Zoot Suit Riots
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<!-- FAIR USE of Zootsuitriot.jpg: see image description page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Zootsuitriot.jpg for rationale -->
[[Image:Zootsuitriot.jpg|right|thumb|300px|'''Zoot Suit riots''', June 1943]]
{{redirect|Zoot Suit Riot|the swing album by [[Cherry Poppin' Daddies]]|Zoot Suit Riot (album)}}
The '''Zoot Suit Riots''' were a series of riots that erupted in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], [[California]] during [[World War II]], between sailors and soldiers stationed in the city and [[Hispanic]] youths, who were recognizable by the [[zoot suit]]s they favored. While [[Mexican Americans]] were mostly beaten, [[African American]] and [[Filipino]]/[[Filipino American]] youth were also targeted.<ref>[http://www.oovrag.com/essays/essay2003a-1.shtml ''With Style: Filipino Americans and the Making of American Urban Culture'']</ref>
==History==
[[Image:AMTDZoot.jpg|thumb|right|300px|"Authorities meet to discuss the Zoot Suit Riots" (photo: [[Los Angeles Daily News]])]]
The riots began in Los Angeles, amidst a period of rising tensions between American servicemen stationed in southern California and Los Angeles' [[Chicano]] community. Many of the tensions between the Chicano community and the sailors existed because the servicemen walked through a Chicano neighborhood on the way back to their barracks after nights of drinking. The discrimination against the Chicano minority community was compounded by robberies and fights during these drunken interactions. In July 1942, a group of Hispanic youth fought back against police who attempted to break up a street corner gambling game. In October 1942, over 600 Chicano youth were arrested, and dozens charged, in the killing of Jose Diaz in a gang brawl between kids from the 38th Street gang and Downey Neighborhoods gang near a reservoir on the Williams Ranch called the [[Sleepy Lagoon murder|Sleepy Lagoon]]. This led to one of the largest court mass trials in California's history whose convictions were later overturned.
The following year, clashes between white servicemen and Hispanic youth increased. In May 1943, sailors claimed that "zoot suiters" stabbed a sailor, and they retaliated by beating young Hispanics leaving a local dance.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_timeline/index.html American Experience | Zoot Suit Riots | Timeline<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> On [[May 31]], [[1943]], a group of white sailors on leave clashed with a group of young Hispanics in the downtown area. One sailor, Joe Dacy Coleman, was badly injured. In response, 50 white sailors gathered and headed out to downtown and [[East Los Angeles]], which was the center of the Hispanic community. They attacked young people, especially targeting males in "zoot suits." In many instances, the police intervened by arresting Hispanic youths for disturbing the peace. They left the sailors to the military justice system. The violence escalated over the ensuing days. Thousands of servicemen joined the attack. Many [[African American]]s<ref>[http://www.ncdemocracy.org/book/print/1146 Historians and WWII page 3<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> assisted the Chicano community by providing vehicles and weapons to fight back against the [[Caucasian race|Caucasian]] sailors. Several hundred [[pachucos]] (as the young Hispanic men were known) and nine sailors were arrested as a result of the fighting that occurred over the next few days.
An eyewitness to the attacks, journalist Carey McWilliams, described the scene as follows:
<blockquote>Marching through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, a mob of several
thousand soldiers, sailors, and civilians, proceeded to beat up every zoot suiter
they could find. Pushing its way into the important motion picture theaters,
the mob ordered the management to turn on the house lights and then ran
up and down the aisles dragging Mexicans out of their seats. Streetcars were
halted while Mexicans, and some Filipinos and Negroes, were jerked off
their seats, pushed into the streets and beaten with a sadistic frenzy<ref>Carey McWilliams. North From Mexico. Quoted in Richard Griswold del Castillo. The Los Angeles "Zoot Suit Riots" Revisited: ''Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos'', Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 367-391.</ref></blockquote>
The local press lauded the attacks by the servicemen, describing the assaults as having a "cleansing effect" that were ridding Los Angeles of "miscreants" and "hoodlums."<ref>Carey McWilliams. "Blood on the Pavements." In: ''Fool's Paradise: A Carey McWilliams Reader''. Heyday Books, 2001. ISBN-13: 9781890771416</ref> The violence only subsided when military authorities intervened on [[June 7]]. They declared that Los Angeles would be off-limits to all military personnel. Of the nine sailors that were arrested, eight were released with no charges and one had to pay a small fine.
