Essay On Zoot Suit Riots

Mexican American youths adopted a fashion style known as Zoot Suits that caused the Zoot Suit Riots, a series of conflicts in 1943 between U.S. Sailors and Mexican American youths, demonstrating fashions potential to create conflict and difference between societies.
Martinez, Victor R. "Zoot Suit Revolution: The Fashion Scandal That Changed History."LexisNexis. El Paso Times (El Paso, TX), 5 Feb. 2002. Web. 25 May 2016. Victor R. Martinez has been a reporter at the El Paso Times since 1993. He worked in the sports department for several years before becoming a features writer where he has the freedom to write any profile feature story. Victor Martinez writes about a critically acclaimed PBS series, “American Experience,” that will examine

He explains the Sleepy Lagoon Murder case as having all the right ingredients: conflict, fear, clash of culture and fashion racism. A Mexican American gang from 38th street in Los Angeles killed another Mexican American gang member, Jose Diaz, in the summer of 1942 which became known as the Sleepy Lagoon Murder case. Ben Baeder writes that the gang of kids were “Pachucos,” young men who dressed in baggy pants, used their own slang and listened to Jazz music. “Pachucos” were originated in Texas but made their way to Southern California in the 1940’s. The Sleepy Lagoon Murder case followed all Mexican Americans dressing in “Pachuco” style clothes like the killers involved in the murder of Jose Diaz. To Whites and police officers, the Mexican American youth all seemed like a gang and were feared by Whites for looking different. Bean Baeder illustrates in his report how after the murder case, stereotyping all Mexican Americans for a dress style shows how this fashion trend of Pachuco style (zoot suites) can cause a difference in a