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Re: [ranchos] Pachuco

 
Janet,
 
I am a little late too on this discussion about "Pachucos".  I had heard that they were called "pachucos" because in an area of Mexico called Pachuca, the natives there wore their pants tightly pegged at the bottom to prevent scorpions from climbing up their legs into their clothes (eek!).  I also heard that the  "zoot suits" developed from the costume worn by Clark Gable in "Gone with the Wind"  in 1939.  The costume had a long fitted jacket with wide lapels, the pants were slightly narrow at the bottom but full in the hip (for riding?), and men of the Civil War era in the South often wore gold watches attached by long chains which hung from a vest to a pants pocket, and they topped this outfit off with a wide brimmed "planter's hat".  A Negro band-leader named Cab Calloway in the 1930's started to have suits made in imitation of the costume worn by Clark Gable, and his music (swing music) and "jitterbug" style and slang expressions became popular with young Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles in the 1940's.  An American actor (can't think of his name now) made the zoot-suiter character hilarious in one of his movies (with a green face, yet).  And of course, one of my favorite movies is one made by a Mexican-American director (can't think of his name either) called "Zoot Suit" with the great actor Edward James Olmos.
 
Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA
 
----- Original Message -----
From: janet iglesias
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 8:41 AM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: 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

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