A week later, [[First Lady]] [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] characterized the riots, which the local press had largely attributed to criminal actions by the Mexican American community, as in fact being "race riots" rooted in long-term discrimination against Mexican-Americans. This led to an outraged response by the ''Los Angeles Times'', which in an editorial the following day accused Mrs. Roosevelt of stirring "race discord."<ref>Eduardo Obregón Pagán. ''Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2004.</ref>
==The riots in popular culture==
*The riots are referenced in [[Steven Spielberg|Steven Spielberg's]] 1979 film ''[[1941 (film)|1941]]''.
*The riots were the inspiration for a play written by [[Luis Valdez]] — ''[[Zoot Suit (play)|Zoot Suit]]'', which itself inspired the [[1981 in film|1981]] [[Zoot Suit (film)|filmed version]].
*A [[murder mystery]] [[novel]], ''[[The Zoot Suit Murders]]'' by [[Thomas Sanchez]], employs the riots as a backdrop to the main mystery.
*A [[Swing (genre)|swing]] album called ''[[Zoot Suit Riot (album)|Zoot Suit Riot]]'', featuring a song of the same name, was released by the American band [[Cherry Poppin' Daddies]] in [[1997 in music|1997]].
*Mention of the riots appear in the song ''[[People of the Sun]]'', 1996, by [[Rage Against the Machine]].
* The 1992 film, ''[[American Me]]'', alludes to the fact that the lead character, Santana (played by [[Edward James Olmos]]), was conceived when his mother was raped by sailors during the Zoot Suit Riots.
* In ''[[The Black Dahlia (novel)|The Black Dahlia]]'' by [[James Ellroy]], the main characters are cops involved in the riot. The movie version of the novel opens with a depiction of the riot.
*The riots are referenced in [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s landmark [[postmodern]] novel ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]''.
*''[[Fireworks (1947 film)|Fireworks]]'', an underground film by [[Kenneth Anger]], depicts a dream inspired by the zoot suit riots, as reported by the author as an audio commentary to the 2007 [[DVD]] release.
*The song ''Hey, Pachuco'' by the jump swing band [[Royal Crown Revue]] is about the Zoot Suit Riots.
==See also==
*[[38th street gang]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
*Del Castillo, Richard Griswold “The Los Angeles “Zoot Suit Riots” revisited: Mexican and Latin American Perspectives”. Mexican Studies / Estudios Mexicanos, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 367-391
*Mazon, Maurizio. The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX. 2002
*Pagan, Eduardo O. “Los Angeles Geopolitics and the Zoot Suit Riot, 1943” Social Science History, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), 223-256
*Pagán, Eduardo Obregón. ''Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race & Riots in Wartime L.A.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2003. ISBN 0-8078-5494-8
*''Zoot Suit Riots''. Produced by Joseph Tovares. WGBH Boston, 2001. 60 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698; 1-800-344-3337
==External links==
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/ Zoot Suit Riots.] ''[[American Experience]]''.
*[http://web.mala.bc.ca/davies/H324War/Zootsuit.riots.media.1943.htm A list of newspaper articles] written about the Zoot Suit Riots.
*[http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/browse/keyword/%22Zoot+Suit+Riots%22 Images and primary source documents about the Zoot Suit Riots], from the University of California
{{Chicano/Mexican-American}}
[[Category:1943 riots]]
[[Category:1943 in the United States]]
[[Category:Crime in Los Angeles, California]]
[[Category:History of fashion]]
[[Category:History of youth]]
[[Category:History of California]]
[[Category:History of Los Angeles, California]]
[[Category:Mexican-American history]]
[[Category:Racially motivated violence in the United States]]
[[Category:Riots and civil unrest in the United States]]
[[Category:Race riots in the United States]]
[[Category:Clothing controversies]]
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