucas and Pachucos. The first being dress codes, language restrictions are also placed on Pachucas.

This page was created by Gilberto Perez ’21.

This video provides examples of different outfits that Pachucas wore.[fruitful_sep]

A trailer to the film production of Zoot Suit which provides information about events in Pachuco history.

A recent video about modern day Pachuco culture in Los Angeles, California.[fruitful_sep]

The song “Pachuco” covers the topic of traditional Pachuca attire compared to what is worn today. Click here to listen.

Scholarship

Articles:

Daniels, D. 1997. Los Angeles Zoot: Race “Riot,” the Pachuco, and Black Music Culture. The Journal of Negro History, 82(2).

Fregoso, R. 1993. The Representation of Cultural Identity in “Zoot Suit” (1981). Theory and Society, 22(5), 659-674.

Ramírez. C. S. 2006. Saying “Nothin”: Pachucas and the Languages of Resistance. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies,27(3).

LUCAS, A. 2009. Reinventing the “Pachuco”: The Radical Transformation from the Criminalized to the Heroic in Luis Valdez’s Play “Zoot Suit“. Journal for the Study of Radicalism,3(1).

Books:

Alvarez, L. 2008.  The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II. University of California Press.

Description for publisher’s website:

Flamboyant zoot suit culture, with its ties to fashion, jazz and swing music, jitterbug and Lindy Hop dancing, unique patterns of speech, and even risqué experimentation with gender and sexuality, captivated the country’s youth in the 1940s. The Power of the Zoot is the first book to give national consideration to this famous phenomenon. Providing a new history of youth culture based on rare, in-depth interviews with former zoot-suiters, Luis Alvarez explores race, region, and the politics of culture in urban America during World War II. He argues that Mexican American and African American youths, along with many nisei and white youths, used popular culture to oppose accepted modes of youthful behavior, the dominance of white middle-class norms, and expectations from within their own communities.

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Cummings, L. 2009. Pachucas and Pachucos in Tucson: Situated Border Lives. University of Arizona Press.

Description from publisher’s website:

When the Zoot Suit Riots ignited in Los Angeles in 1943, they quickly became headline news across the country. At their center was a series of attacks by U.S. Marines and sailors on young Mexican American men who dressed in distinctive suits and called themselves pachucos. The media of the day portrayed these youths as miscreants and hoodlums. Even though the outspoken First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, quickly labeled them victims of race riots, the initial portrayal has distorted images ever since. A surprising amount of scholarship has reinforced those images, writes Laura Cummings, proceeding from what she calls “the deviance school of thought.”

This innovative study examines the pachuco phenomenon in a new way. Exploring its growth in Tucson, Arizona, the book combines ethnography, history, and sociolinguistics to contextualize the early years of the phenomenon, its diverse cultural roots, and its language development in Tucson.

Unlike other studies, it features first-person research with men and women who—despite a wide span of ages—self-identify as pachucos and pachucas. Through these interviews and her archival research, the author finds that pachuco culture has deep roots in Tucson and the Southwest. And she discovers the importance of the pachuco/caló language variety to a shared sense of pachuquismo. Further, she identifies previously neglected pachuco ties to indigenous Indian languages and cultures in Mexico and the United States.

Cummings stresses that the great majority of people conversant with the culture and language do not subscribe to the dynamics of contemporary hardcore gangs, but while zoot suits are no longer the rage today, the pachuco language and sensibilities do live on in Mexican American communities across the Southwest and throughout the United States.

Ramirez, C. S. 2009. The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory. University of California Press.

Description from publishers website:

The Mexican American woman zoot suiter, or pachuca, often wore a V-neck sweater or a long, broad-shouldered coat, a knee-length pleated skirt, fishnet stockings or bobby socks, platform heels or saddle shoes, dark lipstick, and a bouffant. Or she donned the same style of zoot suit that her male counterparts wore. With their striking attire, pachucos and pachucas represented a new generation of Mexican American youth, which arrived on the public scene in the 1940s. Yet while pachucos have often been the subject of literature, visual art, and scholarship, The Woman in the Zoot Suit is the first book focused on pachucas.

Two events in wartime Los Angeles thrust young Mexican American zoot suiters into the media spotlight. In the Sleepy Lagoon incident, a man was murdered during a mass brawl in August 1942. Twenty-two young men, all but one of Mexican descent, were tried and convicted of the crime. In the Zoot Suit Riots of June 1943, white servicemen attacked young zoot suiters, particularly Mexican Americans, throughout Los Angeles. The Chicano movement of the 1960s–1980s cast these events as key moments in the political awakening of Mexican Americans and pachucos as exemplars of Chicano identity, resistance, and style. While pachucas and other Mexican American women figured in the two incidents, they were barely acknowledged in later Chicano movement narratives. Catherine S. Ramírez draws on interviews she conducted with Mexican American women who came of age in Los Angeles in the late 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s as she recovers the neglected stories of pachucas. Investigating their relative absence in scholarly and artistic works, she argues that both wartime U.S. culture and the Chicano movement rejected pachucas because they threatened traditional gender roles. Ramírez reveals how pachucas challenged dominant notions of Mexican American and Chicano identity, how feminists have reinterpreted la pachuca, and how attention to an overlooked figure can disclose much about history making, nationalism, and resistant identities.

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Additional Resources:

To learn more about the biography of Banda Pachuco, click here.

For information and images on contemporary Pachuco style in Mexico City, Mexico, click here.