1
Guillermo Herrera
HIST 4325
Dr. Shepherd
April 8, 2008
The Zoot-Suit Riots: Race Relations During World War II
On a warm summer night in August 1942, Jose Diaz attended the birthday party of a
family friend named Eleanor Delgadillo Coronado. Jose was not much of a partier but this was
going to be his last weekend at home and he wanted to celebrate with friends and family. Jose
joined the Army and he was to report to the Army recruitment center the following Monday for
his induction ceremony. Jose accepted multiple alcoholic beverages and he danced the night
away at the Delgadillo home near the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir. When he decided to call it a
night, Jose staggered home when he was confronted by a group of young Mexican Americans. 1
Jose was viciously attacked by the men. He suffered multiple blows to his head, face, and arms
from a club. Jose Diaz was stabbed twice in the stomach and died a short time later.2
That same night, Hank Leyvas and his girlfriend Dora Baca were assaulted at the Sleepy
Lagoon by the rival Downey gang. Angered and embarrassed, Leyvas and members from his 38th
Street neighborhood gang returned to the lagoon for revenge. Leyvas and his 38th Street boys
rumbled with the Downey gang for about twenty minutes before Hank Leyvas’ crew quickly
exited the lagoon. In the days that followed, over 600 Mexican American “zoot-suiters” were
brought in for questioning about the murder of Jose Diaz by the Los Angeles authorities. Hank
Leyvas and twenty-one other members of the 38th Street gang were the leading suspects of the
crime and were eventually arrested for the murder of Jose Diaz at the Sleepy Lagoon. The Sleepy
1
The term “Mexican Americans” will be used to refer to Americans of Mexican decent
Eduardo Pagan, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. (Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press), 2003 p.1-2
2
2
Lagoon murder trial was a grand spectacle as details of the case were printed on every major
newspaper in the country.3
Sensational news reporting during the Sleepy Lagoon trial portrayed the 38th Street boys
in an extremely negative light. Hank Leyvas and his boys were portrayed as “hoodlums” and
“vandals” and were found guilty in the court of public opinion. As a result of the sensational
reporting, Leyvas and his crew received an unfair trial and were found guilty of the murder of
Jose Diaz. The verdict outraged Mexican Americans in Los Angeles because they knew of the
injustices that Hank Leyvas and his crew suffered from. Many Mexicans Americans believed
that the verdict was solely based on race and that the judge wanted to make an example of the
38th Street boys.
The Sleepy Lagoon verdict and the sensational news reporting fueled the already
prevalent anti-Mexican hysteria in Southern California. For ten nights in June 1943, white Navy
sailors and other members of the military targeted young Mexican American “zoot-suiters” and
ruthlessly beat them in their own neighborhoods. The servicemen dragged Mexican American
youths from restaurants, cafes, bars, and theatres to “un-suit” them and beat them in the streets.
The purpose of this paper is to explain how and why race relations between Anglos and
Mexican Americans reached such a violent level. This paper will address how sensational press
reporting, social geography, and other outside factors contributed to the outbreak of violence. It
will also analyze the unequal and unjust treatment the “zoot-suiters” received by local law
enforcement officials. Recent scholarship by Edward Escobar has placed emphasis on the
Mexican American relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department and how that
relationship manifested into violent conflict. Historian Eduardo Pagan focuses his work on the
sociopolitical atmosphere of Los Angeles during World War II. Naturally, I attempted to
3
Ibid, 3&61
3
combine both theories to create this paper. I argue that the culmination of economic, social, and
educational discrimination against Mexican Americans and the Anglo perception that Mexican
Americans were biologically criminally inclined were the primary factors that caused the violent
race riots.
Roots of the Tensions
Although Anglo-Mexican tensions date back much further, the United States war with
Mexico created the biggest schism between both ethnicities. The Mexican-American War (18451848) created what Simon and Samora call “The heritage of bitterness.”4 The inhumane
atrocities committed by both sides during the war created a strong bitter and hostile relationship
between the United States and Latin America. The United States won the war with minimal
effort and they established themselves as the great power of North America. The U.S.
implemented new laws and regulations and met little opposition from the substantially weaker
Latin American nations. “The heritage of bitterness” between the United States and Latin
America would continue well into the twentieth century.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American war in 1848 but it did
not create peace between the two parties. The terms of the treaty called for Mexico’s recognition
of the U.S. annexation of Texas and the U.S. acquisition of California, Arizona, New Mexico,
Colorado, Utah, and parts of Wyoming. The U.S. also agreed to pay Mexico $15 million for their
losses. As a result of the treaty, Mexico lost more than half of its territory it had gained from
4
Julian Samora and Patricia V. Simon, A History of the Mexican-American People (Notre Dame: Notre Dame
Press), 1993 p.97
4
Spain in 1821.5 The cession of territories was a hard pill for Mexico to swallow due to the
discovery of gold in California and the prosperous economy developing in the west.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo created new problems for both countries. Under the
treaty, the U.S. promised to protect the civil rights of Mexicans and acknowledge them as
citizens. However, many Anglos refused to abide by the treaty and most of these civil rights were
never honored and Hispanics assumed a political, economical, and social subordinate status.
