The Zoot Suit Riots

¿Qué tipo de ropa es este?

¿De qué color es el traje?

En tu opinion, ¿qué tipo de persona lleva un traje “pachuco”? ¿Una persona tímida o atrevida?

What is a zoot suit or a pachuco?

A zoot suit, or zuit suit, has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long knee-length coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. It was popularized in the 1930′s but its extravagant nature triggered World War II riots known as the Zoot Suit Riots.Along with the tight cuffed big pants and knee length coat, most zoot suiters wore a felt hat with a long feather and pointy shoes with a long chained watch dangling from the belt to below the knee and back to the side pocket. They were typically worn for special occasions

A writer described a scene with three zoot suiters this way:What about these three boys, coming now along the platform, tall and slender, walking with swinging shoulders in their well-pressed, too-hot-for-summer suits, their collars high and tight about their necks, their identical hats of black cheap felt set upon the crowns of their heads with a severe formality above their conked hair? It was as though I’d never seen their like before: walking slowly, their shoulders swaying, their legs swinging from their hips in trousers that ballooned upward from cuffs fitting snug about their ankles; their coats long and hip-tight with shoulders far too broad to be those of natural western men.

Like many young people today, music meant a lot to the zoot suit Pachucos. And what type of music did they like?? Swing jazz or Big Band!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYLbrZAko7E&feature=related

The Zoot Suit Riots began in Los Angeles during the first few days of June 1943. Over sixty zoot suiters, predominantly Hispanic and black youth, were arrested and charged after violent fights between zoot suiters and servicemen on shore leave were publicized in the newspapers. The servicemen, upset that zoot suiters refused to put away their extravagant, wasteful suits and assist in the wartime effort, took out their frustration on the lower class youth of Los Angeles.

After the first weekend violence, rumors spread from military bases that servicemen were readying to form vigilante groups to seek retribution on the zoot suiters.