Unwritten rules demanded that people of color remain unseen and unheard in public spaces, but the zoot suit, with broad shoulders, narrow waist, and ballooned pants, was loud and bold. Zoot suited young men and women as well, held themselves upright and walked with a confident swagger that seemed to flow from the very fashion itself. As the sleepy lagoon murder trial of 1942, involving mostly Mexican American young men, proved, this particular demographic, zoot suited or not, came to be singled out and associated with criminality and gangsterism by Los Angeles authorities. In a time of war, when social boundaries were rapidly changing, questions of allegiance and conformity became invested with particular significance. Many Angelenos objected to the zoot suiters including, incidentally, older generations of Mexican Americans, whose communities were traditional, conservative, and self contained. Critics saw Mexican American youths as cultural rebels and delinquents who openly defied cherished American values and customs.
Unwritten rules demanded that people of color remain unseen and unheard in public spaces, but the zoot suit, with broad shoulders, narrow waist, and ballooned pants, was loud and bold. Zoot suited young men and women as well, held themselves upright and walked with a confident swagger that seemed to flow from the very fashion itself. As the sleepy lagoon murder trial of 1942, involving mostly Mexican American young men, proved, this particular demographic, zoot suited or not, came to be singled out and associated with criminality and gangsterism by Los Angeles authorities. In a time of war, when social boundaries were rapidly changing, questions of allegiance and conformity became invested with particular significance. Many Angelenos objected to the zoot suiters including, incidentally, older generations of Mexican Americans, whose communities were traditional, conservative, and self contained. Critics saw Mexican American youths as cultural rebels and delinquents who openly defied cherished American values and customs.