Mexicans were relegated to work in the low-paying labor market and most of their lands were
confiscated by the turn of the century.6 According to Escobar, Mexicans became economically
subordinated, politically disenfranchised, and socially ostracized.7 Anglos justified their
superiority over Hispanics through the idea of Manifest Destiny. Supporters of Manifest Destiny
believed that Hispanics were inherently inferior and had no business interfering with Anglo
expansion. They proclaimed Hispanics to be a “mongrel race” and some extremists even
considered exterminating Mexicans as a race. One example is given through the words of the
Illinois State Register James Russell Lowell when he described Mexicans as being “reptiles”
who “must either crawl or be crushed” if they stood in the way of Anglo expansion.8
From 1865 to 1885, Anglo settlers drove hundreds of Mexican ranchers from their land in
California. Anglos settlers used their large amount of resources to drive the ranchers out of
business. The poor economic conditions for Mexican ranchers led to frustration and eventually
violence.9 Most of the violence was racially driven as Mexican American men would attack
newly arrived white settlers. White Mexican-American War veterans responded with vigilante
5
Ibid, 99
Ibid, 104
7
Edward Escobar, Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity: Mexican Americans and the Los Angeles
Police Department, 1900-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1999 p.18
8
Ibid, 19
9
Leonard Pitt, The Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890
(Berkeley: University of California Press), 1970 p. 250-257
6
5
violence against the Mexican Americans. These war veterans were supported financially by
wealthy white elites to rid the city of the “Mexican Problem.”10 The constant vigilante violence
prompted the California State Legislature to adopt an elaborate criminal justice system. This
makeshift criminal justice system was unfairly harsh to Mexican Americans to say the least. One
year, all twenty-seven Mexican Americans who were charged with violent crimes received
corporal punishment. Twenty-six of them were executed.11 This kind of injustice towards
Mexican Americans became commonplace in late nineteenth century Los Angeles. The Spanishlanguage newspaper El Clamor Publico once reported “among whites it was a very common
habit to murder or injure Mexicans with impunity.”12 Mexican Americans started to grow tired of
their subordinate status in the United States and they began to feel like foreigners in their native
land. Activists like Joaquin Murieta, “Cheno” Cortina, Tiburcio Vasquez, and Las Gorras
Blancas used violence as a means of protest against the injustices committed by the white
community.13 These men had no problem demonstrating their anger and frustration towards
Anglos and therefore, they became despised by local law-enforcement agencies.
By the turn of the twentieth century, Los Angeles was transforming from a small pueblo
town to a large metropolitan center. Los Angeles’ population grew steadily from 1,610 to 11,183
from 1850 to 1880. Between 1880 and 1890 the city’s population grew at an astounding 351
percent and was well over 50,000. Scholars attribute the shape rise in population growth during
this time to the arrival of the transcontinental railroad in Southern California. In 1900, between
10
Pagan, 23
Escobar, 20
12
Ibid, 20
13
Samora and Simon, 115
11
6
3,000 and 5,000 people of Mexican decent lived in Los Angeles. The number jumped between
30,000 and 50,000 by 1920.14
The large influx of people of Mexican descent during the 1910’s and the 1920’s
threatened the nativist sentiment that was prevalent in Southern California. Most white residents
of Los Angeles came from the Midwest and they modeled the city after their hometowns.
According to Pagan, nativism was strongly supported by white Angelinos (Los Angeles
residents). The Ku Klux Klan was openly accepted by many white Angelinos who believed that
the Roman Catholic, mestizo race would pose a threat to the internal security of the United
States.15
By the 1920’s, the Anglo Protestant population was dwarfed by the large influx of
Mexicans seeking economic opportunity in Los Angeles. However, Anglo Protestants still
largely controlled the economic and political institutions of the city. By 1925, Anglo Protestants
made up only seventeen percent of the population but they held one hundred percent of all the
city’s top economic and government positions. While Anglos possessed nearly all the top jobs in
L.A., the Mexican American workforce was still being marginalized. According to Escobar,
“after more than fifty years of economic subordination and exploitation, Mexican Americans
increasingly found themselves relegated to working in menial jobs.”16 Fifty-eight percent of
Mexicans worked in unskilled, labor-intensive jobs in 1900. This figure jumped to seventy-two
percent by 1920. The economic prosperity during the 1920’s did not alter Mexican’s subordinate
status. According to Escobar, “between 1920 and 1928 not a single Mexican worker in Los
Angeles moved up from a blue-collar job to a white-collar job.”17 This data proves that Mexicans
14
Escobar, 21
Pagan, 23
16
Escobar, 29
17
Ibid, 30&79
15
7
and Mexican Americans suffered from discriminatory employment practices that were designed
to keep them from climbing the economic latter.
Mexican Americans in Los Angeles suffered from housing discrimination that was used
to confine the Latino population to certain sections in the community. The discriminatory use of
restrictive covenants by real estate agents and homeowners were designed to keep the
“undesirables” out of their Anglo Protestant communities. The “undesirable” group was not
restricted to Mexicans as African Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, and other ethnic groups
fell victim to the use of restrictive covenants. The high demand for cheap labor brought many
ethnic groups to Los Angeles and because of restrictive covenants, many of these groups were
confined to the central and east side communities.18 In the first decades of the twentieth century,
Mexican Americans were segregated into the Plaza area located in southern Los Angeles.
