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Home , Cesar Chavez, Zoot Suit Riots

Stuart Cosgrove, “The and Style Warfare”

1. What does Cosgrove mean when he suggests that the zoot suiters were “the stewards of something uncomfortable”?

2. How were doubly alienated? How did they deal with their alienation? What role did the zoot suit play in this process?

3. Why did wearing a zoot suit open pachucos to attacks by soldiers? Why was wearing a zoot suit a form of opposition?

4. How did press coverage of the distort or oversimplify the reality of the situation?

5. How did the presence of groups like the “Black Widows” unsettle both whites and Mexican adults?

6. Why were government officials concerned about the zoot suit riots? How did initial official reactions to the riots obscure their true causes and significance? The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare by Stuart Cosgrove

INTRODUCIION: THE SILENT NOISE OF SINISTER CLOWNS

What about those fellows waiting still and silent thereon the platform,so still and silent they clash with the crowd in their very immobility,standing noisy in theirvery silence; harsh as a cry of terror in their quietness? What about these three boys, coming now along the plat- form, tall and sknder, walking with swingingshoulders in theirwell-pressed, too-hot-for-summersuits, their collars high and tight about their necks, their identicalhats of blackcheap felt set upon the crowns of their heads with a severe formality above their conked hair? It was as though Id never seen their like before: walking slowly, their shoulders swaying, their legs swingingfrom their hips in trousersthat ballooned upward from cuffs fitting snug about their ankles; their coats long and hip-tight withshoulders far too broad to be those of natural westernmen. These fellows whose bodies seemed- whathad one of my teacherssaid of me? - 'You'relike one of those African sculptures, distortedin the interestof design.' Well, what design and whose?'

The zoot-suit is more than an exag- gerated costume, more than a sartorial statement, it is the bearerof a complex and contradictory history. When the nameless narratorof Ellison's Invisibk Man confrontedthe subversivesight of three young and extravagantlydressed blacks, his reaction was one of fascin- ation not of fear. These youths were not simply grotesque dandies parading the city's secret underworld,they were 'the stewardsof something uncomfort- Clyde Duncan, a bus-boyfrom Gainesville, Georgia, appearedon the front page of the New York Timesat the height of the zoot-suit riots. 78 History WorkshopJournal able'2, a spectacularreminder that the social order had failed to contain their energy and difference. The zoot-suit was more than the drape-shapeof 1940s fashion, more than a colourful stage-prop hanging from the shoulders of Cab Calloway, it was, in the most direct and obvious ways, an emblem of ethnicity and a way of negotiating an identiy. The zoot-suit was a refusal: a subcultural gesturethat refusedto concede to the mannersof subservience.By the late 1930s, the term 'zoot' was in commoncirculation within urbanjazz culture. Zoot meant something worn or performed in an extravagantstyle, and since many young blacks wore suits with outrageouslypadded shoulders and trousers that were fiercelytapered at the ankles, the termzoot-suit passed into everydayusage. In the sub-culturalworld of Harlem'snightlife, the languageof rhymingslang succinctly described the zoot-suit's unmistakablestyle: 'a killer-dillercoat with a drape- shape, reat-pleatsand shoulderspadded like a lunatic's cell'. The study of the relationshipsbetween fashionand social actionis notoriouslyunderdeveloped, but there is every indicationthat the zoot-suit riots that eruptedin the in the summer of 1943 had a profoundeffect on a whole generationof socially disadvantagedyouths. It was during his period as a young zoot-suiter that the union activist first came into contact with community politics, and it was throughthe experiencesof participatingin zoot-suit riots in Harlem that the young pimp 'Detroit Red' began a politicaleducation that trans- formed him into the Black radical leader . Although the zoot-suit occupies an almost mythicalplace within the history of music, its social and political importancehas been virtuallyignored. There can be no certaintyabout when, where or why the zoot-suit came into existence, but what is certainis that duringthe summermonths of 1943 'the killer-dillercoat' was the uniformof young rioters and the symbol of a moral panic about juvenile delinquencythat was to intensifyin the post-warperiod. At the height of the riots of June 1943, the New York Times carrieda front page article which claimed without reservationthat the first zoot- suit had been purchasedby a black bus worker, Clyde Duncan, from a tailor's shop in Gainesville, Georgia.3Allegedly, Duncan had been inspiredby the film 'Gone with the Wind' and had set out to look like Rhett Butler. This explanation clearlyfound favourthroughout the USA. The nationalpress forwardedcountless others. Some reportsclaimed that the zoot-suitwas an inventionof Harlemnight life, others suggested it grew out of jazz culture and the exhibitionist stage- costumps of the band leaders, and some argued that the zoot-suit was derived from militaryuniforms and importedfrom Britain. The alternativeand indepen- dent press, particularlyCrisis and Negro Quarterly,more convincinglyargued that the zoot-suit was the productof a particularsocial context.4They emphasisedthe importanceof Mexican-Americanyouths, or pachucos, in the emergenceof zoot- suit style and, in tentativeways, tried to relate their appearanceon the streets to the concept of pachuquismo. In his pioneering book, The Labyrinthof Solitude, the Mexican poet and social commentatorOctavio Paz throws imaginativelight on style and indirectlyestablishes a frameworkwithin which the zoot-suit can be understood. Paz's study of the Mexicannational consciousness examines the changes brought about by the movement of labour, particularlythe generationsof Mexicanswho migrated northwardsto the USA. This movement, and the new economic and The Zoot-suitand Style Warfare 79 social patternsit implies, has, accordingto Paz, forced young Mexican-Americans into an ambivalentexperience between two cultures.

