Re: [ranchos] Pachuco

I know I'm a little bit late to jump into this conversation but there is a great example of what Esperanza is stating in the movie "American Me" with Edward James Olmos. Great movie on how gangs influence Los Angeles.

~Janet Iglesias, San Diego CA

>From: latina1955@...
>Reply-To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
>To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [ranchos] Pachuco
>Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 20:32:50 EDT
>
>I recently saw a documentary on Pachuco's. It indicated that it first
>appeared around the 2nd world war in California, simply as a style statement worn
>by many Mexican-Americans. Apparently, there was a confrontation between a
>group of pachuco's and naval men - all started because the naval men were
>interested in their women. This incident started a retaliation from the naval
>men, who would come into the neighborhoods and beat the pachuco's up. This, in
>turn, gave the pachuco's a bad reputation, as the press just focused on their
>behavior, and of course they were the ones that were arrested. The
>confrontations continued until the President of the US ordered that the men were not
>to come off the ships. The tally of those hurt were much more enormous
>towards the pachucos - something like 100 to 3. It is my understanding that after
>this, there was a movement for the "gangs" to identify with the pachuco's -
>hence their later reputation.
>
>Esperanza
>Chicago area