According to Sanchez, about seventy percent of all people of Mexican descent were pushed into
these barrios in southern L.A. One historian describes these barrios as “a well-defined enclave
within the heart of the city surrounded by Anglo suburbs.”19
The housing conditions in these barrios were generally very poor. Most of the housing in
these barrios were barrack-style structures that had no ventilation and thin walls that separated
each family. Tenants shared outdoor bathing facilities that consisted of two toilets, one tub, and
one washbowl that were used by over forty people. These residencies were so bad that they
became the primary focus of the Los Angeles City Housing Commission and were dubbed
“cholo courts” for the large number of Mexican American occupiers. Commission member Jacob
Riis compared these barrios to the worst kind of tenant housing in New York City. Riis observed
18
George J. Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 19001945 (New York: Oxford University Press), 1993 p.75
19
Ibid, 77
8
that the Plaza barrios resembled “stalls for cattle instead of homes for human beings.”20 Mexican
American tenants were also frequently exploited by their Anglo landlords. Even though most
Mexicans earned low wages, some Anglo landlords forced their tenants to purchase all their
groceries and necessities at high prices at stores owned by the landlords themselves.21 Some
Mexican Americans wanted to break out of the south L.A. barrio and live somewhere else but
most did not have the financial and/or social support necessary to do so. The housing situation in
southeastern Los Angeles made Mexican Americans frustrated and it began to place strain on
Mexican American-Anglo relations.
Although Mexican Americans were considered “white” by the 1930’s, they were not
given the same opportunity to excel in education. The Los Angeles city school system segregated
Mexican American children and placed them in “Mexican schools.” Although Mexican
Americans were considered to be “white” and could not be segregated by race, L.A. school
officials used the students’ lack of proficiency in English as an excuse to segregate them from
the Anglo students. George Sanchez contends that IQ testing during the 1920’s and 1930’s
proved to L.A. school officials that Mexican Americans were “retarded” and thus needed
additional attention. The curriculum that was taught to Mexican students was completely
different from the curriculum taught to Anglo students. The Mexican curriculum focused
primarily on vocational training and “Americanization” rather than regular schoolwork. 22
Escobar argues that Mexican American students suffered from “serious cultural alienation”
because of their segregated educational experience. Mexican American students wanted
desperately to be accepted by mainstream American culture but they were denied that chance due
20
Ibid, 78
Ibid, 81
22
Sanchez, 259
21
9
to their segregation from white students. This denial of acceptance forced Mexican Americans to
develop a culture of their own.23
Aside from economic and educational discrimination, Mexican Americans suffered from
social discrimination in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Mexicans and Mexican Americans lacked access
to public facilities such as swimming pools, recreational centers, restaurants, dance halls,
theaters, etc. One particular sign at a public swimming pool in Los Angeles read, “Tuesdays
reserved for Negroes and Mexicans.” Wednesdays were reserved for draining and cleaning the
pool.24
Social discrimination against Mexicans was not confined to Southern California. Charles
Porras, a longtime El Paso resident, describes similar situations in Texas. Porras describes an
incident when he and a couple of friends went out for a bite to eat at a downtown El Paso
restaurant named “Zieger’s.” Porras recalled being rudely asked to leave by the owner because
“Mexicans weren’t being served there at that time.”25 Roberto Gomez, another longtime El Paso
resident, describes similar events in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Gomez recalls not being
able to swim at Memorial Park in Central El Paso without some altercation with Anglos.26 These
incidents prove that the majority of the Mexican community was not accepted into the
mainstream Anglo culture. Scott argues that first and second generation Mexican immigrants
sought to be “Americanized” by adopting English and conforming to white culture. When they
were denied “Americanization,” Mexicans grew frustrated and developed a rebellious and hostile
attitude towards whites.27
23
Escobar, 169
Ibid, 171
25
Charles Porras, Interviewed by Oscar Martinez. November 18, 1975. University of Texas, El Paso
26
Roberto Gomez, Interviewed by Raymundo Gomez. November 28, 1976. University of Texas, El Paso
27
Robin Scott, The Mexican-American in the Los Angeles Area, 1920-1950: From Acquiescence to Activity (Ann
Arbor: University Microfilms), 1971 p.84
24
10
The mass repatriation campaign of the 1930’s had a profound impact on the Hispanic
community in Los Angeles. This “voluntary” repatriation program was designed to rid Mexicans
of American jobs during the depression. According to Sanchez, nearly one-third of all Mexicans
in Los Angeles were deported back to Mexico. Repatriated families had difficulties adjusting to
their new surroundings. Many repatriates were American citizens who had never before set foot
in Mexico. Families in L.A. were broken and unable to stabilize themselves financially while
repatriated Mexicans had difficulty finding work in Mexico. The campaign was starting to take
an emotional toll on Mexicans. Distraught over losing family members, many second generation
Mexican Americans began to resort to juvenile delinquency.28
The Mexican Revolution and “The Brown Scare” provided the first examples of antiMexican hysteria in 1910’s Los Angeles. The Mexican Revolution in the early twentieth century
caused mass migration to the United States from people who were escaping the violence in
Mexico. As a result, many Anglos were fearful of radical, revolution-inspired Mexicans settling
in their communities. Historian Ricardo Romo gives three reasons why the Anglo community
was so apprehensive about the large influx of Mexican immigrants: First, many whites feared
that revolutionary rhetoric would enter the United States and inspire the Mexicans already living
here. Second, Anglos worried that Mexicans would violently antagonize U.S. citizens. Lastly, at