What distinguishesthem, I think, is their furtive, restless air: they act like personswho are wearingdisguises, who are afraidof a stranger'slook because it could strip them and leave them stark naked. . . . This spiritual condition, or lack of a spirit, has given birth to a type known as the pachuco. The pachucosare youths, for the most part of Mexicanorigin, who form gangs in southerncities; they can be identifiedby their languageand behaviouras well as by the clothingthey affect. They are instinctiverebels, and North American racism has vented its wrath on them more than once. But the pachucos do not attemptto vindicatetheir race or the nationalityof their forebears.Their attitude reveals an obstinate, almost fanaticalwill-to-be, but this will affirms nothing specific except their determination . . . not to be like those around them.5

Pachucoyouth embodiedall the characteristicsof second generationworking-class immigrants.In the most obvious ways they had been strippedof their customs, beliefs and language.The pachucoswere a disinheritedgeneration within a disad- vantaged sector of North Americansociety; and predictablytheir experiencesin education, welfare and employmentalienated them from the aspirationsof their parents and the dominant assumptionsof the society in which they lived. The pachuco subculturewas defined not only by ostentatious fashion, but by petty crime, delinquencyand drug-taking.Rather than disguise their alienationor efface their hostilityto the dominantsociety, the pachucos adoptedan arrogantposture. They flauntedtheir difference,and the zoot-suitbecame the means by which that differencewas announced.Those 'impassiveand sinisterclowns' whose purpose was 'to cause terrorinstead of laughter,'6invited the kind of attentionthat led to both prestige and persecution. For Octavio Paz the pachuco's appropriationof the zoot-suitwas an admissionof the ambivalentplace he occupied. 'It is the only way he can establisha more vital relationshipwith the society he is antagonising. As a victim he can occupy a place in the world that previouslyignored him; as a delinquent,he can become one of its wicked heroes.'7The zoot-suit riots of 1943 encapsulatedthis paradox.They emergedout of the dialecticsof delinquencyand persecution,during a period in which Americansociety was undergoingprofound structuralchange. The major social change broughtabout by the United States' involvementin the war was the recruitmentto the armedforces of over four million civiliansand the entranceof over five millionwomen into the war-timelabour force. The rapid increase in militaryrecruitment and the radical shift in the compositionof the labourforce led in turnto changesin familylife, particularlythe erosionof parental control and authority. The large scale and prolonged separationof millions of families precipitatedan unprecedentedincrease in the rate of juvenile crime and delinquency.By the summerof 1943 it was commonplacefor teenagersto be left to their own initiativeswhilst their parentswere either on active militaryservice or involved in war work. The increase in night work compoundedthe problem. With their parents or guardiansworking unsocial hours, it became possible for many more young people to gather late into the night at major urbancentres or simplyon the street corners. 80 History WorkshopJournal

The rate of social mobilityintensified during the period of the zoot-suitriots. With over 15 million civilians and 12 million military personnel on the move throughoutthe country, there was a correspondingincrease in vagrancy.Petty crimesbecame more difficultto detect and control;itinerants became increasingly common, and social transienceput unforeseenpressure on housing and welfare. The new patternsof social mobilityalso led to congestionin militaryand industrial areas. Significantly,it was the overcrowdedmilitary towns along the Pacificcoast and the industrial conurbationsof Detroit, Pittsburghand Los Angeles that witnessedthe most violent outbreaksof zoot-suit rioting.8 'Delinquency'emerged from the dictionaryof new sociology to become an everyday term, as wartime statistics revealed these new patterns of adolescent behaviour.The pachucos of the Los Angeles area were particularlyvulnerable to the effects of war. Being neither Mexican nor American, the pachucos, like the black youths with whom they sharedthe zoot-suitstyle, simplydid not fit. In their own terms they were '24-hourorphans', having rejected the ideologies of their migrantparents. As the war furtheredthe dislocationof family relationships,the pachucos gravitatedaway from the home to the only place where their status was visible, the streets and bars of the towns and cities. But if the pachucos laid themselves open to a life of delinquencyand detention, they also asserted their distinctidentity, with their own style of dress, their own way of life and a shared set of experiences.

