https://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=The_Power_of_the_Zoot_-_Book_Review&feed=atom&action=historyThe Power of the Zoot - Book Review - Revision history2024-03-29T09:07:42ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.30.0https://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=The_Power_of_the_Zoot_-_Book_Review&diff=19872&oldid=prevAdmin at 02:38, 28 February 20202020-02-28T02:38:49Z<p></p>
<table class="diff diff-contentalign-left" data-mw="interface">
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<tr style="vertical-align: top;" lang="en">
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 02:38, 28 February 2020</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l18" >Line 18:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 18:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects.  ""Illuminating the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other." (244)</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects.  ""Illuminating the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other." (244)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">[http://videri.org/index.php?title=Guide_to_the_Literature Check out other great articles at Videri.org.] </ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:African American History]] [[Category: Chicana/o History]] [[Category:Videri.org]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:African American History]] [[Category: Chicana/o History]] [[Category:Videri.org]]</div></td></tr>
</table>Adminhttps://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=The_Power_of_the_Zoot_-_Book_Review&diff=19871&oldid=prevAdmin at 02:38, 28 February 20202020-02-28T02:38:01Z<p></p>
<table class="diff diff-contentalign-left" data-mw="interface">
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<tr style="vertical-align: top;" lang="en">
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 02:38, 28 February 2020</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l1" >Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Power_of_the_Zoot.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520261542/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0520261542&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e154faf3e8c484957819873b4e3773be The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II] by Luis Alvarez]]  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Power_of_the_Zoot.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520261542/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0520261542&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e154faf3e8c484957819873b4e3773be The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II] by Luis Alvarez]]  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Where does resistance take place? What are the meanings attached to it? By what means does opposition express itself? Luis Alvarez asks similar questions in The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II. Alvarez focuses on WWII cultural resistance by nonwhite youths as expressed through mediums such as music, fashion, and dance. More specifically, The Power of the Zoot explores the zoot suit movement from the perspective of zoots themselves<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">, but </del>also middle class youth organizations, the popular press, municipal government, and older nonwhites <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">who sometimes </del>abhorred zoot culture while at other times, albeit less frequently, accepted its presence.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Where does resistance take place? What are the meanings attached to it? By what means does opposition express itself? Luis Alvarez asks similar questions in <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520261542/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0520261542&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e154faf3e8c484957819873b4e3773be </ins>The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">]</ins>. Alvarez focuses on WWII cultural resistance by nonwhite youths as expressed through mediums such as music, fashion, and dance. More specifically, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><i></ins>The Power of the Zoot <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></i> </ins>explores the zoot suit movement from the perspective of zoots themselves<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">. It </ins>also <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">explores how </ins>middle<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">-</ins>class youth organizations, the popular press, municipal government, and older nonwhites abhorred zoot culture while at other times, albeit less frequently, accepted its presence.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Joining the rising tide of historians focusing on leisure activities and cultural products as means of resistance and expression<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">, </del>Alvarez argues, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">“the </del>zoot serves as a window on what urban authorities, social reformers, the media, older generations of Americans, and zoot suiters themselves thought about too and what was considered American.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">” </del>(2) Deviating from previous works, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">“The </del>Power of the Zoot departs from previous studies which have characterized zoot suiters predominantly as objects of middle class social reform concerned with wartime juvenile delinquency<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">, as targets of state sanctioned violence at the hands of city police and white military personnel, and as ethnic icons of resistance. Zoot suits were not simply metaphors for the political agendas of others, rather they practiced their own cultural politics which "if examined carefully can teach us a great deal about how seemingly powerless populations craft their own identities and claim dignity” argues Alvarez</del>. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(6-7)</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Joining the rising tide of historians focusing on leisure activities and cultural products as <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">a </ins>means of resistance and expression<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">. </ins>Alvarez argues, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"the </ins>zoot serves as a window on what urban authorities, social reformers, the media, older generations of Americans, and zoot suiters themselves thought about too and what was considered American.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(2) Deviating from previous works, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><i>The </ins>Power of the Zoot<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></i> </ins>departs from previous studies which have characterized zoot suiters predominantly as objects of middle<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">-</ins>class social reform concerned with wartime juvenile delinquency.