the time of World War I, many Anglos felt that Mexico was an ally of Germany and were
worried about the loyalty of Mexicans living in the U.S.29
The anti-Mexican sentiment increased due to the reporting of Los Angeles based
newspapers. L.A. newspapers such as the Los Angeles Record frequently published stories about
Mexicans disrespecting the American flag and terrorizing Anglo residents in the name of Pancho
28
29
Sanchez, 209-226
Escobar, 69
11
Villa.30 During the 1920’s, the L.A. newspapers began concentrating their reporting on crimes
committed by Mexicans with Anglo victims. They seldom (if ever) reported on crimes where
whites were the perpetrators and Mexicans were the victims. The Los Angeles Record and the
Los Angeles Express made it a point to emphasize the Mexican hostility towards the Los Angeles
Police Department.31 In November 1913, the Record printed a story that describes five Mexican
Americans’ plot to kill a white patrol officer. The facts of the article were highly inaccurate and
exaggerated due to the fact that most newspapers at the time did not interview Mexican
Americans to get their side of the story. As a result of this kind of sensational reporting, there
was a high demand by the Anglo community to control the Mexican juvenile delinquent
problem. The LAPD was more than happy to answer the call.32
Mexican Americans and the LAPD
From the turn of the century up until the start of the Zoot-Suit Riots in 1943, the Los
Angeles Police Department has been accused of police misconduct and brutality against the
Mexican American population. Top officials in the department believed that Mexicans were
biologically inclined to commit crime. In the first half of the twentieth century, Mexican
Americans have accused the LAPD of violating their civil rights by using excessive force,
arresting people for no apparent reason, using unlawful searches and seizures, and inflating
criminal statistics. Worse yet, it seemed as though the entire criminal justice system paid little
attention to the injustices that plagued the Mexican American community. One notable example
of police brutality by the LAPD is given with the murder of Francisco Lopez. Lopez was shot
30
Ibid, 73
Kevin Leonard, The Battle for Los Angeles: Racial Ideology and World War II (Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico press), 2006 p.147
32
Escobar, 33&76
31
12
and killed by Officer Sherman Baker for allegedly stealing clothes. Lopez was unarmed and did
not threaten the life of Officer Baker at anytime.33
LAPD statistics show that the majority of Mexican arrests between 1920 and 1930 were
based on the violations of sumptuary laws or “victimless” crimes. The 1923 Vollmer report
reveals that more than sixty-three percent of all Mexicans arrested were charged with crimes that
had no victim. In 1928, over seventy percent of all Mexicans arrested were charge with vagrancy
or alcohol-related offenses. The large amount of alcohol-related arrests convinced officials at the
LAPD that Mexicans suffered from a “weakness of will” and must be closely monitored by
officers. This “closely monitored” approach by the LAPD led to an all-out attack by the police
department on Mexican American youths. According to Escobar, Mexican American youths
were arrested for no other reason besides being of Mexican decent. Police would arrest large
groups of Mexican juveniles who would hang out on street corners and front lawns and charge
them with curfew violations and suspicion of other crime. Mexican American youths began
compiling arrest records as early as age eleven. Mexican Americans learned at a young age that
being out on the street after 8 o’clock spelled trouble with the police. They knew the LAPD was
keeping a close watch on them.34
Perhaps, the most offensive action by the LAPD was the mere harassment of Mexican
Americans. A former officer of the LAPD confessed that it was departmental policy to keep
Mexicans and blacks out of Hollywood and predominately white upper-class neighborhoods.
Henry Marin recalls an incident when a police officer refused to believe that he owned an
expensive car. Marin was pulled over and accused of stealing his own vehicle. When he denied
33
34
Ibid, 34-35
Escobar, 118-131
13
the accusations, the police officer punched Marin in the stomach and let him go.35 According to
Mazon, there were also multiple complaints of sexual harassment by Mexican American women
against LAPD officers.36 Police misconduct was not limited to only Anglo officers. Mexican
American officers also participated in the police brutality against their own people. Escobar
suggests that these Mexican officers tried hard to separate themselves from the “pachuco”
lifestyle and furthermore, they wanted to prove themselves to their white colleagues. 37
Because of this constant police maltreatment, many Mexican Americans became
apprehensive about authority figures. Extreme poverty and pervasive discrimination eventually
took its toll on Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. Many Hispanics felt alienated from
mainstream American culture and felt the need to rebel against authority. Thus the “zoot-suit” or
“pachuco” lifestyle was born. The zoot-suit consisted of baggy pants that fit high on the waist,
deep pleats, narrow cuffs, a “pancake” hat, long chain watches, and thick-soled shoes. The zootsuit was adopted by Mexican American youths from the African American jazz culture that was
wildly popular in Harlem, New York in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The zoot-suit was more than just
a rebellious outfit; it became a subculture on its own. “Zoot-suiters” spoke in their own dialect
called Caló. Caló represented the zoot-suit uniqueness and rebellious nature because the dialect
was incomprehensible to older Mexicans and it irritated police officers. The zoot-suit was a
symbol of rejection of mainstream American culture and it was the pachuco response to the neat,
trim, and conservative look of American servicemen. These pachucos fully adopted “la vida
35
Ibid, 173
Mauricio Mazon, The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation (Austin: University of Texas
Press), 1984, p.64
37
Escobar, 177
36
14
loca” and embraced their reputation as anti-conformist tough guys. Pachucos grew tired of being
marginalized by white culture and they were not afraid to resort to violence if need be.38
World War II in Los Angeles
The Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor ended the isolationist sentiment in the U.S. The
second Great War was no longer a European or Asian affair as hundreds of thousands of men
and women enlisted in the armed services to battle the axis powers. Although the outbreak of
war usually unites and mobilizes the home front, Mazon suggests that it can also lead to severe
social anxiety. The attacks on Pearl Harbor created widespread panic among Americans who
believed that a foreign attack on the mainland would soon follow. Following the “relocation” of
people of Japanese decent, the public transferred their social anxieties towards dealing with the
juvenile delinquent and “Mexican” problem. Middle-class whites became even more
apprehensive when the wartime economy gave Mexican Americans the opportunity to compete
for industry jobs.39
World War II created a high demand for defense industry jobs in Los Angeles. The
wartime economy stripped middle-class white youths of their superior socioeconomic status as
they worked along side people of African and Mexican decent that generally occupied the lower
half of the socioeconomic latter.40 Los Angeles’ defense industries were put under tremendous
pressure by the federal government to produce mass quantities of defense goods in order to
support a two-front war. This large demand for industrial labor allowed Mexicans and Mexican
Americans to occupy positions that were previously reserved for whites. White workers felt
apprehensive and threatened by sharing the workplace with minorities as whites began working
38
Ibid, 178-179
Mazon (riots), 55
40
Ibid, 19
39
15
longer hours for less pay. Nativist and anti-Mexican sentiment increased among working-class
whites as competition for defense industry jobs became more heated. As a result, violence
between blue-collar Anglos and their Mexican immigrant counterparts increased during the first
few months of 1942.41
The Chavez Ravine neighborhood in Los Angeles became a ground zero for
confrontations between servicemen and Mexican American youths from 1942 to 1943. In early
1942, a million-dollar Naval Reserve Armory Training Center was constructed on the outskirts
of the predominantly Mexican American neighborhood of Chavez Ravine. The installation of
this massive Naval training center upset the social geographical balance of the neighborhood as it
brought thousands of white, middle-class sailors from all over the U.S. to the low-income,
mostly Mexican side of Los Angeles. Local residents were outraged when city planners
exercised the right of eminent domain to destroy homes in order to make way for the Naval
armory. Chavez Ravine already had a reputation for being plagued with juvenile delinquency and
crime and it only escalated after the construction of the Naval training facility.42
The Navy sailors who occupied the armory training center were predominantly white
middle-class men from rural, small towns in the Midwest. The majority of the sailors were
between the ages of eighteen and twenty when they arrived at the armory in 1942. The big city
life was new to most sailors and they enjoyed it to the fullest extent. The armory sailors
frequented downtown L.A.’s finest restaurants, dance halls, cafes, and theatres and got into
mischief along the way. The sailors’ often engaged in disorderly conduct when they went out
partying but the authorities often brushed their actions aside proclaiming that they were “just
blowing off some steam.” The residents of Chavez Ravine viewed the sailors’ presence as a
41
Arthur Verge, Paradise Transformed: Los Angeles During the Second World War (Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt
Publishing), 1993, p.102
42
Pagan, 146
16
threat to their barrio and they were determined to make sure that the sailors knew they were not
wanted.43
The working-class Mexican Americans who resided in Chavez Ravine viewed the armory
sailors as invaders of their territory. The residents lived in a completely different social and
economic world than the white, middle-class officers who worked at the training center. The
brilliant, million-dollar facility stood out like a sore thumb from the worn, modest homes that
made up the Ravine. The Mexican American youths began to resent how the sailors would walk
up and down Figueroa Boulevard anytime they pleased and insult the locals. The Mexican
American youths would respond by harassing sailors and their wives when they would walk by.
Electrician’s Mate Third Class Domenick Valleta recalled walking along Alpine Street one day
when a car full of zoot-suited youths pulled up next to him and shouted, “Get the hell outta here
you son of a bitch bastard!”44 Valleta recalls that one teenager in the car spat on him as they
drove away. In another incident, Seaman Second Class Francis Harold Lloyd Jr. recalled his
confrontation with a group of zoot-suited young men at a downtown intersection. “You goddamned sailors think you own the streets,” the young men shouted.45 The residents of Chavez
Ravine believed that the sailors had no respect for social boundaries. Chavez Ravine was more
than just a neighborhood to its residents; it represented the Mexican American struggle and
identity in Los Angeles.46
43
Ibid, 147
Ibid, 155
45
Pagan, 157
46
Ibid, 166
44
17
The Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial
In the weeks following Jose Diaz’s death, the Los Angeles Police Department conducted
large dragnets throughout the Mexican American and African American neighborhoods of Los
Angeles. California Governor Cuthbert L. Olson used the Diaz murder to justify and publicize
the police crackdown on juvenile delinquency.47 More than 600 young men and women were
rounded up and brought in for questioning about the murder. The majority of the youths brought
in for questioning were “zoot-suiters” and “pachuquitas” who resided in East L.A. and were
allegedly connected to gangs. Hank Leyvas and his 38th Street boys were the leading suspects
and were eventually arrested for the murder of Jose Diaz.48
The People v. Zammora et al. became a politically important case as the Los Angeles
district attorney had a heavy interest in convicting Leyvas and company. The district attorney,
the LAPD, and Governor Olson all worked in coordination to launch a public-relations offensive
against juvenile delinquency. During the winter months of 1942, mainstream newspapers and
tabloid magazines focused heavily on the issue of juvenile delinquency and “zoot-suiters.”
