Zoot Suit

by

Luis Valdez

Henry Reyna Character Analysis

Henry is a 21-year-old member of Los Angeles’s Chicano community, and the protagonist of Zoot Suit. The leader of the 38th Street Gang, Henry is a well-liked young man who enjoys wearing zoot suits and going to dances with his girlfriend, Della. Even though he’s still relatively young, he’s had quite a few run-ins with the police, since they frequently arrest him simply because he’s a young Chicano man wearing a zoot suit. The audience learns this when Lieutenant Edwards arrests Henry and his friends, all of whom Edwards suspects are guilty of murdering a man named José Williams, who died at place called the Sleepy Lagoon. Because Henry was supposed to report to the Navy the following day, he’s especially frustrated that he’s been arrested, but Edwards doesn’t care, since the only thing he does care about is the “Mexican Crime Wave” that the local newspapers have been writing about recently. Thankfully, a man named George Shearer decides to represent Henry and his friends in court, even though Henry is skeptical of him at first because he’s not used to white people helping him—in fact, he’s accustomed to white men like George using their power against him, not in his favor. Luckily, though, George genuinely wants to help Henry, and he also introduces Henry to Alice Bloomfield, a reporter who wants to counter the negative narrative that has emerged about the Chicano community in the press. Again, Henry is hesitant to accept support, but he comes to trust Alice and even develops romantic feelings for her—feelings he doesn’t know what to do with when he and his friends are eventually let out of prison and he must decide between Alice and Della. In the end, Henry doesn’t choose Alice, though it’s not particularly clear what his future holds, since the play draws to a close as his loved ones narrate different futures for his life. They suggest—variously—that Henry goes back to jail, that he goes to war, that he dies a drug addict, and that he dies a war hero, to name just a few of the narratives.

Henry Reyna Quotes in Zoot Suit

The Zoot Suit quotes below are all either spoken by Henry Reyna or refer to Henry Reyna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 3: Pachuco Yo Quotes

PACHUCO: The city’s cracking down on pachucos, carnal. Don’t

you read the newspapers? They’re screaming for blood.

HENRY: All I know is they got nothing on me. I didn’t do any­thing.

PACHUCO: You’re Henry Reyna, ese—Hank Reyna! The snarling juvenile delinquent. The zootsuiter. The bitter young pachuco gang leader of 38th Street. That’s what they got on you.

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), El Pachuco (speaker)
Related Symbols: Zoot Suits
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

PACHUCO: Off to fight for your country.

HENRY: Why not?

PACHUCO: Because this ain’t your country. Look what’s happen­ing all around you. The Japs have sewed up the Pacific. Rommel is kicking ass in Egypt but the Mayor of L.A. has declared all-out war on Chicanos. On you!

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), El Pachuco (speaker)
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 6: The People’s Lawyer Quotes

GEORGE: […] The problem seems to be that I look like an Anglo to you. What if I were to tell you that I had Spanish blood in my veins? That my roots go back to Spain, just like yours? What if I’m an Arab? What if I’m a Jew? What difference does it make? The question is, will you let me help you?

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), Henry Reyna, Joey Castro, Smiley Torres, Tommy Roberts
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 8: El Día de la Raza Quotes

ALICE: I’m talking about you, Henry Reyna. And what the regular press has been saying. Are you aware you’re in here just because some bigshot up in San Simeon wants to sell more papers? It’s true.

HENRY: So?

ALICE: So, he’s the man who started this Mexican Crime Wave stuff. Then the police got into the act. Get the picture?

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), Alice Bloomfield (speaker)
Related Symbols: Newspapers
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

ALICE: Believe it or not, I was born in Los Angeles just like you. But for some strange reason I grew up here, not knowing very much about Mexicans at all. I’m just trying to learn.

Related Characters: Alice Bloomfield (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 9: Opening of the Trial Quotes

PRESS: (Jumping in.) Your Honor, there is testimony we expect to develop that the 38th Street Gang are characterized by their style of haircuts…

GEORGE: Three months, Your Honor.

PRESS: …the thick heavy heads of hair, the ducktail comb, the pachuco pants...

GEORGE: Your Honor, I can only infer that the Prosecution…is trying to make these boys look disreputable, like mobsters.

