Catherine S. Ramírez. The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. xxvi + 229 pp. $22.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8223-4303-5.

Reviewed by Emily E. Straus

Published on H-California (August, 2011)

Commissioned by Eileen V. Wallis (Cal Poly Pomona)

We have all heard of the zoot suit, the suit From the outset, Ramírez’s agenda is clear: to consisting of high-waist pants and a long coat recover the pachuca, whom she rightfully points with wide lapels, popular with Latinos and out has been ignored in history books and in cul‐ African Americans in the 1930s and 40s. Beyond tural production. Using the lens of gender, she ex‐ mere fashion, the clothing and the pachucos who amines the heyday of the zoot suiters as well as sported it served as political and cultural symbols, the way those zoot suiters were used by the Chi‐ both at the height of its popularity during World cano movement. To do so, Ramírez unearths the War II and when it was reclaimed during the Chi‐ role of pachucas in World War II-era Los Angeles cano movement of the late 1960s, 70s, and 80s. and examines what their historical and cultural The meanings and uses of the zoot suit and pachu‐ absence has meant for our understanding of both cos have changed over time, redefned from being American and Chicano nationalisms. Employing a a symbol of un-Americanness to one of cultural gender analysis, Ramírez reveals much about the pride. The vast majority of works, including those formation of each and challenges reigning con‐ by academic historians, have focused on zoot-clad ceptualizations and representations of Chicano men.[1] Catherine S. Ramírez’s book The Woman history. in the Zoot Suit changes this focus by linking the Ramírez’s focus on Los Angeles makes sense World War II period with the Chicano movement for it was the city in which zoot suits made an en‐ of the latter part of the twentieth century. By do‐ during mark on the national consciousness. Dur‐ ing so, she adds gender to the understanding of ing the World War II-era, the zoot suit and those these periods. She argues that “la pachuca played who donned it shot onto the national stage be‐ a signifcant part in the articulation of U.S. nation‐ cause of two interrelated events: the Sleepy La‐ alism and Chicano movement nationalism ... as goon incident of 1942 and Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. constitutive other” (p. 9). It was no coincidence that these events occurred H-Net Reviews in Los Angeles at that moment, because, as traitors to their people. As outsiders, the pachucas Ramirez reminds us, “the war brought Americans and pachucos helped defne the era’s norms. The of diferent races and ethnicities into close prox‐ Chicano movement marginalized the pachuca as imity with one another in unprecedented ways on an afront to the movement’s hetero-normative the street, battlefeld, dance foor, and factory and patriarchal defnition of la familia de la raza. foor” (p. 2). In addition, Ramírez demonstrates how Chicana The Sleepy Lagoon incident and the Zoot Suit feminists reinterpreted pachucas in their own Riots have held a great signifcance for scholars works. within Chicano studies who have identifed the Ramírez takes an interdisciplinary approach World War II era as a turning point for Latinos. to build her argument. Trained in ethic studies, During World War II and the Chicano movement Ramírez skillfully employs literary theory (with era, scholars, artists, and activists have asserted, particular emphasis on feminist and queer theo‐ the pachuco played a central role in developing ries) to help analyze a wide variety of sources, nationalisms, frst a sense of what was American from traditional historical sources, such as and second a sense of what was Chicano. During archival collections, trial transcripts, and newspa‐ the war many saw the zoot suit as a badge of “re‐ per accounts, to cultural products, such as poetry, bellion, diference, and even un-Americanism” paintings, and plays. In discussing the Chicano (p. xiv). Ramírez asserts that in the midst of the movement, she pays close attention to its cultural Chicano movement, “el pachuco’s history was products, such as Luis Valdez’s 1979 play and sub‐ rewritten.... Chicano cultural workers trans‐ sequent 1981 flm, Zoot Suit. The pages of The formed him into a (or the) father or son of la Woman in the Zoot Suit are flled with rich exam‐ causa” (p. 111). The pachucos’ outsider status ples of pachucos and pachucas, in photographs, helped defne American national identity and Chi‐ paintings, and other cultural productions. cano cultural nationalism. Ramírez puts the two Ramírez analyzes not only the representations in in dialog and uses “one nationalism to relativize those sources, but also their silences. Examining and to shed light on another” (p. xvi). the testimony in the 1944 case People v. Zammora, But, as Ramírez convincingly argues, both the Sleepy Lagoon trial, she expertly reads the si‐ narratives overlook one key ingredient: gender. lences in women’s testimony. For example, she While scholars have managed to change the nar‐ identifes witness Bertha Aguilar’s cultural and rative of the two events from villianizing pachu‐ political resistance in refusing to answer ques‐ cos to highlighting the role of whites’ racism, tions that might have implicated her male friends. Ramírez contends that pre- and post-movement Because these silences exist in many of the scholars, activists, and artists have ignored the sources, Ramírez also conducted eleven oral histo‐ fact that the events were also sexist. She reinserts ries with Mexican American women who came of women into the narrative of the Sleepy Lagoon age in Los Angeles during the zoot suit fad to “ex‐ case and the Zoot Suit Riots and seeks to under‐ pose the breadth of pachuca identities” (p. 28). For stand the meaning of women’s absence from the example, one of her interviewees, Annie Ro‐ traditional narrative. In addition, she does not dríguez, recalled how her immigrant father for‐ just focus on gender in regard to women as she bade his four American-born daughters from dat‐ also discusses the role that masculinity played in ing pachucos or wearing any of their styles. both narratives. During World War II, the main‐ Ramírez concludes that for parents, like Ro‐ stream and Spanish-language press maligned the dríguez’s, the zoot suit style “embodied not only a pachucas either as too masculine or as malinches, dissident femininity but a threatening, distinctly

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American identity as well” (p. 50). The meaning of the zoot suit extended beyond the clothes. After completing her analysis of the develop‐ ment of these nationalisms, she uses her epilogue to bring her analysis to the present. In this sec‐ tion, Ramírez compares la pachuca to the post-9/11 Latina soldier. She notes that as during World War II Latinos continue to be viewed as a “menace” especially in discussions about immi‐ gration from Mexico, but that their roles as GIs also place them in a revered status. This thought- provoking closure to her book begs the reader to ask how much has changed in the building of American nationalism (and minorities role in that development) and how much has remained the same. The Woman in the Zoot Suit will appeal to a number of audiences, including those interested in California, ethnic, American, cultural, and gen‐ der studies. Her masterful reinterpretation of the Sleepy Lagoon incident and the Zoot Suit Riots and her comparative analysis of the formation of nationalisms come together to make a signifcant intervention across diverse literatures. Further‐ more, and not insignifcantly, the relative brevity of Ramírez’s book (four chapters with introduc‐ tion and epilogue) along with the ample use of il‐ lustrations make The Woman in the Zoot Suit ac‐ cessible to many students. Ramírez hopes that this understanding of “the constructedness and mal‐ leability of national imaginaries” will remind us “of the importance of dissent and competing ide‐ ologies” (p. 148). Note [1]. Eduardo Obregón Pagán, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003); and Mauricio Mazón, The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Anni‐ hilation (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988).

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Citation: Emily E. Straus. Review of Ramírez, Catherine S. The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory. H-California, H-Net Reviews. August, 2011.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32735

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