Zoot Suit Culture | Zoot Suit Riots | American Experience | PBS

Decades of discrimination had forced the Mexican American community to turn inward. By the 1940’s, LA’s 250,000 Mexican Americans lived in a series of tight-knit neighborhoods called barrios. The communities were traditional, conservative, and self-contained. But many Mexican American teenagers refused to accept the confines of the barrio. They spoke in English, listened to jazz, dressed in zoot suits and made defined the era’s LA cool.
Official Website: to.pbs.org/3Cq... | #ZootSuitPBS
In June 1943, Los Angeles erupted into the worst race riots in the city to date. For 10 straight nights, American sailors armed with make-shift weapons cruised Mexican American neighborhoods in search of "zoot-suiters" - hip, young Mexican teens dressed in baggy pants and long-tailed coats. The military men dragged kids - some as young as twelve years old - out of movie theaters and diners, bars and cafes, tearing the clothes off the young men's bodies and viciously beating them. Mexican youths aggressively struck back. The fighting intensified and on the worst night, taxi drivers offered free rides to the riot area. One LA paper even printed a guide on how to "de-zoot" a zoot-suiter. When the violence ended, scores of Mexicans and servicemen were in hospital beds.
Zoot Suit Riots is a powerful film that explores the complicated racial tensions and the changing social and political landscape that led up to the explosion on LA's streets in the summer of 1943. To understand what happened during those terrifying June nights, the film describes changes in the city's population - the influx of new immigrants, the booming war-time economy, the huge number of service men on their way to the Pacific theater and a new generation of Mexican Americans who were more conspicuous, more affluent and more self-confident than their parents had ever dared to be.
Decked out in wide brim hats, baggy pants, high boots and long-tailed coats, these "zoot-suiters" called each other "mad cats." They were "Terrific as the Pacific" and "Frantic as the Atlantic." Crossing cultural lines and pushing the boundaries of race and class, they were trying to define for themselves what it meant to be an American in 1942 Los Angeles. Even though there was no evidence to connect "zoot-suiters" to crime, the kids' posturing and self-assurance made Anglos nervous. Many Mexican American parents even agreed that something was wrong with their young people.
At the heart of this story lies an unsolved murder. On August 1, 1942, a 22-year-old Mexican American man was stabbed to death at a party. To white Los Angelenos, the murder was just more proof that Mexican American crime was spiraling out of control. The police fanned out across LA, netting 600 young Mexican American suspects. Almost all those taken into custody were wearing the distinctive uniform of their generation: zoot-suits. The tragic murder and the injustice of the trial that followed, coupled with sensational news coverage of both, fanned the flames of the racial hostility that was already running rife in the city. Within months of the verdict, Los Angeles was in the grip of some of the worst violence in its history.
With stunning film noir style recreations of Los Angeles in the 1940s and with eloquent first-hand accounts from key participants - sailors and the white citizens who supported them, suit-zooters and their families - the program deftly conjures up the flamboyant world of a Mexican American subculture, the bigotry and hatred of much of the white establishment, and the dedication of a few liberals who pressed for justice in the face of overwhelming opposition.
In exploring the shocking outpouring of hatred and resentment in wartime Los Angeles, this film teaches us about race relations in the United States today.
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[@livingfinance]

It’s amazing the level of influence that black Americans have had in many anti culture movement. Zoot suits was popularized by AA vis the Jazz era. And just like many other social impacts AA have had many marginalized groups identify strongly with these social movements. This is similar to other social movements started by AA like rock n roll, civil rights, Hip Hop. Very interesting!!

[@jeremiahrobinson3745]

Now Mexicans are trying to revise history and say they wore zoot suits first lol. You can’t make this sh*t up

[@chickenalaking1319]

Yeah, let's pretend there's no Jewish role in the promotion of these trends...

[@stephensanders8090]

You guys will just never shut up will you?

[@stephensanders8090]

@@chickenalaking1319they’re black, they think everything comes from them

[@AzKarma2010]

This is awesome as a Modern day Swing Kid I love the zoot suits! Men and women now wear them!

[@soniasg8639]

Love how they danced! The clothes too were cool. But Texan Chicanos were the first Zoot Suiters!

[@boostmeup]

no white ppl, were , it was then populurised by blacks and then mexicans followed.

[@spirithawk2418]

This is nesssary!!! Thank you PBS

[@jerryyager2601]

Awesome! glad PBS put this out there!!!

[@dr.barrycohn5461]

Used to have a patient that wore a purple zoot suit with the matching fedora.

[@amandawashington5768]

Are there still any of the survivors of the Zoot Suit Riot still alive today? If so please let me know sitting here watching the documentary of the Zoot Suit Riot.

[@chaci1]

Stole * 🥴 I say stole because people don’t even think of African Americans when talking about the zoot suits 🙄 . This dude said jazz culture … you mean African American culture

[@JAfrmNorteCalifaz]

U sound mad lmaoo

[@AnimalAlmighty]

thats all they do

[@williestyle35]

While it was a slightly more inclusive type of "culture", Jazz culture did indeed originate in African American spaces. It came to the jazz music clubs along the upper East Coast, and spread towards the West Coast.

[@chickenalaking1319]

* Jewish culture

[@ChileKiwiYT]

@@AnimalAlmighty weirdo

[@A_Pa-Plainjane]

Funny thing about human; we always have to make it Us and Them.

[@NellaCuriosity]

I can't wait to watch this special!

[@johnnyhensler]

Thank You For Sharing - 🇺🇸

[@denzelreid4834]

2:30

[@denzelreid4834]

2:26

[@robertmartinez4174]

My parents were from Texas. my father wore a zoot suit. in that part of the country the pachuco's spoke mainly in Spanish with Pachuco slang.

[@RR_DM]

because they claimed martial law for a while, Mary

[@Iamrightyouarewrong]

borrowed?

[@santiagoaguilar8429]

yup

[@apep.8555]

They stole it like they do everything. Stop acting surprised

[@CheshireCesare]

@@apep.8555Your racism is showing, carnal. 😂 loll

[@V8Deuce]

Its very interesting how society glorifies Zoot Suits today. In the early 1940s, the United States government mandated a ration for the War effort. The categories of rationed foods during the War were sugar, coffee, processed foods (canned, frozen, etc.), meats and canned fish, and cheese, canned milk, and fats. Furthermore, shortly after Pearl Harbor, there was a heavy burden on US supplies of basic materials like metal, rubber, paper, shoes, and ESPECIALLY garments . Minimal used clothing was mandatory throughout the United States, but some Mexicans decided to defy the rules set forth, wear excessive clothing , and because they didn't enlist in the Services, it pissed Americans off ! Today we look at these people as some sort of Heroes . The men that fought in the War were the TRUE HEROES !

[@dr.barrycohn5461]

Except I haven't seen one zoom suit here.