PRESS: Their appearance is distinctive. Your Honor. Essential to the case.

GEORGE: You are trying to exploit the fact that these boys look foreign in appearance! Yet clothes like these are being worn by kids all over America.

PRESS: Your Honor…

JUDGE: (Bangs the gavel.) I don’t believe we will have any diffi­culty if their clothing becomes dirty.

GEORGE: What about the haircuts. Your Honor?

JUDGE: (Ruling.) The zoot haircuts will be retained throughout the trial for purposes of identification of defendants by witnesses.

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), The Judge (speaker), The Public Prosecutor (“Press”) (speaker), Henry Reyna
Related Symbols: Zoot Suits
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 11: The Conclusion of Trial Quotes

PRESS: (Springing to the attack.) You say Henry Reyna hit the man with his fist. (Indicates HENRY standing.) Is this the Henry Reyna?

DELLA: Yes. I mean, no. He’s Henry, but he didn’t ...

PRESS: Please be seated. (HENRY sits.) Now, after Henry Reyna hit the old man with his closed fist, is that when he pulled the knife?

DELLA: The old man had the knife.

PRESS: So Henry pulled one out, too?

GEORGE: (Rises.) Your Honor, I object to counsel leading the witness.

PRESS: I am not leading the witness.

GEORGE: You are.

PRESS: I certainly am not.

GEORGE: Yes, you are.

JUDGE: I would suggest, Mr. Shearer, that you look up during the noon hour just what a leading question is?

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), The Judge (speaker), The Public Prosecutor (“Press”) (speaker), Della (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:

PRESS: […] We are deal­ing with a threat and danger to our children, our families, our homes. Set these pachucos free, and you shall unleash the forces of anarchy and destruction in our society. Set these pachucos free and you will turn them into heroes. Others just like them must be watching us at this very moment. What nefarious schemes can they be hatching in their twisted minds? Rape, drugs, assault, more vio­lence? Who shall be their next innocent victim in some dark alley way, on some lonely street? You? You? Your loved ones? No! Henry Reyna and his Latin juvenile co­horts are not heroes. They are criminals, and they must be stopped. The specific details of this murder are irrelevant before the overwhelming danger of the pachuco in our midst. I ask you to find these zoot-suited gangsters guilty of murder and to put them in the gas chamber where they belong.

Related Characters: The Public Prosecutor (“Press”) (speaker), Henry Reyna
Related Symbols: Zoot Suits
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:

GEORGE: […] All the prosecution has been able to prove is that these boys wear long hair and zoot suits. And all the rest has been circumstantial evidence, hearsay and war hysteria. The prosecution has tried to lead you to believe that they are some kind of inhuman gangsters. Yet they are Americans. Find them guilty of anything more serious than a juvenile bout of fisticuffs, and you will condemn all American youth. Find them guilty of murder, and you will murder the spirit of racial justice in America.

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 2: The Letters Quotes

TOMMY: […] I don’t want to be treated any different than the rest of the batos, see? And don’t expect me to talk to you like some square An­glo [...]. You just better find out what it means to be Chicano, and it better be pretty damn quick.

[…]

I also know that I’m in here just be­ cause I hung around with Mexicans ... or pachucos. Well, just remember this, Alicia ... I grew up right alongside most of these batos, and I’m pachuco too.

Related Characters: Tommy Roberts (speaker), Henry Reyna, Alice Bloomfield
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3: The Incorrigible Pachuco Quotes

HENRY: […] You think you can just move in and defend anybody you feel like? When did I ever ask you to start a defense committee for me? Or a newspaper? Or a fundraising drive and all that other shit? I don’t need defending, esa. I can take care of myself.

ALICE: But what about the trial, the sentence. They gave you life imprisonment?

HENRY: It’s my life!

ALICE: Henry, honestly—are you kidding me?

HENRY: You think so?

ALICE: But you’ve seen me coming and going. Writing to you, speaking for you, traveling up and down the state. You must have known I was doing it for you. Nothing has come before my involvement, my attachment, my passion for this case. My boys have been everything to me.

HENRY: My boys? My boys! What the hell are we—your personal property? Well, let me set you straight, lady, I ain’t your boy.