THE ZOOT-SUITRIOTS: LIBERTY, DISORDER AND THE FORBIDDEN

The zoot-suit riots sharply revealed a polarizationbetween two youth groups withinwartime society: the gangsof predominantlyblack and Mexicanyouths who were at the forefront of the zoot-suit subculture,and the predominantlywhite American servicemenstationed along the Pacificcoast. The riots invariablyhad racial and social resonancesbut the primaryissue seems to have been patriotism and attitudes to the war. With the entry of the United States into the war in December 1941, the nation had to come to termswith the restrictionsof and the prospects of .In March 1942, the War ProductionBoard's first rationingact had a direct effect on the manufactureof suits and all clothing containingwool. In an attempt to institute a 26% cut-backin the use of fabrics, the War ProductionBoard drew up regulationsfor the wartimemanufacture of what Esquire magazinecalled, 'streamlinedsuits by .'9The regulations effectively forbade the manufactureof zoot-suits and most legitimate tailoring companiesceased to manufactureor advertiseany suits that fell outside the War Production Board's guide lines. However, the demand for zoot-suits did not decline and a network of bootleg tailors based in Los Angeles and New York continuedto manufacturethe garments.Thus the polarizationbetween servicemen and pachucos was immediatelyvisible: the chino shirt and battledresswere evi- dently uniformsof patriotism,whereas wearing a zoot-suit was a deliberate and public way of floutingthe regulationsof rationing.The zoot-suitwas a moral and social scandalin the eyes of the authorities,not simply because it was associated with petty crimeand violence, but becauseit openly snubbedthe laws of rationing. In the fragile harmony of wartime society, the zoot-suiterswere, accordingto The Zoot-suitand Style Warfare 81

Octavio Paz, 'a symbol of love and joy or of horrorand loathing, an embodiment of liberty, of disorder,of the forbidden."0 The zoot-suit riots, which were initially confined to Los Angeles, began in the first few days of June 1943. During the first weekend of the month, over 60 zoot-suiterswere arrestedand charged at Los Angeles County jail, after violent and well publicizedfights between servicemenon shore leave and gangs of Mexi- can-Americanyouths. In order to preventfurther outbreaks of fighting,the police patrolled the eastern sections of the city, as rumoursspread from the military bases that servicemenwere intendingto form vigilante groups. 's report of the incidents, on the morningof Wednesday9 June 1943, clearly saw the events from the point of view of the servicemen.

Disgustedwith being robbedand beaten with tire irons, weightedropes, belts and fists employed by overwhelmingnumbers of the youthfulhoodlums, the uniformedmen passed the word quietly among themselvesand opened their campaignin force on Fridaynight. At centraljail, where spectatorsjammed the sidewalksand police made no efforts to halt auto loads of servicemenopenly cruisingin search of zoot- suiters, the youths streamedgladly into the sanctityof the cells after being snatchedfrom bar rooms, pool halls and theatersand strippedof their attire."

Duringthe ensuingweeks of rioting,the ritualisticstripping of zoot-suitersbecame the major means by which the servicementre-established their status over the pachucos. It became commonplacefor gangs of marinesto ambushzoot-suiters, strip them down to their underwearand leave them helpless in the streets. In one particularlyvicious incident, a gang of drunkensailors rampaged through a cinema after discoveringtwo zoot-suiters.They draggedthe pachucos on to the stage as the film was being screened, strippedthem in front of the audienceand as a final insult, urinatedon the suits. The press coverageof these incidentsranged from the carefuland cautionary liberalismof The to the more hystericalhate-mongering of WilliamRandolph Hearst's west coast papers. Although the practiceof stripping and publicly humiliatingthe zoot-suiterswas not promptedby the press, several reportsdid little to discouragethe attacks:

. . .zoot-suits smoulderedin the ashes of street bonfireswhere they had been tossed by grimly methodical tank forces of service men.... The zooters, who earlierin the day had spreadboasts that they were organizedto 'kill every cop' they could find, showed no inclinationto try to make good their boasts.... Searchingparties of soldiers, sailorsand Marineshunted them out and drove them out into the open like bird dogs flushingquail. Procedurewas standard: grab a zooter. Take off his pants and frock coat and tear them up or burn them. Trim the 'Argentine Ducktail' haircut that goes with the screwy costume.12

The second week of June witnessed the worst incidents of rioting and public disorder.A sailorwas slashed and disfiguredby a pachucogang; a policemanwas run down when he tried to question a car load of zoot-suiters;a young Mexican was stabbed at a partyby drunkenMarines; a trainloadof sailorswere stoned by A young zoot-suiteris protectedfrom a racistmob duringan outbreakof street violence in Detroit.

