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| Wearing their feathered hats, colourful tank tops, gold chains on the lapel and patent leather shoes, the pachucos – the subculture that characterised Mexican gangs set up in the United States in the 1940s – continue to dance to the rhythm of legendary mambo Salons in Mexico. Photo: Yuri Cortez / AFP |
Born in Mexican immigrant communities in the United States in the 1930s, pachuco culture started out as the gangsta style of its time – complete with criminal associations, baggy pants and bling.
It was a time of deep prejudice in the American south and west, where restaurants often posted signs reading “No dogs, negroes or Mexicans”.
In a show of defiance of the dominant white culture, young Mexicans joined urban blacks in sporting the zoot suit – long jackets, baggy pants tapering to a peg at the ankles, Oxford shoes, dangling watch fobs and splaying hats.
It was “a proto-movement of social and cultural resistance,” says Manuel Valenzuela, a sociologist at Mexico’s College of the Northern Border, in Tijuana.
These “pachucos”, as the Mexicans called themselves, were portrayed as dangerous delinquents in the media, and were singled out for discrimination and violent attacks.
In 1943, white soldiers stationed in southern California went on a rampage against young Latinos, triggering a series of ethnic clashes known as the “Zoot Suit Riots”.
Fast forward 74 years, and the zoot suit has long faded from fashion. But in the age of US President Donald Trump, Mexican-American relations can still look a lot like they did back then.
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