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), Alice Bloomfield (speaker)
Related Symbols: Newspapers
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 6: Zoot Suit Riots Quotes

PRESS: Henry Reyna went back to prison in 1947 for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. While incarcerated, he killed another inmate and he wasn’t released until 1955, when he got into hard drugs. He died of the trauma of his life in 1972.

PACHUCO: That’s the way you see it, ese. But there’s other way[s] to end this story.

RUDY: Henry Reyna went to Korea in 1950. He was shipped across in a destroyer and defended the 38th Parallel until he was killed at Inchon in 1952, being posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

ALICE: Henry Reyna married Della in 1948 and they have five kids, three of them now going to the University, speaking calo and calling themselves Chicanos.

Related Characters: El Pachuco (speaker), Alice Bloomfield (speaker), Rudy (speaker), The Press (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis:
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Henry Reyna Quotes in Zoot Suit

The Zoot Suit quotes below are all either spoken by Henry Reyna or refer to Henry Reyna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 3: Pachuco Yo Quotes

PACHUCO: The city’s cracking down on pachucos, carnal. Don’t

you read the newspapers? They’re screaming for blood.

HENRY: All I know is they got nothing on me. I didn’t do any­thing.

PACHUCO: You’re Henry Reyna, ese—Hank Reyna! The snarling juvenile delinquent. The zootsuiter. The bitter young pachuco gang leader of 38th Street. That’s what they got on you.

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), El Pachuco (speaker)
Related Symbols: Zoot Suits
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

PACHUCO: Off to fight for your country.

HENRY: Why not?

PACHUCO: Because this ain’t your country. Look what’s happen­ing all around you. The Japs have sewed up the Pacific. Rommel is kicking ass in Egypt but the Mayor of L.A. has declared all-out war on Chicanos. On you!

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), El Pachuco (speaker)
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 6: The People’s Lawyer Quotes

GEORGE: […] The problem seems to be that I look like an Anglo to you. What if I were to tell you that I had Spanish blood in my veins? That my roots go back to Spain, just like yours? What if I’m an Arab? What if I’m a Jew? What difference does it make? The question is, will you let me help you?

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), Henry Reyna, Joey Castro, Smiley Torres, Tommy Roberts
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 8: El Día de la Raza Quotes

ALICE: I’m talking about you, Henry Reyna. And what the regular press has been saying. Are you aware you’re in here just because some bigshot up in San Simeon wants to sell more papers? It’s true.

HENRY: So?

ALICE: So, he’s the man who started this Mexican Crime Wave stuff. Then the police got into the act. Get the picture?

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), Alice Bloomfield (speaker)
Related Symbols: Newspapers
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

ALICE: Believe it or not, I was born in Los Angeles just like you. But for some strange reason I grew up here, not knowing very much about Mexicans at all. I’m just trying to learn.

Related Characters: Alice Bloomfield (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 9: Opening of the Trial Quotes

PRESS: (Jumping in.) Your Honor, there is testimony we expect to develop that the 38th Street Gang are characterized by their style of haircuts…

GEORGE: Three months, Your Honor.

PRESS: …the thick heavy heads of hair, the ducktail comb, the pachuco pants...

GEORGE: Your Honor, I can only infer that the Prosecution…is trying to make these boys look disreputable, like mobsters.

PRESS: Their appearance is distinctive. Your Honor. Essential to the case.

GEORGE: You are trying to exploit the fact that these boys look foreign in appearance! Yet clothes like these are being worn by kids all over America.

PRESS: Your Honor…

JUDGE: (Bangs the gavel.) I don’t believe we will have any diffi­culty if their clothing becomes dirty.

GEORGE: What about the haircuts. Your Honor?

JUDGE: (Ruling.) The zoot haircuts will be retained throughout the trial for purposes of identification of defendants by witnesses.

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), The Judge (speaker), The Public Prosecutor (“Press”) (speaker), Henry Reyna
Related Symbols: Zoot Suits
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 11: The Conclusion of Trial Quotes

PRESS: (Springing to the attack.) You say Henry Reyna hit the man with his fist. (Indicates HENRY standing.) Is this the Henry Reyna?

DELLA: Yes. I mean, no. He’s Henry, but he didn’t ...