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">The historical context </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">World War II gave </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">zoot suit special meaning. Ideas </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">citizenship, nationalism, </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">membership all pervaded society. The media</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">municipal government </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">others used public discourse to identify those worthy </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">citizenship and those who </del>were not. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">As such the wearing </del>a <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">zoot suit angered many white Americans associated wearers with laziness, delinquency, violence, and illicit sexuality. The meanings zoot suiters applied to </del>their <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">fashion varied. In fact, one of Alvarez’s key points suggests that zoot culture was pluralistic, diverse, </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">overlapping. If zoots wore the fashion to </del>claim <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">a public </del>dignity <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">denied them by white society</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">how each zoot defined such “dignity” varied, “dignity for a black male zoot suiter in New York … was often not the same as dignity for a Mexican American female zoot suiter in Los Angeles</del>.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">” </del>(<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">8</del>) <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Moreover, some zoots opposed the war and others actually joined the military to fight.</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Instead, it views them as targets </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">state-sanctioned violence at </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">hands </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">city police </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">white military personnel</ins>, and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">as ethnic icons </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">resistance. Zoot suits </ins>were not <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">merely metaphors for the political agendas of others</ins>. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Instead, they practiced their own cultural politics which "if examined carefully can teach us </ins>a <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">great deal about how seemingly powerless populations craft </ins>their <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">own identities </ins>and claim dignity,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" argues Alvarez</ins>. (<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">6-7</ins>)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Gender serves as another key aspect of </del>The <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Power </del>of the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Zoot</del>. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Too often historians have only acknowledged male zoots</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">however</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Alvarez examines both pachucas </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">pachucos including their interaction with </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">relation </del>to <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">one another</del>. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Popular discourse </del>associated <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">male zoots </del>with <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">effeminacy while females zoots were described as overly masculine </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">at other times promiscuous</del>. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Though each struggled against larger society</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">pachucos often failed </del>to <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">rise above the popular sexism of the time</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">as Alavez notes</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">“many </del>male zoot <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">suiters, </del>for <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">example reinforced submissive </del>female <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">gender roles by expecting women </del>zoot <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">suiters to submit to their sexual desires</del>.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">” </del>(8) <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Still</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">pachucos and pachucas also successfully challenged </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">same gender roles they sometimes modeled</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">“the social practices </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">behavior of zoot suiters also often conflicted with gender norms regarding how young men and women should act</del>.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">” (5)</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">historical context </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">World War II gave </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">zoot suit special meaning</ins>. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Ideas of citizenship</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">nationalism</ins>, and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">membership all pervaded society. The media, municipal government, </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">others used public discourse </ins>to <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">identify those worthy of citizenship and those who were not</ins>. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">As such the wearing a zoot suit angered many white Americans, </ins>associated <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">wearers, </ins>with <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">laziness, delinquency, violence, </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">illicit sexuality</ins>. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">The meanings zoot suiters applied to their fashion varied. One of Alvarez's key points suggests that zoot culture was pluralistic, diverse</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">and overlapping. If zoots wore their fashion </ins>to <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">claim a public dignity denied them by white society</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">how each zoot defined such "dignity" varied</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"dignity for a black </ins>male zoot <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">suiter in New York … was often not the same as dignity </ins>for <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">a Mexican American </ins>female zoot <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">suiter in Los Angeles</ins>.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(8) <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Moreover</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">some zoots opposed </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">war</ins>, and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">others joined the military to fight</ins>.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Why dignity? Alvarez argues “more then being </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">static quality of being worthy</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">honored</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">or esteemed</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">dignity encompasses </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">variety </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">ways </del>zoot suiters, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">struggled to make sense of the world around them and navigate the poverty many of them face on a daily basis… The struggle </del>for <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">dignity </del>by zoot suiters <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">was thus a politics of refusal, a refusal </del>to <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">accept humiliation, a refusal </del>to <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">quietly endure dehumanization, and a refusal to conform</del>.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">” </del>(8) <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Importantly</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Pachuca/os challenged not only gender </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">sexual norms but </del>also <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">racial ones. The interracial aspect of zoot culture stood in opposition to dominant segregation of </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">time. In this way, zoots articulated “their own racial, </del>gender, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">sexual </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">class identities, </del>zoot suiters <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">made a case for the pluralism of wartime American identity</del>.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">”</del>(<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">237</del>)  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Gender serves as another critical aspect of <i>The Power of </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Zoot</i>. Too often, historians have only acknowledged male zoots. However</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Alvarez examines both pachucas and pachucos including their interaction with and relation to one another. Popular discourse associated male zoots with effeminacy while females zoots were described as overly masculine and at other times</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">promiscuous. Though each struggled against larger society</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">pachucos often failed to rise above </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">popular sexism </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">the time.  As Alavez notes, "many male </ins>zoot suiters, for <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">example reinforced submissive female gender roles </ins>by <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">expecting women </ins>zoot suiters to <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">submit </ins>to <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">their sexual desires</ins>.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(8) <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Still</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">pachucos </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">pachucas </ins>also <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">successfully challenged </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">same </ins>gender <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">roles they sometimes modeled</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"the social practices </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">behavior of </ins>zoot suiters <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">also often conflicted with gender norms regarding how young men and women should act</ins>.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">5</ins>)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Furthermore</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">zoots didn’t want to assimilate as middle class activists wanted nor did they want to “affirm their alienation” as </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">press reported …”the perspective </del>of zoot suiters <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">themselves suggests they often did both at </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">same time.” (237) Their example provides evidence of early interracial interactions </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">alliances that helped lay </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">groundwork </del>for <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">the relational identities </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">the “rights” movements of the late 1960’s </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">70s</del>. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Moreover</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">it suggests that historians need to look to cultural arenas </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">contestation </del>in <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">addition </del>to <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">more traditional categories </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">electoral politics or labor history</del>.