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Pachucos are male members of a counterculture that emerged in El Paso, Texas, in the late 1930s. Pachucos are associated with zoot suit fashion, jump blues, jazz and swing music, a distinct dialect known as caló, and self-empowerment in rejecting assimilation into Anglo-American society.[1] The pachuco counterculture flourished among Chicano boys and men in the 1940s as a symbol of rebellion, especially in Los Angeles. It spread to women who became known as pachucas and were perceived as unruly, masculine, and un-American.[2] Some pachucos adopted strong attitudes of social defiance, engaging in behavior seen as deviant by white/Anglo-American society, such as marijuana smoking, gang activity, and a turbulent night life.[1] Although concentrated among a relatively small group of Mexican Americans, the pachuco counterculture became iconic among Chicanos[3][4] and a predecessor for the cholo subculture which emerged among Chicano youth in the 1980s.[5]
Pachucos emerged in El Paso, Texas, among a group of it may have roots in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, where loose-fitting clothing was popular among men.[6] It later spread throughout the Southwest into Los Angeles, where it developed further. In the border areas of California and Texas, a distinct youth culture known as pachuquismo developed in the 1940s and has been credited as an influence to Chicanismo.[7][8] In LA, Chicano zoot suiters developed their own cultural identity, "with their hair done in big pompadours, and 'draped' in tailor-made suits ... They spoke caló, their own language, a cool jive of half-English, half-Spanish rhythms ... Out of the zoot-suiter experience came lowrider cars and culture, clothes, music, tag names, and, again, its own graffiti language."[7]
Pachucos were perceived as alien to both Mexican and Anglo-American culture–a distinctly Chicano figure. In Mexico, the pachuco was understood "as a caricature of the American", while in the United States he was perceived as so-called "proof of Mexican degeneracy."[9] Mexican critics such as Octavio Paz denounced the pachuco as a man who had "lost his whole inheritance: language, religion, customs, belief." In response, Chicanos heavily criticized Paz and embraced the oppositional position of the pachuco as an embodied representation of resistance to Anglo-American cultural hegemony.[10] To Chicanos, the pachuco had acquired and emanated self-empowerment and agency through a "stylized power" of rebellious resistance and spectacular excess.[11][12]
- ^ a b Chàvez Candelaria, Cordelia (2004). "Pachucos". Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture: Volume 2. Greenwood Press. pp. 610–11. ISBN 9780313332111.
- ^ Ramírez, Catherine Sue (2009). The woman in the zoot suit : gender, nationalism, and the cultural politics of memory. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4286-1. OCLC 272303247.
- ^ López, Ian Haney (2009). Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice. Harvard University Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN 9780674038264.
- ^ Macías, Anthony (2008). Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968. Duke University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780822389385.
- ^ Ramirez, Catherine S. (2008). Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society: Volume 1. SAGE Publications. pp. 1005–006.
- ^ Diego Vigil, James (2010). Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California. University of Texas Press. p. 40. ISBN 9780292786776.
- ^ a b Bojórquez, Charles "Chaz" (2019). "Graffiti is Art: Any Drawn Line That Speaks About Identity, Dignity, and Unity... That Line Is Art". Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology. Duke University Press Books. ISBN 9781478003007.
- ^ Francisco Jackson, Carlos (2009). Chicana and Chicano Art: ProtestArte. University of Arizona Press. p. 135. ISBN 9780816526475.
- ^ Mazón, Mauricio (1984). The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation. University of Texas Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780292798038.
- ^ Thananopavarn, Susan (2018). LatinAsian Cartographies: History, Writing, and the National Imaginary. Rutgers University Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN 9780813589886.
- ^ Rossini, Jon D. (2008). Contemporary Latina/o Theater: Wrighting Ethnicity. Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 65–69. ISBN 9780809387021.
- ^ Pèrez-Torres, Rafael (1995). Movements in Chicano Poetry: Against Myths, Against Margins. Cambridge University Press. pp. 128–29. ISBN 9780521478038.
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