Two pachuco zoot-suiters,one strippedto his underwear,hie beaten and humiliatedmn a Los Angeles street. The Zoot-suitand Style Warfare 83 pachucos as their train approachedLong Beach; streetfightsbroke out daily in San Bernardino;over 400 vigilantestoured the streets of looking for zoot-suiters,and manyindividuals from both factionswere arrested.13On 9 June, The Los Angeles Times publishedthe first in a series of editorials designed to reduce the level of violence, but which also tried to allay the growingconcern about the racialcharacter of the riots.

To preservethe peace and good name of the Los Angeles area, the strongest measuresmust be taken jointly by the police, the Sheriff'soffice and Army and Navy authorities,to prevent any furtheroutbreaks of 'zoot suit' rioting. While membersof the armedforces receivedconsiderable provocation at the hands of the unidentifiedmiscreants, such a situation cannot be cured by indiscriminateassault on every youth wearinga particulartype of costume. It would not do, for a large number of reasons, to let the impression circulatein South America that persons of Spanish-Americanancestry were being singledout for mistreatmentin SouthernCalifornia. And the incidents here were capableof being exaggeratedto give that impression.14

THE CHIEF, THE BLACK WIDOWSAND THE TOMAHAWKKID

The pleas for tolerance from civic authoritiesand representativesof the church and state had no immediateeffect, and the riots became more frequentand more violent. A zoot-suitedyouth was shot by a special police officerin Azusa, a gang of pachucoswere arrestedfor riotingand carryingweapons in the LincolnHeights area; 25 black zoot-suiterswere arrestedfor wreckingan electric railwaytrain in Watts, and 1000 additionalpolice were draftedinto East Los Angeles. The press coverage increasinglyfocused on the most 'spectacular'incidents and began to identifyleaders of zoot-suitstyle. On the morningof Thursday10 June 1943, most newspaperscarried photographsand reports on three 'notorious'zoot-suit gang leaders. Of the thousandsof pachucosthat allegedlybelonged to the hundredsof zoot-suit gangs in Los Angeles, the press singled out the arrests of Lewis D English, a 23-year-old-black,charged with felony and carryinga '16-inch razor sharp butcher knife;' Frank H Tellez, a 22-year-oldMexican held on vagrancy charges, and another Mexican, Luis 'The Chief Verdusco (27 years of age), allegedlythe leader of the Los Angeles pachucos.15 The arrests of English, Tellez and Verdusco seemed to confirm popular perceptions of the zoot-suiters widely expressed for weeks prior to the riots. Firstly,that the zoot-suitgangs were predominantly,but not exclusively,comprised of black and Mexican youths. Secondly, that many of the zoot-suiterswere old enough to be in the armed forces but were either avoiding conscriptionor had been exemptedon medicalgrounds. Finally, in the case of FrankTellez, who was photographedwearing a pancakehat with a rear feather, that zoot-suit style was an expensive fashion often funded by theft and petty extortion. Tellez allegedly wore a colourfullong drape coat that was 'partof a $75 suit' and a pair of pegged trousers'very full at the knees and narrowat the cuffs' whichwere allegedlypart of anothersuit. The captionof the AssociatedPress photograph indignantly added that 'Tellez holds a medical dischargefrom the Army'.16What newspaperreports tended to suppresswas informationon the Marineswho were arrestedfor inciting 84 History WorkshopJournal riots, the existence of gangs of white Americanzoot-suiters, and the opinions of Mexican-Americanservicemen stationed in ,who were part of the war- effort but who refused to take part in vigilanteraids on pachuco hangouts. As the zoot-suit riots spread throughoutCalifornia, to cities in and , a new dimensionbegan to influencepress coverage of the riots in Los Angeles. On a day when 125 zoot-suited youths clashed with Marinesin Watts and armed police had to quell riots in Boyle Heights, the Los Angeles press concentratedon a razor attackon a local mother, Betty Morgan.What distingui- shed this incident from hundredsof comparableattacks was that the assailants were girls. The press related the incident to the arrest of Amelia Venegas, a womanzoot-suiter who was chargedwith carrying,and threateningto use, a brass knuckleduster.The revelationthat girlswere active withinpachuco subcultureled to consistentpress coverageof the activitiesof two female gangs:the Slick Chicks and the Black Widows.17The latter gang took its name fromthe members'distinc- tive