The Zoot Suit Riots in 1943 and the infamous Sleepy Lagoon murder
trial of the preceding year represent a turning point in the
cultural identity and historical experience of Mexican Americans in
the United States. This engaging study of these regrettable events
provides context for understanding the continuing battles in the
21st century over immigration policy and race relations. Although
the "zoot suit" had earlier been a black youth fashion trend
identified with jazz culture, by the 1940s, the zoot suit was
adopted by Mexican American teenagers in wartime Los Angeles, who
wore it as their unofficial "uniform" as an act of rebellion and to
establish their cultural identity. For a week in June of 1943, the
Zoot Suit Riots, instigated by Anglo-American servicemen and
condoned by the Los Angeles police, terrorized the Mexican American
community. The events were an ugly testament to the climate of
racial tension and resentment in Los Angeles-and after similar
riots began across the nation, it became apparent how endemic the
problem was. This book traces these important historic events and
their subsequent cultural and political influences on the Mexican
American experience, especially the activist and reform efforts
designed to prevent similar future injustices. General readers will
gain an understanding of the challenges facing the Mexican American
community in wartime Los Angeles, grasp the racial and cultural
resistance of the larger Anglo-American society of the time, and
see how the blatant injustices of the Sleepy Lagoon trial and the
Zoot Suit Riots served to galvanize Latinos and others to fight
back. Those conducting in-depth research will appreciate having
access to original materials sourced from Federal and state
archives as well as newspapers and other repositories of
information provided in the book. Connects the racially and
socioeconomically motivated events of the World War II-era 1940s to
the Chicano movement of the 1970s and the current battles over
immigration legislation, allowing readers to see the recurring
theme in American history Exposes the distortions of a yellow
journalistic press in its coverage and treatment of the Sleepy
Lagoon trial and Zoot Suit Riots, providing documentation of how
white America's perception of Mexican Americans has been fashioned
over many years by the mainstream media Documents how the zoot-suit
and Pachuco cultures of Mexican American youths of the 1940s-an
expression of their identity and an attempt to establish their
place in the larger American culture-were a key reason behind the
violent culture clashes Includes previously unpublished primary
documents from the National Archives and Records Administration and
the Franklin Roosevelt Library
General
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