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Why dignity? Alvarez argues</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"more than being the static quality of being worthy, honored, or esteemed, dignity encompasses </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">variety </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">ways </ins>zoot suiters<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">, struggled to make sense of </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">world around them </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">navigate </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">poverty many of them face on a daily basis… The struggle </ins>for <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">dignity by zoot suiters was thus a politics </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">refusal, a refusal to accept humiliation, a refusal to quietly endure dehumanization, </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">a refusal to conform</ins>.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" (8) Importantly</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Pachuca/os challenged not only gender and sexual norms but also racial ones. The interracial aspect </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">zoot culture stood </ins>in <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">opposition </ins>to <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">dominant segregation of the time. In this way, zoots articulated "their own racial, gender, sexual, and class identities; zoot suiters made a case for the pluralism </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">wartime American identity</ins>.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" (237) </ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Interestingly</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">in the book’s final chapter Alvarez associates white resistance with increased integration and job competition with same sort of protest put forth by Pachuca/os and others. If </del>zoots <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">used their bodies </del>to <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">protest</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">so </del>did the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">white working class across </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">nation as numerous cities suffered from damaging race riots</del>. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">As their over representation in work </del>and <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">society became threatened by rising nonwhite efforts, whites believed their dignity to be slipping away as well, thus, they responded with physical violence</del>. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Alvarez not only establishes relation identities through such examples</del>, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">but also illustrates </del>that <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">rather than isolated, unrelated incidents </del>the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">wave </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">urban unrest that afflicted the nation, arose from national fears stoked by ideas </del>of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">dignity, citizenship, and wartime nationalism</del>.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Furthermore</ins>, zoots <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">didn't want </ins>to <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">assimilate as middle-class activists wanted</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">nor </ins>did <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">they want to "affirm their alienation" as the press reported …" </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">perspective of zoot suiters themselves suggests they often did both at </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">same time</ins>.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" (237) Their example provides evidence of early interracial interactions and alliances that helped lay the groundwork for the relational identities of the "rights" movements of the late 1960s </ins>and <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">70s</ins>. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Moreover</ins>, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">it suggests </ins>that <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">historians need to look to </ins>the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">cultural arenas </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">contestation in addition to more traditional categories </ins>of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">electoral politics or labor history</ins>.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">, ““Illuminating </del>the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">” </del>(244)</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Interestingly, in the book's final chapter, Alvarez associates white resistance with increased integration and job competition with the same sort of protest put forth by Pachuca/os and others. If zoots used their bodies to protest, so did the white working class across the nation as numerous cities suffered from damaging race riots. As their over-representation in work and society became threatened by rising nonwhite efforts, whites believed their dignity to be slipping away as well. Thus, they responded with physical violence. Alvarez not only establishes relation identities through such examples but also illustrates that rather than isolated, unrelated incidents, the wave of urban unrest that afflicted the nation, arose from national fears stoked by ideas of dignity, citizenship, and wartime nationalism. </ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">.  ""Illuminating </ins>the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(244)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:African American History]] [[Category: Chicana/o History]] [[Category:Videri.org]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:African American History]] [[Category: Chicana/o History]] [[Category:Videri.org]]</div></td></tr>
</table>Adminhttps://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=The_Power_of_the_Zoot_-_Book_Review&diff=19869&oldid=prevAdmin at 02:29, 28 February 20202020-02-28T02:29:34Z<p></p>
<table class="diff diff-contentalign-left" data-mw="interface">
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<tr style="vertical-align: top;" lang="en">
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 02:29, 28 February 2020</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l17" >Line 17:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 17:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects, ““Illuminating the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other.” (244)</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects, ““Illuminating the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other.” (244)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:African American History]] [[Chicana/o History]] [[Category:Videri.org]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:African American History]] [[<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Category: </ins>Chicana/o History]] [[Category:Videri.org]]</div></td></tr>