dress, black zoot-suit jackets, short black skirts and black fish-netstockings. In retrospectthe Black Widows, and their active part in the subculturalviolence of the zoot-suit riots, disturb conventional understandingsof the concept of pachuquismo. As Joan W Moore implies in Homeboys, her definitivestudy of Los Angeles youth gangs, the concept of pachuquismois too readily and unproblematically equated with the better known concept of machismo.18Undoubtedly, they share certain ideologicaltraits, not least a swaggeringand at times aggressivesense of power and bravado, but the two concepts derive from different sets of social definitions.Whereas machismo can be defined in terms of male power and sexu- ality, pachuquismopredominantly derives from ethnic, generationaland class- based aspirations,and is less evidently a question of gender. What the zoot-suit riots brought to the surface was the complexity of pachuco style. The Black Widowsand their aggressiveimage confoundedthe pachuco stereotypeof the lazy male delinquentwho avoided conscriptionfor a life of dandyismand petty crime, and reinforcedradical readings of pachuco subculture.The Black Widowswere a reminderthat ethnic and generationalalienation was a pressing social problem and an indicationof the tensionsthat existedin minority,low-income communities. Althoughdetailed information on the role of girlswithin zoot-suit sub-culture is limitedto very brief press reports,the appearanceof femalepachucos coincided with a dramaticrise in the delinquencyrates amongstgirls aged between 12 and 20 years old. The disintegrationof traditionalfamily relationshipsand the entry of young women into the labour force undoubtedlyhad an effect on the social roles and responsibilitiesof female adolescents, but it is difficultto be precise about the relationshipsbetween changedpatterns of social experienceand the rise in delinquency.However, war-timesociety brought about an increase in unpre- pared and irregularsexual intercourse,which in turn led to significantincreases in the rates of abortion,illegitimate births and venereal diseases. Althoughstatis- tics are difficult to trace, there are many indicationsthat the war years saw a remarkableincrease in the numbersof young women who were taken into social care or referredto penal institutions,as a result of the specific social problems they had to encounter. Later studies provideevidence that young women and girls were also heavily involved in the traffic and transactionof soft drugs. The pachuco sub-culture withinthe Los Angeles metropolitanarea was directlyassociated with a widespread The Zoot-suitand Style Warfare 85 growth in the use of marijuana.It has been suggested that female zoot-suiters concealed quantities of drugs on their bodies, since they were less likely to be closely searchedby male membersof the law enforcementagencies. Unfortunately, the absence of consistent or reliable informationon the female gangs makes it particularlydifficult to be certainabout their statuswithin the riots, or their place within traditionsof feminineresistance. The Black Widowsand Slick Chickswere spectacularin a sub-culturalsense, but their black drape jackets, tight skirts, fish net stockings and heavily emphasisedmake-up, were ridiculedin the press. The Black Widowsclearly existed outside the orthodoxiesof war-timesociety: playing no part in the industrialwar effort, and openly challengingconventional notions of feminine beauty and sexuality. Towardsthe end of the second week of June, the riots in Los Angeles were dying out. Sporadicincidents broke out in other cities, particularlyDetroit, New York and ,where two membersof Gene Krupa'sdance band were beaten up in a station for wearingthe band's zoot-suit costumes;but these, like the residual events in Los Angeles, were not taken seriously. The authorities failed to read the inarticulatewarning signs profferedin two separateincidents in California:in one a zoot-suiter was arrested for throwing gasoline flares at a theatre; and in the second another was arrestedfor carryinga silver tomahawk. The zoot-suit riots had become a public and spectacularenactment of social disaffection.The authoritiesin Detroit chose to dismissa zoot-suitriot at the city's Cooley High School as an adolescentimitation of the Los Angeles disturbances.19 Withinthree weeks Detroit was in the midst of the worst race riot in its history.20 The United States was still involvedin the war abroadwhen violent events on the home front signalledthe beginningsof a new era in racialpolitics.

