Good Lifestyle

Do you remember Gángster's costumes that were popular in America in 1950? Those spacious leg pants, high waist and lengthened bags with shoulders, hats, shoes with thick soles, long chains hanging from the waist - they were incredibly well in movies on gangsters. But do you know how that fashion began and ultimately because and how did it end?


Although the "zoot" suits were popular among the gangsters because it was easy to hide pistols, Mexican immigrants were the first to use those costumes. They were extremely comfortable and popular. Mexicans who used those costumes were called themselves "pachuco", which was later related to bands on the street, nightlife and extravagant behavior.


However, it was not Mexicans immigrants who started riots. In 1940, during the Second World War, the "Zoot" costumes were in the maximum popularity among young Mexicans-Americans. There were also many newly assigned military service men parked in California at the time. The conflict exploded. Not for another reason that boredom, much testosterone (and obviously some racism) service men and American sailors began attacking Mexican immigrants. Apparently wearing a zoot suit was seen as "little patriotic" by American soldiers. It was not difficult to locate them, since the zoot suits were very colorful and made them an easy target.


It should be obvious to anyone who was watching the problem from outside. The American soldiers were being racist. You would think that the police would fix this problem, however they did not intervene. And even when they did, they arrested only Mexicans and never the soldiers. The problem was exacerbated even more when the American media began to cover the events. All newspapers said that Mexicans were violently attacking military personnel and American sailors, police and newspapers were calling Mexicans-Americans - "Dishonest Pachucos and Baby Gangsters." He reached a point where the press began writing about these attacks like "a cleaning effect that was helping to get rid of dishonest and ruffians."


Shortly after the zoot suits became illegal in the. The reason why the authorities invented this was that it was a moment of war and everything needed to ration. Apparently zoots costumes required a lot of cloth and that was not reasonable and was wasteful in times of war. However, that did not stop Mexican-American youth. They continued to use the suits they already had and there were always some willing to make new costumes, even if it were illegal. This unleashed even more attacks, this time not only in California but through E.U.A.


In the end, the zoot costumes became a symbol of Mexican-American struggle for their rights.