Publications such as Sensation Magazine spread fear among Angelinos as they ran inflammatory
stories about zoot-suiters running amok in Los Angeles. The press used the Sleepy Lagoon
defendants as the poster children for the growing juvenile delinquent problem. The 38th Street
boys’ trial was a public spectacle as the criminal justice system completely and utterly failed
Hank Leyvas and his crew. As Eduardo Pagan put it, “the trial of the twenty-two defendants
played out on a discursive field littered with unchallenged assumptions, words, and coded
phrases that highlighted to their disadvantage their self-conscious fashioning of difference.”49
47
Escobar, 198
Pagan, 19
49
Pagan, 72
48
18
Soon after their arrest, the 38th Street boys became victims of police brutality by the
LAPD. When eighteen-year-old Angel Padilla was brought in to the Firestone Police Substation,
he was met by detectives and officers who were willing to beat a confession out of him. When
Padilla refused to cooperate, two officers slapped and punched him until he fell out of his chair.
“Sit down so we can hit you some more,” shouted one officer. “You Mexicans think you are
smart; you guys never fight fair. We ought to shoot every Mexican dog like you.”50 Joseph
Valenzuela experienced similar hostilities while in police custody. Valenzuela recalls Deputy
Sheriff Miguel Gallardo threatening him to cooperate. “You had better talk, you bastard, or we
are going to fuck you up.” Valenzuela was also slapped and called a “dirty Mexican cholo” while
being interrogated by Deputy Sheriff Raymond T. Hopkinson.51 The supposed leader of the 38th
Street gang received the harshest treatment by the police. Lupe Leyvas, Hank’s sister, recalled
visiting Hank at the 77th Police Station the day he was arrested. “When I walked in, they had him
handcuffed and his head was down, unconscious. His lip was busted. He was unrecognizable.”52
Hank Leyvas later admitted that Chief Clem Peoples was one of the officers who beat him in the
interrogation room at the 77th Police Station. Chief Peoples was the lead investigator in the
Sleepy Lagoon case.53
The 38th Street boys’ defense council, led by George Shibley, grew weary and frustrated
due to their inability to separate the issue of race from the courtroom. Assistant District
Attorneys Clyde Shoemaker and John Barnes led the prosecution’s strategy to use the boys’ race
against them in the trial. Shoemaker and Barnes requested that the boys not be allowed to shave,
cut their hair, or change their clothing for the duration of the trial. The prosecution argued that
50
Ibid, 72
Ibid, 73
52
Lupe Leyvas, Interviewed by Joseph Tovares. 13 September 1999. PBS documentary “Zoot-Suit Riots”
53
Pagan, 91
51
19
the defendants’ appearance was “relevant to the case.” Judge Charles Fricke granted the
Prosecution’s request. Under orders from Judge Fricke, the defendants were required to sit
together in a corner away from their lawyers and right in front of the jury. The boys’ unkempt
physical appearance only reaffirmed the all white jury’s negative stereotype of the young zootsuiters.54 According to defense committee member Alice McGrath, “the hostility of the jury was
almost palpable. You could see that they were looking at the defendants as though they were
loathsome.”55
The heads of both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles
Police Department gave the most racially charged testimonies in The People v. Zammora et al. In
his testimony before the grand jury, Lieutenant Edward Duran Ayres of the sheriff’s department
portrayed Mexicans and Mexican Americans as a racially inferior and tainted people who were
biologically inclined to commit crime.56 Ayres argued that Mexican American youths “shared
the same total disregard for human life that the Aztecs displayed in performing human
sacrifices.” He ended his testimony by stating, “whenever the Mexican element receives swift
and sure punishment…he then, and only then, respects authority.”57 Captain Vernon Rasmussen
of the LAPD shared similar sentiments. Rasmussen testified that too many Mexican American
youths were getting off easy for crimes committed by only receiving parole. He argued, “Only
swift and hard punishments for the Mexican element could deter youths from developing
attitudes exactly contrary to [those] adopted by the respectable Caucasian element.”58 These
54
Ibid, 81-88
Alice McGrath. “The Education of Alice McGrath.” Interviewed by Michael Balter. 1987. University of
California, Los Angeles
56
Mazon (riots), 22
57
Pagan, 73
58
Ibid, 73
55
20
racially charged testimonies by respected authority figures struck a chord with the jury and
ultimately doomed the 38th Street boys.
The media’s sensational coverage of the “Sleepy Lagoon case” might have been the final
nail in the coffin for the 38th Street boys. In January 1943, seventeen of the twenty-two
defendants were found guilty of the murder of Jose Diaz and were given life sentences at San
Quentin. Throughout the trail, newspapers such as the Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express
gave one-sided accounts of the trial and portrayed the boys in a negative light. “Goons of Sleepy
Lagoon” was one of many derogatory slogans created by the paper during the height of the
trial.59 Sensation magazine routinely re-created stories of the trial to make it more dramatic for
their readers. Sensation published a racist article written by Sheriff Clem Peoples that described
the defendants as “immoral, reckless madbrained [sic] young wolves.”60 It was this kind of
sensational reporting that convicted the 38th Street boys in the court of public opinion months
before the actual verdict was read.