OFFICIALFEARS OF FIFTH COLUMNFASHION

Official reactions to the zoot-suit riots varied enormously. The most urgent problemthat concernedCalifornia's State Senatorswas the adverseeffect that the events mighthave on the relationshipbetween the United States and Mexico. This concern stemmed partly from the wish to preserve good internationalrelations, but rather more from the significanceof relationswith Mexico for the economy of SouthernCalifornia, as an item in the Los Angeles Timesmade clear. 'In Senator Downey declared that the riots may have 'extremely grave consequences'in impairingrelations between the United States and Mexico, and may endangerthe programof importingMexican labor to aid in harvestingCali- forniacrops.'21 These fearswere compoundedwhen the MexicanEmbassy formally drew the zoot-suit riots to the attentionof the State Department.It was the fear of an 'internationalincident'22 that couldonly have an adverseeffect on California's economy, rather than any real concern for the social conditionsof the Mexican- Americancommunity, that motivatedGovernor Warren of Californiato order a public investigationinto the causes of the riots. In an ambiguouspress statement, the Governorhinted that the riots may have been instigatedby outside or even foreign agitators:

As we love our country and the boys we are sending overseas to defend it, we are all duty bound to suppressevery discordantactivity which is designed The zoot-suit style reaches London. A young couple dance on the floor of a ballroomin Hammersmithcirca 1944

A gang of Detroit zoot-suitersline up againstthe wall of a hotel. As the youths wait to be searchedby the police their girlfriendsstand in single file along the edge of the sidewalk. The Zoot-suitand Style Warfare 87

to stir up internationalstrife or adverselyaffect our relationshipswith our allies in the United Nations.23

The zoot-suitriots provokedtwo relatedinvestigations; a fact findinginvestigative committeeheaded by AttorneyGeneral Robert Kennyand an un-Americanactivi- ties investigationpresided over by State SenatorJack B Tenney. The un-American activities investigationwas ordered 'to determine whether the present zoot-suit riots were sponsoredby Nazi agencies attemptingto spreaddisunity between the United States and Latin-Americancountries'.24 Senator Tenney, a memberof the un-American Activities committee for Los Angeles County, claimed he had evidence that the zoot-suit riots were 'axis-sponsored'but the evidence was never presented.25However, the notion that the riots might have been initiated by outside agitators persisted throughoutthe month of June, and was fuelled by Japanese propagandabroadcasts accusing the North American government of ignoringthe brutalityof US marines.The argumentsof the un-Americanactivities investigationwere given a certainamount of credibilityby a Mexicanpastor based in Watts, who accordingto the press had been 'a pretty rough customerhimself, serving as a captainin Pancho Villa's revolutionaryarmy.'26 Reverend Francisco Quintanilla,the pastorof the MexicanMethodist church, was convincedthe riots were the resultof fifth columnists.'When boys startattacking servicemen it means the enemy is right at home. It means they are being fed vicious propagandaby enemy agents who wish to stir up all the racialand class hatredsthey can put their evil fingerson.'27 The attentiongiven to the dubiousclaims of nazi-instigationtended to obfu- scate other more credible opinions. Examination of the social conditions of pachuco youths tended to be marginalizedin favour of other more 'newsworthy' angles. At no stage in the press coveragewere the opinionsof communityworkers or youth leaderssought, and so, ironically,the most progressiveopinion to appear in the major newspaperswas offered by the Deputy Chief of Police, EW Lester. In press releases and on radio he provideda short historyof gang subculturesin the Los Angeles area and then tried, albeit briefly, to place the riots in a social context.

The Deputy Chief said most of the youths came from overcrowdedcolorless homes that offered no opportunitiesfor leisure-timeactivities. He said it is wrong to blame law enforcementagencies for the present situation,but that society as a whole must be chargedwith mishandlingthe problems.28

On the morningof Friday, 11 June 1943, The Los Angeles Timesbroke with its regularpractices and printed an editorial appeal, 'Time For Sanity' on its front page. The main purpose of the editorialwas to dispel suggestionsthat the riots were racially motivated, and to challenge the growing opinion that white servicemenfrom the SouthernStates had activelycolluded with the police in their vigilantecampaign against the zoot-suiters.

There seems to be no simple or complete explanationfor the growthof the grotesque gangs. Many reasons have been offered, some apparentlyvalid, some farfetched. But it does appear to be definitely established that any attemptsat curbingthe movementhave had nothingwhatever to do with race 88 History WorkshopJournal

persecution, althoughsome elements have loudly raised the cry of this very thing.29

A month later, the editorial of July's issue of Crisis presented a diametrically opposed point of view:

These riots would not occur - no matter what the instant provocation- if the vast majorityof the population, includingmore often than not the law enforcement officers and machinery,did not share in varying degrees the belief that Negroes are and must be kept second-classcitizens.30