</table>Adminhttps://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=The_Power_of_the_Zoot_-_Book_Review&diff=19868&oldid=prevAdmin at 02:29, 28 February 20202020-02-28T02:29:11Z<p></p>
<table class="diff diff-contentalign-left" data-mw="interface">
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<tr style="vertical-align: top;" lang="en">
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 02:29, 28 February 2020</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l1" >Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Where does resistance take place? What are the meanings attached to it? By what means does opposition express itself? Luis Alvarez asks similar questions in The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II. Alvarez focuses on WWII cultural resistance by nonwhite youths as expressed through mediums such as music, fashion, and dance. More specifically, The Power of the Zoot explores the zoot suit movement from the perspective of zoots themselves, but also middle class youth organizations, the popular press, municipal government, and older nonwhites who sometimes abhorred zoot culture while at other times, albeit less frequently, accepted its presence. Joining the rising tide of historians focusing on leisure activities and cultural products as means of resistance and expression, Alvarez argues, “the zoot serves as a window on what urban authorities, social reformers, the media, older generations of Americans, and zoot suiters themselves thought about too and what was considered American.” (2) Deviating from previous works, “The Power of the Zoot departs from previous studies which have characterized zoot suiters predominantly as objects of middle class social reform concerned with wartime juvenile delinquency, as targets of state sanctioned violence at the hands of city police and white military personnel, and as ethnic icons of resistance. Zoot suits were not simply metaphors for the political agendas of others, rather they practiced their own cultural politics which "if examined carefully can teach us a great deal about how seemingly powerless populations craft their own identities and claim dignity” argues Alvarez. (6-7)</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[[File:Power_of_the_Zoot.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520261542/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0520261542&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e154faf3e8c484957819873b4e3773be The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II] by Luis Alvarez]] </ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Where does resistance take place? What are the meanings attached to it? By what means does opposition express itself? Luis Alvarez asks similar questions in The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II. Alvarez focuses on WWII cultural resistance by nonwhite youths as expressed through mediums such as music, fashion, and dance. More specifically, The Power of the Zoot explores the zoot suit movement from the perspective of zoots themselves, but also middle class youth organizations, the popular press, municipal government, and older nonwhites who sometimes abhorred zoot culture while at other times, albeit less frequently, accepted its presence.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Joining the rising tide of historians focusing on leisure activities and cultural products as means of resistance and expression, Alvarez argues, “the zoot serves as a window on what urban authorities, social reformers, the media, older generations of Americans, and zoot suiters themselves thought about too and what was considered American.” (2) Deviating from previous works, “The Power of the Zoot departs from previous studies which have characterized zoot suiters predominantly as objects of middle class social reform concerned with wartime juvenile delinquency, as targets of state sanctioned violence at the hands of city police and white military personnel, and as ethnic icons of resistance. Zoot suits were not simply metaphors for the political agendas of others, rather they practiced their own cultural politics which "if examined carefully can teach us a great deal about how seemingly powerless populations craft their own identities and claim dignity” argues Alvarez. (6-7)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The historical context of World War II gave the zoot suit special meaning. Ideas of citizenship, nationalism, and membership all pervaded society. The media, municipal government and others used public discourse to identify those worthy of citizenship and those who were not. As such the wearing a zoot suit angered many white Americans associated wearers with laziness, delinquency, violence, and illicit sexuality. The meanings zoot suiters applied to their fashion varied. In fact, one of Alvarez’s key points suggests that zoot culture was pluralistic, diverse, and overlapping. If zoots wore the fashion to claim a public dignity denied them by white society, how each zoot defined such “dignity” varied, “dignity for a black male zoot suiter in New York … was often not the same as dignity for a Mexican American female zoot suiter in Los Angeles.” (8) Moreover, some zoots opposed the war and others actually joined the military to fight.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The historical context of World War II gave the zoot suit special meaning. Ideas of citizenship, nationalism, and membership all pervaded society. The media, municipal government and others used public discourse to identify those worthy of citizenship and those who were not. As such the wearing a zoot suit angered many white Americans associated wearers with laziness, delinquency, violence, and illicit sexuality. The meanings zoot suiters applied to their fashion varied. In fact, one of Alvarez’s key points suggests that zoot culture was pluralistic, diverse, and overlapping. If zoots wore the fashion to claim a public dignity denied them by white society, how each zoot defined such “dignity” varied, “dignity for a black male zoot suiter in New York … was often not the same as dignity for a Mexican American female zoot suiter in Los Angeles.” (8) Moreover, some zoots opposed the war and others actually joined the military to fight.