A short time after the trial had ended, a group of philanthropists, politicians, activists, and
Hollywood stars organized to appeal the decision on behalf of the 38th Street boys. The Sleepy
Lagoon Defense Committee was formed to protest what they believed was an unfair trial
conducted by a partial judge and jury. Chaired by Carey McWilliams, the committee consisted of
LaRue McCormick, Alice McGrath, Josefina Fierro de Bright and Hollywood stars Orson
Welles, Anthony Quinn, and Rita Hayworth.61 In a letter to the California Parole Board, Orson
Welles argued, “The boys in the Sleepy Lagoon case were not given a fair trial, and that their
conviction could only have been influenced by anti-Mexican prejudice.” Welles added, “To
59
Ibid, 91
Clem Peoples, “Smashing California’s Baby Gangsters,” Sensation (December 1942), as cited in Pagan, p.91
61
Mazon (riots), 23-25
60
21
allow an injustice like this to stand is to impede the progress of unity.”62 The Sleepy Lagoon
Defense Committee cared deeply for the 38th Street boys and they worked tirelessly to bring
them home. The high-powered defense committee achieved its goal when an appellate judge set
the 38th Street boys free in October 1944 due to the lack of physical evidence against them.63
The Sleepy Lagoon trial pushed Anglo-Mexican American relations beyond the
threshold. The sensational press coverage of the trial only reaffirmed Anglos’ perceptions that
Mexican Americans were biologically criminally inclined. The Anglo community was
determined to rid Los Angeles of the juvenile delinquent problem by any means necessary. The
trial was the final straw for the Mexican American community as they grew tired of being
victimized by racial discrimination. Throughout the spring months of 1943, small isolated acts of
violence between pachucos and sailors became frequent. These small confrontations were
indicators of what was to come in June 1943.64
The Riots
The first incidents of the Zoot-Suit Riots began on June 3, 1943 when eleven sailors were
assaulted by a group of Mexican American youths while walking down North Main Street in
East Los Angeles. Later that same night, a group of about five pachucos were attacked by a
group of sailors near downtown L.A. This attack came after the pachucos made passes at the
sailors’ girlfriends. These two separate incidents mobilized the young white servicemen to take
vigilante action against the zoot-suiters of Los Angeles.65
62
Orson Welles, Letter from Orson Welles to California Parole Board. 1 March 1944.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_filmmore/ps_welles.html
63
Pagan, 208
64
Escobar, 227-232
65
Ismael Dieppa. The Zoot-Suit Riots Revisited: The Role of Private Philanthropy in Youth Problems of MexicanAmericans. (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms), 1973 p. 19
22
On the evening of June 4, approximately 200 sailors armed with chains, clubs, and
baseball bats entered taxicabs and cars and began their search for zoot-suiters in downtown L.A.
When they spotted any Mexican American youth wearing a zoot-suit on the street, they would
climb out of the car, beat them, and then strip off their suit. The mob of sailors entered
restaurants, bars, dance halls, theaters, and cafes to beat random Mexican Americans wearing
zoot-suits. The servicemen would then drag the youths out of the establishments, beat them some
more on the street, tear off then burn their suits.66 One eyewitness gave his account, “I got a
friend of mine that was there at the time that I was over there and he got caught right there,
downtown. They stripped him out of his clothes…He got beat up.”67 Mexican American children
as young as twelve years old were yanked from the Carmen Theater and were beat viciously by
the sailors.68
By June 5, marines and a handful of civilians had joined the sailors in terrorizing
pachucos on the streets. The servicemen were now combing through Mexican American barrios
such as Boyle Heights and Chavez Ravine looking for zoot-suiters. The servicemen were using
this “search and destroy” tactic to rid Los Angeles of the juvenile delinquent problem for good.
Nothing was off-limits for the servicemen as they began to enter homes to battle pachucos.
Eyewitness Roberto Gomez gave his account, “Los sailors vinieron hasta el Alpine district,
catearon un bonche de Chicanos, ves? Chavalones, y hasta jainas Chicanas.”69 By the third day
of the riots, the pachucos organized and began defending themselves. They used chains, broken
bottles, baseball bats, wrenches, and other makeshift weapons to defend themselves from the
servicemen. The Mexican American youths used their great numbers to overpower smaller
66
Ibid, 22
Anonymous. Interviewed by Wendy S. Thomason. April 8, 1978. University of Texas, El Paso
68
Escobar, 235
69
Roberto Gomez, Interviewed by Raymundo Gomez. November 28, 1976. University of Texas, El Paso
“The sailors came into the Alpine district and beat up on young Chicanos and Chicanas.”
67
23
groups of U.S. servicemen. Pachucos were also greatly aided by African Americans when sailors
took the battles to Watts.70
The early press coverage of the riots encouraged servicemen and civilians alike to take up
arms against the zoot-suiters. Early coverage of the riots by the Los Angeles Times portrayed the
servicemen as the victims in the riots and the zoot-suiters as the perpetrators. Most articles
emphasized how sailors were attacked from behind and acted only in “self-defense against the
rowdy element.”71 One particular article in the Times called the zoot-suit “a badge of
delinquency” and a “uniform of delinquency.”72 The Daily News released a police statement that
read, “the zooters admitted they planned to attack more sailors and would jab the broken bottle
necks in the faces of their victims…Beating sailors brains out with hammers and irons was also
on the program.”73 The paper also printed an article titled “Nazis Spur Zoot Riots” on June 9 that
suggested that pachucos were collaborating with Axis powers during the riots.74 This kind of
inflammatory reporting recruited large amounts of servicemen and civilians to join the fight
against the pachucos.
