Recipe For A Riot

# It had become normal to see a group of young Hispanic youth in town shopping and buying luxuries they could not have afforded themselves just months before. One of those luxuries was a new style of dress .
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             called the zoot-suit. .
             A zoot-suit was characterized by its baggy pants, worn with suspenders and a very high waist, cuffed tightly around the ankles. Most wore it with a broad shouldered, overlong dress jacket, going down to about the knee. The suit was accessorized with a four foot long pocket watch chain and a very wide brimmed, low crown, pancake hat pulled down low.# The zoot-suiter acted as cool as he looked, taking great pains not to wrinkle or soil the suit that gave him such pride while frequenting the dance halls and clubs of downtown L.A. The female counterpart to a zoot-suiter wore short skirts and tall hairstyles made popular at the time. They listened and danced to jazz and swing, speaking its slang with English rather than Spanish. These young people stood out in the crowd and that was what they wanted. Their style of dress and cool attitudes came to be their symbol of release from their parents" conservative and traditional ways.# This generation of Mexican-Americans didn't understand their parents" apparent acceptance of the discrimination, segregation and social stratification they had faced all their lives. The situation made no sense to them in the city their ancestors had settled, but now, where they were considered to be foreigners - Mexicans. .
             Their rebellious ways soon led to the labeling of these kids as "pachucos" or punks. Their parents certainly weren't fond of their actions and the city of L.A. was even less tolerant. Their taste in clothing seemed wasteful in light of goods being rationed for the war effort. Petty crime like vandalism and disturbing the peace, were attributed to intimidating zoot-suiters and became the focus in the papers.