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l5" >Line 5:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 9:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Gender serves as another key aspect of The Power of the Zoot. Too often historians have only acknowledged male zoots, however, Alvarez examines both pachucas and pachucos including their interaction with and relation to one another. Popular discourse associated male zoots with effeminacy while females zoots were described as overly masculine and at other times promiscuous. Though each struggled against larger society, pachucos often failed to rise above the popular sexism of the time, as Alavez notes, “many male zoot suiters, for example reinforced submissive female gender roles by expecting women zoot suiters to submit to their sexual desires.” (8) Still, pachucos and pachucas also successfully challenged the same gender roles they sometimes modeled, “the social practices and behavior of zoot suiters also often conflicted with gender norms regarding how young men and women should act.” (5)</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Gender serves as another key aspect of The Power of the Zoot. Too often historians have only acknowledged male zoots, however, Alvarez examines both pachucas and pachucos including their interaction with and relation to one another. Popular discourse associated male zoots with effeminacy while females zoots were described as overly masculine and at other times promiscuous. Though each struggled against larger society, pachucos often failed to rise above the popular sexism of the time, as Alavez notes, “many male zoot suiters, for example reinforced submissive female gender roles by expecting women zoot suiters to submit to their sexual desires.” (8) Still, pachucos and pachucas also successfully challenged the same gender roles they sometimes modeled, “the social practices and behavior of zoot suiters also often conflicted with gender norms regarding how young men and women should act.” (5)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Why dignity? Alvarez argues “more then being the static quality of being worthy, honored, or esteemed, dignity encompasses the variety of ways zoot suiters, struggled to make sense of the world around them and navigate the poverty many of them face on a daily basis… The struggle for dignity by zoot suiters was thus a politics of refusal, a refusal to accept humiliation, a refusal to quietly endure dehumanization, and a refusal to conform.” (8) Importantly, Pachuca/os challenged not only gender and sexual norms but also racial ones. The interracial aspect of zoot culture stood in opposition to dominant segregation of the time. In this way, zoots articulated “their own racial, gender, sexual and class identities, zoot suiters made a case for the pluralism of wartime American identity.”(237) Furthermore, zoots didn’t want to assimilate as middle class activists wanted nor did they want to “affirm their alienation” as the press reported …”the perspective of zoot suiters themselves suggests they often did both at the same time.” (237) Their example provides evidence of early interracial interactions and alliances that helped lay the groundwork for the relational identities of the “rights” movements of the late 1960’s and 70s. Moreover, it suggests that historians need to look to cultural arenas of contestation in addition to more traditional categories of electoral politics or labor history.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Why dignity? Alvarez argues “more then being the static quality of being worthy, honored, or esteemed, dignity encompasses the variety of ways zoot suiters, struggled to make sense of the world around them and navigate the poverty many of them face on a daily basis… The struggle for dignity by zoot suiters was thus a politics of refusal, a refusal to accept humiliation, a refusal to quietly endure dehumanization, and a refusal to conform.” (8) Importantly, Pachuca/os challenged not only gender and sexual norms but also racial ones. The interracial aspect of zoot culture stood in opposition to dominant segregation of the time. In this way, zoots articulated “their own racial, gender, sexual and class identities, zoot suiters made a case for the pluralism of wartime American identity.”(237)  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Furthermore, zoots didn’t want to assimilate as middle class activists wanted nor did they want to “affirm their alienation” as the press reported …”the perspective of zoot suiters themselves suggests they often did both at the same time.” (237) Their example provides evidence of early interracial interactions and alliances that helped lay the groundwork for the relational identities of the “rights” movements of the late 1960’s and 70s. Moreover, it suggests that historians need to look to cultural arenas of contestation in addition to more traditional categories of electoral politics or labor history.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Interestingly, in the book’s final chapter Alvarez associates white resistance with increased integration and job competition with same sort of protest put forth by Pachuca/os and others. If zoots used their bodies to protest, so did the white working class across the nation as numerous cities suffered from damaging race riots. As their over representation in work and society became threatened by rising nonwhite efforts, whites believed their dignity to be slipping away as well, thus, they responded with physical violence. Alvarez not only establishes relation identities through such examples, but also illustrates that rather than isolated, unrelated incidents the wave of urban unrest that afflicted the nation, arose from national fears stoked by ideas of dignity, citizenship, and wartime nationalism. </ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects, ““Illuminating the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other.” (244)</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Interestingly, in the book’s final chapter Alvarez associates white resistance with increased integration and job competition with same sort of protest put forth by Pachuca/os and others. If zoots used their bodies to protest, so did the white working class across the nation as numerous cities suffered from damaging race riots. As their over representation in work and society became threatened by rising nonwhite efforts, whites believed their dignity to be slipping away as well, thus, they responded with physical violence. Alvarez not only establishes relation identities through such examples, but also illustrates that rather than isolated, unrelated incidents the wave of urban unrest that afflicted the nation, arose from national fears stoked by ideas of dignity, citizenship, and wartime nationalism. Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects, ““Illuminating the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the </del>United States <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the </del>Chicana/o <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other</del>.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">” (244)</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:</ins>United States <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">History]][[Category:African American History]] [[</ins>Chicana/o <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">History]] [[Category:Videri</ins>.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">org]]</ins></div></td></tr>
