Public Perception and the Press Theme Analysis

Although Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit is largely about how people present themselves, it’s also about what happens when they’re unable to control their own public image. Valdez spotlights the press’s unfair treatment of Henry Reyna, outlining what it looks like when the news media manipulates a narrative at the expense of people who can’t defend themselves because they don’t have a substantial public platform. To further accentuate this power imbalance, Valdez goes out of his way to situate the press as an ever-present and seemingly unavoidable presence throughout the play. Indeed, when Valdez refers to the state prosecutor who mercilessly casts the Chicano community as a threat to American society, he doesn’t call him by a name, but by “PRESS”—a choice that hints that the press as a whole has a biased attitude toward the Chicano community. In the same way that this prosecutor actively tries to condemn Henry and his friends, the actual journalistic press runs exaggerated stories about the “Mexican crime wave” in Los Angeles, attempting to sway public perception against young Chicanos. Accordingly, it becomes clear that Henry and his friends are at the mercy of a malicious press. Thankfully, though, certain reporters like Alice Bloomfield take it upon themselves to challenge the distorted narratives emerging about the Chicano community. The fact that these efforts ultimately win out suggests that Valdez deeply values the power of impartial journalism, clearly believing that a community’s wellbeing partly depends upon whether or not it has access to a fair, unbiased press.

During the play’s prologue, Valdez hints that Zoot Suit will focus on how the press portrays the Chicano community. He does this by displaying a large frontpage of the Los Angeles Herald Express Press, which serves as a literal backdrop for everything about to take place onstage. In this newspaper, an enormous headline reads, “ZOOT-SUITER HORDES INVADE LOS ANGELES.” It’s worth paying attention to the language that this headline uses, especially since the Zoot Suit Riots actually happened in real life. If audience members are familiar with this particular event in history, they know that the “zoot-suiters” in question were simply residents of Los Angeles who were violently targeted by white servicemen and civilians because they were wearing zoot suits, a style popular among young Chicanos and other minority groups. Given that this is what really happened, the Los Angeles Herald’s headline is a clear distortion of reality, since it suggests that “hordes” of young Chicanos have “invade[d]” the city—a phrase that makes it seem like Los Angeles has suddenly been overtaken and thrown into chaos when, in reality, the white service men picking fights with people of color wearing zoot suits are the ones who plunged the city into violent disorder. It’s worth keeping in mind that this headline serves as the backdrop of the entire play, a constant reminder that some of the most powerful cultural institutions in Los Angeles are actively working against the Chicano community by perpetuating false narratives.

Large publications like the Los Angeles Herald also slander the Chicano community in more specific ways. In addition to writing headlines that subtly present Chicanos as antagonistic, these media outlets make wild, irresponsible speculations about people like Henry and the members of the 38th Street Gang, even saying that they’re fascists. They do this, of course, because they are racist, but they also do it because they know that writing scandalous pieces will help them sell more papers. A progressive reporter and activist named Alice Bloomfield outlines this problem when she first visits in Henry, pointing out that one of the main reasons he and his friends were arrested is because “some bigshot” wants to get rich. She explains that a newspaper owner came up with the idea to start writing about a “Mexican Crime Wave.” This, Alice claims, is what encouraged the police and other servicemen to tear through the city and attack young Chicanos in zoot suits. By saying this, she calls attention to the power of the news media to impact real life, showing the audience why it’s so important to hold journalistic outlets accountable for what they print. After all, these false narratives have now put Henry and his friends in danger of receiving the death penalty even though they’re innocent of the crime for which they’re being held accountable.

Although Henry and the 38th Street Gang suffer as a result of the press’s biased and inaccurate coverage of the Chicano community, they are fortunate that there exists a group of people who want to help set the record straight. Alice is one of these people, and she assembles a group that publishes a paper dedicated to countering the unearned claims of other outlets like the Los Angeles Herald. And yet, this doesn’t necessarily relieve the pressure that has been placed on Henry—something Alice herself emphasizes when she reminds him that the press is constantly watching him, even when he’s in prison. When she says this, audience members see just how ready the press is to further damage Henry’s—and, in turn, the Chicano community’s—public image. This is especially unjust, considering that although Alice helps form a response to this biased coverage, Henry and his friends don’t have the same ability as large news outlets to reach people—meaning that it’s almost impossible for them to properly advocate for themselves in any substantial way. Despite this, the members of the 38th Street Gang eventually win their appeal, and this is perhaps because Alice’s grassroots publication ensured that the jury members deciding on the case no longer existed in a society in which there was only one (flawed) narrative about the Chicano community. In this capacity, then, Alice’s efforts demonstrate just how crucial it is to fight back against biased narratives, especially those that attack disenfranchised communities by manipulating the way society at large views them.