Zoot Suit Riots - Essay Example

Zoot Suit Riots The Zoot Suit Riots took place in the of Los Angeles, California in the early summer of 1943, during the Second World War. The riots drew their name from the Zoot Suits commonly worn by the Latino youth in the city. The riots took place between the US marine soldiers and the white sailors being on one side, and the Mexican Americans, mainly the youth, being the other party. Delving into its origins, the cause of these riots can partly be attributed to an incident known as the Sleepy Lagoon Murder. In August of 1942, a man of Mexican origin was found unconsciousnear Los Angeles at a place which later came to be referred to as ‘Sleepy Lagoon’. The authorities labeled his death a murder committed by the local gangs of Mexican youth, particularly the ‘38th street gang’, the reason being the frequent violence that allegedly ensued between them. Several members of the aforementioned gang were arrested and charged with murder and were then put in jail. Although the convictions were later overturned and the members which were arrested were let go, this murder case brought an anti-Mexican tendency throughout the media in California and Mexicans were thought of as being violent and troublemakers. Tensions grew between the Mexican-Americans and the people of local origin, especially the white Americans, as a result. The riots however did not start without further incidents directly or indirectly causing even more tension. Before we get to when the actual riots took place, we must understand that there was an ever-growing amount of discrimination against the Mexican-Americans or Latino-Americans in the area. There was a widely prevalent discrimination in the job market against the Mexicans and the poverty caused them to work under well below poverty-level wages (Reisler, 95-97). The local newspapers in the city regularly described the Mexicans in derogatory and racially offensive manners ( McWilliams et al, 180-183). It became a widely practiced tradition of the Mexican-Americans, particularly the youth, to wear flamboyant suits of a particular look, referred to as Zoot Suits, along with baggy trousers and hats. However, as the United States joined the Second World War at the end of 1941, the War Production Board imposed restrictions on various things in order to utilize the resources in a better way; one of the goods on which the production restrictions were imposed were suits, and clothing which contained wool. These restrictions had the effect of practically forbidding the manufacture of Zoot suits as they used a lot of cloth and were considered extra flamboyant and unnecessary. However, certain tailors did not stop the manufacture of Zoot suits and thus, shortly afterwards, wearing a Zoot suit in war-time became a symbol of disregard to the regulations of the War Production Board and therefore, a disregard to the fact that the country is at war and care must be taken in utilizing of the recourses. Wearing of these suits was hence a symbol of going directly against patriotism and in the view of the authorities, the media and especially the men of the US navy stationed in the city, it was reason for even more hatred towards the Mexican-Americans or “Pachucos”. The causes of the riots can be further elaborated by highlighting two incidents that took place a few days before, and on the night before the riots, respectively. The first incident involved a group of Mexican-Americans in Zoot suits attacking the soldiers and sailors based on allegations of harassment of Mexican women in the area. The second incident took place the night before the start of riots, as a bunch of Sailors of the U.S. Navy got into an argument and got attacked by young Mexicans who were wearing Zoot suits. The actual riots started the next day. On 4th of June 1943, about 200 members of the U.S. Navy, as a group, went through the city towards the east side of the city, and started a fight when they first saw their targets: Mexican-Americans in Zoot suits. Most of the victims in this fight were boys, who were beaten up with clubs and their suits were ripped off of them and burned. The violence gathered momentum and pace in the following days as more and more men from the navy, the sailors and the soldiers moved through the city, resorting to assault whenever they came across someone wearing a Zoot suit (Schultz, 534). They scanned the local bars, the local movie theatres, restaurants and other public places for Latinos and Mexican-Americans and beat them up, humiliating them by various means such as stripping them off their clothes in public. It is reported that several thousand members of the U.S. Navy were involved in this attack. Initially, only the Mexican population was attacked, however, some African-Americans wearing the Zoot suits were also attacked by the hordes of U.S. navy personnel and sailors sweeping the city streets. The local media sided with the White-Americans in this scenario and praised their actions which according to them had the effect of ridding the city of the troublemakers that they viewed Mexicans as. The riots were brought to a halt and the violence curbed to a great extent when commanders of the Navy and Marines confined their personnel to their barracks and announced that the City of Los Angeles was off limits to them. The riots slowly stopped almost fully before the month ended but it did not stop the riots from moving on to other parts of the country with serious consequences in some parts. Afterwards, the actions of the military personnel were criticized by the nation as a whole and several human rights activists led the uproar against the acts of violence committed. A committee called ‘McGucken committee’ was created to investigate the causes of the riot and it stated racial prejudice as the main cause. There were however also suggestions that Nazi agencies were behind these riots with aims to cause civil disobedience and unrest in various parts of the country but no evidence was ever given to support these theories. The riots themselves were a shameful incident in the history of Los Angeles and one which divides opinions of many authors and journalists. References: Top of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form McWilliams, Carey, Dean Stewart, and Jeannine Gendar. Fool's Paradise: A Carey Mcwilliams Reader. Santa Clara: Santa Clara University, 2001. Print. Reisler, Mark. By the Sweat of Their Brow: Mexican Immigrant Labor in the United States, 1900-1940. Westport, Conn: Greenwood, Press, 1976. Print.Bottom of Form Schultz, Jeffrey D. Hispanic Americans and Native Americans. Phoenix, Ariz: Oryx Press, 2000. Print. Bottom of Form Read More