</table>Adminhttps://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=The_Power_of_the_Zoot_-_Book_Review&diff=19866&oldid=prevAdmin: Created page with "Where does resistance take place? What are the meanings attached to it? By what means does opposition express itself? Luis Alvarez asks similar questions in The Power of the Z..."2020-02-28T02:20:23Z<p>Created page with "Where does resistance take place? What are the meanings attached to it? By what means does opposition express itself? Luis Alvarez asks similar questions in The Power of the Z..."</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>Where does resistance take place? What are the meanings attached to it? By what means does opposition express itself? Luis Alvarez asks similar questions in The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II. Alvarez focuses on WWII cultural resistance by nonwhite youths as expressed through mediums such as music, fashion, and dance. More specifically, The Power of the Zoot explores the zoot suit movement from the perspective of zoots themselves, but also middle class youth organizations, the popular press, municipal government, and older nonwhites who sometimes abhorred zoot culture while at other times, albeit less frequently, accepted its presence. Joining the rising tide of historians focusing on leisure activities and cultural products as means of resistance and expression, Alvarez argues, “the zoot serves as a window on what urban authorities, social reformers, the media, older generations of Americans, and zoot suiters themselves thought about too and what was considered American.” (2) Deviating from previous works, “The Power of the Zoot departs from previous studies which have characterized zoot suiters predominantly as objects of middle class social reform concerned with wartime juvenile delinquency, as targets of state sanctioned violence at the hands of city police and white military personnel, and as ethnic icons of resistance. Zoot suits were not simply metaphors for the political agendas of others, rather they practiced their own cultural politics which "if examined carefully can teach us a great deal about how seemingly powerless populations craft their own identities and claim dignity” argues Alvarez. (6-7)<br />
<br />
The historical context of World War II gave the zoot suit special meaning. Ideas of citizenship, nationalism, and membership all pervaded society. The media, municipal government and others used public discourse to identify those worthy of citizenship and those who were not. As such the wearing a zoot suit angered many white Americans associated wearers with laziness, delinquency, violence, and illicit sexuality. The meanings zoot suiters applied to their fashion varied. In fact, one of Alvarez’s key points suggests that zoot culture was pluralistic, diverse, and overlapping. If zoots wore the fashion to claim a public dignity denied them by white society, how each zoot defined such “dignity” varied, “dignity for a black male zoot suiter in New York … was often not the same as dignity for a Mexican American female zoot suiter in Los Angeles.” (8) Moreover, some zoots opposed the war and others actually joined the military to fight.<br />
<br />
Gender serves as another key aspect of The Power of the Zoot. Too often historians have only acknowledged male zoots, however, Alvarez examines both pachucas and pachucos including their interaction with and relation to one another. Popular discourse associated male zoots with effeminacy while females zoots were described as overly masculine and at other times promiscuous. Though each struggled against larger society, pachucos often failed to rise above the popular sexism of the time, as Alavez notes, “many male zoot suiters, for example reinforced submissive female gender roles by expecting women zoot suiters to submit to their sexual desires.” (8) Still, pachucos and pachucas also successfully challenged the same gender roles they sometimes modeled, “the social practices and behavior of zoot suiters also often conflicted with gender norms regarding how young men and women should act.” (5)<br />
<br />
Why dignity? Alvarez argues “more then being the static quality of being worthy, honored, or esteemed, dignity encompasses the variety of ways zoot suiters, struggled to make sense of the world around them and navigate the poverty many of them face on a daily basis… The struggle for dignity by zoot suiters was thus a politics of refusal, a refusal to accept humiliation, a refusal to quietly endure dehumanization, and a refusal to conform.” (8) Importantly, Pachuca/os challenged not only gender and sexual norms but also racial ones. The interracial aspect of zoot culture stood in opposition to dominant segregation of the time. In this way, zoots articulated “their own racial, gender, sexual and class identities, zoot suiters made a case for the pluralism of wartime American identity.”(237) Furthermore, zoots didn’t want to assimilate as middle class activists wanted nor did they want to “affirm their alienation” as the press reported …”the perspective of zoot suiters themselves suggests they often did both at the same time.” (237) Their example provides evidence of early interracial interactions and alliances that helped lay the groundwork for the relational identities of the “rights” movements of the late 1960’s and 70s. Moreover, it suggests that historians need to look to cultural arenas of contestation in addition to more traditional categories of electoral politics or labor history.<br />
<br />
Interestingly, in the book’s final chapter Alvarez associates white resistance with increased integration and job competition with same sort of protest put forth by Pachuca/os and others. If zoots used their bodies to protest, so did the white working class across the nation as numerous cities suffered from damaging race riots. As their over representation in work and society became threatened by rising nonwhite efforts, whites believed their dignity to be slipping away as well, thus, they responded with physical violence. Alvarez not only establishes relation identities through such examples, but also illustrates that rather than isolated, unrelated incidents the wave of urban unrest that afflicted the nation, arose from national fears stoked by ideas of dignity, citizenship, and wartime nationalism. Through this lens, the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots mark the earliest expression of such conflicts. Alvarez concludes The Power of the Zoot with a nod to the complicated nuance that historians must consider when exploring historical subjects, ““Illuminating the history of zoot suiters and other youth cultural workers forces us to recognize that race and ethnic history in the United States Is not a story only of conflict or togetherness, but a complicated mix of the two. If nothing else, a deeper understanding of youth culture makes clear that capturing the full complexity of the Chicana/o or African American experience is virtually impossible without accounting for how one relates to the other.” (244)</div>Admin