Chicano/Chicana Analysis in Zoot Suit

A term that refers to Americans of Mexican descent. The word has roots in Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s, and today is often used by Mexican American people as a chosen identity.

Chicano/Chicana Quotes in Zoot Suit

The Zoot Suit quotes below are all either spoken by Chicano/Chicana or refer to Chicano/Chicana. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Racism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating Theme Icon

PACHUCO: […] Ladies and gentlemen
the play you are about to see
is a construct of fact and fantasy.
The Pachuco Style was an act in Life
and his language a new creation.
[…]
I speak as an actor on the stage.
The Pachuco was existential
for he was an Actor in the streets
both profane and reverential.

Related Characters: El Pachuco (speaker)

Related Symbols: Zoot Suits

Page Number and Citation: 25

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 and Citation: 30

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 and Citation: 62

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 68

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 94

Explanation and Analysis:

Chicano/Chicana Term Timeline in Zoot Suit

The timeline below shows where the term Chicano/Chicana appears in Zoot Suit. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Public Perception and the Press Theme Icon

...while his associate, Sergeant Smith, sees a white sailor and his girlfriend with the young Chicanos. Upon seeing them, Smith tells them to run off, but when Henry asks if he... (full context)

Self-Presentation and Cultural Identity Theme Icon

...relevant to his own life, which is the fight between the racist government and the Chicano community. Henry’s fellow pachucos need him, El Pachuco says, encouraging him to help them stand... (full context)

...referencing. In response, he explains that the Sleepy Lagoon is a reservoir where many young Chicanos go to swim. Hearing this, a reporter named Alice Bloomfield asks if this is because... (full context)

...international politics and World War II, but soon they begin to fixate on the country’s Chicano population with headlines like “Web of Zoot Crime Spreads” and “Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial Opens... (full context)

...the rest of the press has advanced about him and his friends (and about the Chicano community in general). (full context)

...says that she grew up in Los Angeles but never heard about or encountered the Chicano community, which is why she’s eager to learn about Henry and his friends. This piques... (full context)

...asserts that to set Henry and his friends free would send a message to the Chicano community that they can break the law and get away with it. For these reasons,... (full context)

...authoritarianism that people like the prosecutor are perpetuating on American soil by discriminating against the Chicano community. He points out that there are no witnesses who actually saw who killed José... (full context)

...and sailors will soon invade Los Angeles like Nazis, declaring “Zoot Suit wars” against the Chicano community. However, he adds that this will all happen later in the play. For now,... (full context)

...than most”—a statement that he interprets as a comment on the fact that he’s not Chicano. Accordingly, Henry tells Alice not to treat him any different than the other members of... (full context)

...like she owns him and his friends. Going on, Henry accuses Alice of using the Chicano community to “play politics.” Alice takes offense to this, but Henry forges on, sardonically asking... (full context)

...suits. Hearing this, El Pachuco criticizes the journalist’s roundabout way of expressing his disdain for Chicanos. In response, the journalist says that the press is “complying” with the country’s war effort... (full context)

El Pachuco tells the journalist that the pachuco style was originally related to the Chicano community’s effort to feel confident as brown people living in Los Angeles, but the journalist... (full context)

Zoot Suit

Luis Valdez

Chicano/Chicana Term Analysis

Chicano/Chicana Quotes in Zoot Suit

Chicano/Chicana Term Timeline in Zoot Suit