But this view got short shrift, particularlyfrom the authorities, whose initial response to the riots was largely retributive.Emphasis was placed on arrestand punishment.The Los Angeles City Councilconsidered a proposalfrom Councillor Norris Nelson, that 'it be made a jail offense to wear zoot-suitswith reat pleats within the city limits of LA'31,and a discussionensued for over an hour before it was resolved that the laws pertainingto rioting and disorderlyconduct were sufficientto contain the zoot-suit threat. However, the council did encouragethe War ProductionBoard (WPB) to reiterateits regulationson the manufactureof suits. The regional office of the WPB based in San Franciscoinvestigated tailors manufacturingin the area of men's fashion and took steps 'to curb illegal produc- tion of men's clothing in violation of WPB limitation orders.'32Only when GovernorWarren's fact-finding commission made its publicrecommendations did the political analysisof the riots go beyond the firstprinciples of punishmentand proscription.The recommendationscalled for a more responsible co-operation from the press; a programmeof special training for police officers working in multi-racialcommunities; additional detention centres; a juvenile forestry camp for youth underthe age of 16; an increasein militaryand shore police; an increase in the youth facilities provided by the church; an increase in neighbourhood recreationfacilities and an end to discriminationin the use of public facilities. In addition to these measures, the commissionurged that arrests should be made without undue emphasison membersof minoritygroups and encouragedlawyers to protect the rights of youths arrested for participationin gang activity. The findingswere a delicatebalance of punishmentand palliative;it madeno significant mention of the social conditionsof Mexican labourersand no recommendations about the kind of publicspending that would be needed to alter the social experi- ences of pachuco youth. The outcome of the zoot-suit riots was an inadequate, highly localized and relativelyineffective body of short term public policies that provided no guidelinesfor the more serious riots in Detroit and Harlem later in the same summer.

THE MYSTERY OF THE SIGNIFYINGMONKEY

The pachuco is the prey of society, but instead of hiding he adorns himself to attract the hunter's attention. Persecution redeems him and breaks his solitude: his salvationdepends on him becoming part of the very society he appearsto deny.33 The Zoot-suit and Style Warfare 89

The zoot-suit was associatedwith a multiplicityof differenttraits and conditions. It was simultaneouslythe garb of the victim and the attacker,the persecutorand the persecuted, the 'sinister clown' and the grotesque dandy. But the central opposition was between the style of the delinquentand that of the disinherited. To wear a zoot-suit was to risk the repressiveintolerance of wartimesociety and to invite the attention of the police, the parent generation and the uniformed membersof the armed forces. For manypachucos the zoot-suit riots were simply hightimesin Los Angeles when momentarilythey had control of the streets; for others it was a realizationthat they were outcastsin a society that was not of their making.For the blackradical writer, , the riotsin his neighbourhood were unambiguous: 'Zoot Riots are Race Riots.'34 For other contemporary commentatorsthe wearing of the zoot-suit could be anythingfrom unconscious dandyism to a conscious 'political' engagement. The zoot-suit riots were not 'political'riots in the strictestsense, but for many participantsthey were an entry into the languageof politics, an inarticulaterejection of the 'straightworld' and its organization. It is remarkablehow many post-waractivists were inspiredby the zoot-suit disturbances. of the radicaltheatre company, , allegedly learned the 'chicano' from his cousin the zoot-suiter Billy Miranda.35 The novelists and both conveyed a literary and politicalfascination with the power and potentialof the zoot-suit. One of Ellison's editorialsfor the journal Negro Quarterlyexpressed his own sense of frustration at the enigmaticattraction of zoot-suit style.

A third major problem, and one that is indispensableto the centralization and directionof power is that of learningthe meaningof myths and symbols which aboundamong the Negro masses. For withoutthis knowledge,leader- ship, no matterhow correctits program,will fail. Muchin Negro life remains a mystery;perhaps the zoot-suitconceals profound political meaning; perhaps the symmetricalfrenzy of the Lindy-hop conceals clues to great potential powers, if only leaders could solve this riddle.36

AlthoughEllison's remarks are undoubtedlycompromised by theirown mysterious idealism, he touches on the zoot-suit'smajor source of interest. It is in everyday ritualsthat resistancecan find naturaland unconsciousexpression. In retrospect, the zoot-suit'shistory can be seen as a point of intersection,between the related potential of ethnicityand politics on the one hand, and the pleasuresof identity and difference on the other. It is the zoot-suit'spolitical and ethnic associations that have made it such a rich reference point for subsequentgenerations. From the music of TheloniousMonk and Kid Creole to the jazz-poetryof LarryNeal, the zoot-suit has inheritednew meaningsand new mysteries.In his book Hoodoo Hollerin' Bebop Ghosts, Neal uses the image of the zoot-suit as the symbol of Black America'scultural resistance. For Neal, the zoot-suitceased to be a costume and became a tapestryof meaning,where music, politicsand social actionmerged. The zoot-suit became a symbol for the enigmasof Black culture and the mystery of the signifyingmonkey:

But there is rhythm here Its own special substance. 90 History WorkshopJournal

I hear Billie sing, no Good Man, and dig Prez, wearingthe Zoot suit of life, the Porkpie hat tiltedat the correctangle; throughthe Harlemsmoke of beer and whisky,I understandthe mysteryof the SignifyingMonkey.37

The authorwishes to acknowledgethe supportof the BritishAcademy for the researchfor this article.

1 Ralph Ellison InvisibleMan New York 1947 p 380 2 InvisibleMan p 381 3 'Zoot Suit Originatedin Georgia'New York Times11 June 1943p 21 4 For the most extensivesociological study of the zoot-suitriots of 1943 see Ralph H Turner and Samuel J Surace 'Zoot Suiters and Mexicans:Symbols in Crowd Behaviour' AmericanJournal of Sociology62 1956 pp 14-20 5 Octavio Paz The Labyrinthof SolitudeLondon 1967 pp 5-6 6 Labyrinthof Solitudep 8 7 As note 6 8 See KL Nelson (ed) The Impactof Waron AmericanLife New York 1971 9 OE Schoefflerand W Gale Esquire'sEncyclopaedia of Twentieth-CenturyMen's FashionNew York 1973 p 24 10 As note 6 11 'Zoot-SuitersAgain on the Prowl as Navy Holds Back Sailors'Washington Post 9 June 1943 p 1 12 Quoted in S Menefee AssignmentUSA New York 1943p 189 13 Details of the riots are taken from newspaperreports and press releases for the weeks in question, particularlyfrom the Los Angeles Times,New York Times, Washington Post, WashingtonStar and TimeMagazine 14 'StrongMeasures Must be Taken Against Rioting'Los Angeles Times9 June 1943 p 4 15 'Zoot-SuitFighting Spreads On the Coast' New York Times10 June 1943p 23 16 As note 15 17 'Zoot-GirlsUse Knife in Attack' Los Angeles Times11 June 1943 p 1 18 Joan W Moore Homeboys:Gangs, Drugsand Prisonin the Barriosof Los Angeles Philadelphia1978 19 'Zoot Suit WarfareSpreads to Pupils of Detroit Area' WashingtonStar 11 June 1943 p 1 20 Although the Detroit Race Riots of 1943 were not zoot-suit riots, nor evidently about 'youth' or 'delinquency',the social context in which they took place was obviously comparable.For a lengthystudy of the Detroit riots see R Shogunand T Craig The Detroit Race Riot: a study in violencePhiladelphia and New York 1964 21 'Zoot Suit War InquiryOrdered by Governor'Los Angeles Times9 June 1943p A 22 'WarrenOrders Zoot Suit Quiz; Quiet Reigns After Rioting' Los Angeles Times 10 June 1943 p 1 23 As note 22 24 'TenneyFeels Riots Causedby Nazi Move for Disunity'Los Angeles Times9 June 1943 p A 25 As note 24 26 'WattsPastor Blames Riots on Fifth Column'Los Angeles Times11 June 1943p A 27 As note 26 28 'CaliforniaGovernor Appeals for Quellingof Zoot Suit Riots' WashingtonStar 10 June 1943 pA3 29 'Time for Sanity'Los Angeles Times11 June 1943 p 1 30 'The Riots' The CrisisJuly 1943 p 199 31 'Ban on Freak Suits Studiedby Councilmen'Los Angeles Times9 June 1943p A3 33 Labyrinthof Solitudep 9 34 ChesterHimes 'Zoot Riots are Race Riots' TheCrisis July 1943;reprinted in Himes Black on Black: Baby Sisterand SelectedWritings London 1975 35 El Teatro Campesinopresented the first Chicanoplay to achieve full commercial Broadwayproduction. The play, writtenby LuisValdez and entitled'Zoot Suit'was a drama The Zoot-suit and Style Warfare 91 documentaryon the Sleepy Lagoonmurder and the events leadingto the Los Angeles riots. (The of August 1942 resulted in 24 pachucos being indicted for conspiracyto murder.) 36 Quoted in Larry Neal 'Ellison's Zoot Suit' in J Hersey (ed) Ralph Ellison: A Collectionof CriticalEssays New Jersey 1974 p 67 37 From Larry Neal's poem 'Malcolm X: an Autobiography'in L Neal Hoodoo Hollerin'Bebop GhostsWashington DC 1974 p 9

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