On the fifth day of the rioting, there was an estimated 2,000 white servicemen and
civilians on the prowl on the streets of L.A. Servicemen from San Diego and El Toro came into
the city just to do battle with the pachucos. The mob no longer targeted just zoot-suiters, anyone
of Mexican decent was endanger of being attacked. According to Dieppa, non-pachucos who
were beaten in the streets were stripped naked by the mob.75 The servicemen used railroad cars
to spread the violence as far out as Pasadena. While in Pasadena, the servicemen would invade
70
Pagan, 137-138
“City, Navy Clap Lid On Zoot-Suit Warfare,” Los Angeles Times, 9 June 1943.
72
“Youth Gangs Leading Cause Of Delinquencies,” Los Angeles Times, 2 June 1943.
73
Los Angeles Daily News, 7 June 1943, as cited in Escobar p. 237
74
“Nazis Spur Zoot Riots,” Los Angeles Daily News, 9 June 1943.
75
Dieppa, 24
71
24
grocery stores and movie theaters and cut the cuffs off of any Mexican American who wore
pegged pants. The final days of the riots were the bloodiest. Dozens of servicemen, civilians, and
Mexican Americans were hospitalized with injuries suffered in the riots. Remarkably, no one
was killed during the weeklong riot.76
The LAPD played a controversial role in the Zoot-Suit Riots. The police department was
noticeably absent during much of the riots. According to Escobar, they would show up after the
sailors had swept through an area only to arrest the zoot-suited victims.77 One observer noted,
“every zoot-suiter that was downtown, even if the kid was just dressed up, he wasn’t doing
anything bad or nothing, he got picked up by the cops in L.A. and arrested.”78 On the other hand,
hardly any sailors were arrested for their actions. Sailor Reno Sanetti recalled, “With the sailors,
they’d put us in the jeep, take us a couple of blocks away and tell us to get back to our ship or get
back to the station.”79 When the riots ended, hundreds of Mexican Americans were arrested,
while only twenty-four servicemen were booked.80
The riots ended when military officials placed the city of Los Angeles “out of bounds” to
all military personal on June 8, 1943. Small-scale fighting between Anglo civilians and pachucos
continued for a few days more. According to the El Paso Times, carloads of pachucos began
driving along downtown L.A. flying American and white flags to announce their truce with
authorities.81 On June 9, the L.A. City Council established a strict ordinance that outlawed the
wearing of a zoot-suit within the city.82
76
Pagan, 177-180
Escobar, 236
78
Anonymous. Interviewed by Wendy S. Thomason. April 8, 1978. University of Texas, El Paso
77
79
Reno Sanetti. Interviewed by Joseph Tovares. 13 September 1999. PBS documentary “Zoot-Suit Riots”
Dieppa, 26
81
“Los Angeles Out Of Bounds,” El Paso Times, 13 June 1943.
82
“Zoot-Suit Fighting Spreads On Coast,” New York Times, 10 June 1943.
80
25
Aftermath
Immediately following the riots, Governor Earl Warren ordered a citizens committee to
investigate the cause of the riots. The committee found that race and juvenile delinquency were
the main factors that caused the riots. The committee recommended that the Youth Authority of
California should do more to reach out towards delinquent youth. They argued that more
facilities would “minimize delinquency, replace destructive gang tendencies, and aid youth in
their growth into mature American citizenship.”83 Although the committee did not condone the
servicemen’s actions, they did not hold them responsible either.
The Zoot-Suit Riots in Los Angeles set off a series of racial riots throughout the country.
Between June and August 1943, racial violence broke out in San Diego, Beaumont, Indiana,
Oregon, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, and Harlem. These conflicts involved fighting between
Anglos, Mexicans, African Americans, and Jehovah’s witnesses.84 One El Paso Times article
documented a race riot between “30 young hoodlums affecting Hitler-style haircuts” against
servicemen in Chicago. The article, like others from its time, suggested that Mexican American
youths were somehow connected to Nazi organizations.85
Conclusion
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt believed that “long standing discrimination against
Mexicans in that part of the country” was the ultimate reason for the violent race riots in Los
Angeles. Mrs. Roosevelt was one of few people of power that publicly acknowledge that racial
83
Mauricio Mazon, Social Upheaval in World War II: “Zoot-Suiters” and Servicemen in Los Angeles, 1943 (Ann
Arbor: University Microfilms), 1976 p. 202
84
Ibid, 13
85
“Chicago Gang Of Hoodlums Attacks Marine,” El Paso Times, 15 June 1943.
26
discrimination was a serious problem during World War II. Ironically, servicemen took to the
streets to rid Los Angeles of the juvenile delinquency problem but in turn, they only made it
worse. In the immediate years following the riots, there was a large increase in gang-related
criminal activity. According to Escobar, the institutionalization of violence and the use of hard
drugs became commonplace in Los Angeles after the war. The LAPD began working with the
Coordinating Council for Latin American Youth in order to ease tensions between the Mexican
American community and the department. This reconciliation attempt failed due to the fact that
most heads of the department still believed that Mexicans were criminally inclined.86
The Zoot-Suit Riots became a symbol of the Mexican American experience in this
country for the first one hundred years after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The
events of June 1943 are often looked at as the starting point of the Chicano Movement. The riots
created the demand for protection of the Chicano community’s civil rights. Organizations such as
the American G.I. Forum and MALDEF were created to meet those demands of the marginalized
community. Perhaps Ian Lopez said it best, “We should learn from the judges and the police in
East Los Angeles…what happens when ideas about race and status are allowed to remain in the
background, unexamined and unquestioned by people divided by race.”87
86
87
Escobar, 245-286
Ian Lopez, Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 2003 p.1-12
27
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