PRESS: Please be seated. (HENRY sits.) Now, after Henry Reyna hit the old man with his closed fist, is that when he pulled the knife?

DELLA: The old man had the knife.

PRESS: So Henry pulled one out, too?

GEORGE: (Rises.) Your Honor, I object to counsel leading the witness.

PRESS: I am not leading the witness.

GEORGE: You are.

PRESS: I certainly am not.

GEORGE: Yes, you are.

JUDGE: I would suggest, Mr. Shearer, that you look up during the noon hour just what a leading question is?

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), The Judge (speaker), The Public Prosecutor (“Press”) (speaker), Della (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:

PRESS: […] We are deal­ing with a threat and danger to our children, our families, our homes. Set these pachucos free, and you shall unleash the forces of anarchy and destruction in our society. Set these pachucos free and you will turn them into heroes. Others just like them must be watching us at this very moment. What nefarious schemes can they be hatching in their twisted minds? Rape, drugs, assault, more vio­lence? Who shall be their next innocent victim in some dark alley way, on some lonely street? You? You? Your loved ones? No! Henry Reyna and his Latin juvenile co­horts are not heroes. They are criminals, and they must be stopped. The specific details of this murder are irrelevant before the overwhelming danger of the pachuco in our midst. I ask you to find these zoot-suited gangsters guilty of murder and to put them in the gas chamber where they belong.

Related Characters: The Public Prosecutor (“Press”) (speaker), Henry Reyna
Related Symbols: Zoot Suits
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:

GEORGE: […] All the prosecution has been able to prove is that these boys wear long hair and zoot suits. And all the rest has been circumstantial evidence, hearsay and war hysteria. The prosecution has tried to lead you to believe that they are some kind of inhuman gangsters. Yet they are Americans. Find them guilty of anything more serious than a juvenile bout of fisticuffs, and you will condemn all American youth. Find them guilty of murder, and you will murder the spirit of racial justice in America.

Related Characters: George Shearer (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 2: The Letters Quotes

TOMMY: […] I don’t want to be treated any different than the rest of the batos, see? And don’t expect me to talk to you like some square An­glo [...]. You just better find out what it means to be Chicano, and it better be pretty damn quick.

[…]

I also know that I’m in here just be­ cause I hung around with Mexicans ... or pachucos. Well, just remember this, Alicia ... I grew up right alongside most of these batos, and I’m pachuco too.

Related Characters: Tommy Roberts (speaker), Henry Reyna, Alice Bloomfield
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3: The Incorrigible Pachuco Quotes

HENRY: […] You think you can just move in and defend anybody you feel like? When did I ever ask you to start a defense committee for me? Or a newspaper? Or a fundraising drive and all that other shit? I don’t need defending, esa. I can take care of myself.

ALICE: But what about the trial, the sentence. They gave you life imprisonment?

HENRY: It’s my life!

ALICE: Henry, honestly—are you kidding me?

HENRY: You think so?

ALICE: But you’ve seen me coming and going. Writing to you, speaking for you, traveling up and down the state. You must have known I was doing it for you. Nothing has come before my involvement, my attachment, my passion for this case. My boys have been everything to me.

HENRY: My boys? My boys! What the hell are we—your personal property? Well, let me set you straight, lady, I ain’t your boy.

Related Characters: Henry Reyna (speaker), Alice Bloomfield (speaker)
Related Symbols: Newspapers
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 6: Zoot Suit Riots Quotes

PRESS: Henry Reyna went back to prison in 1947 for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. While incarcerated, he killed another inmate and he wasn’t released until 1955, when he got into hard drugs. He died of the trauma of his life in 1972.

PACHUCO: That’s the way you see it, ese. But there’s other way[s] to end this story.

RUDY: Henry Reyna went to Korea in 1950. He was shipped across in a destroyer and defended the 38th Parallel until he was killed at Inchon in 1952, being posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

ALICE: Henry Reyna married Della in 1948 and they have five kids, three of them now going to the University, speaking calo and calling themselves Chicanos.

Related Characters: El Pachuco (speaker), Alice Bloomfield (speaker), Rudy (speaker), The Press (speaker), Henry Reyna
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis: