Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit

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Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit was the first Chicano play on Broadway that was later turned into a film version. The play was based on a real trial that occurred in Los Angeles, known as the Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial in 1942 and the Zoot Suit Riots that followed. The film makes a strong political statement. Like Ramirez, Charles Berg states, “Indignation still fuels the rhetoric, but the anger is channeled into more accessible forms (Berg, 2002, pg. 202).” Valdez uses stage and film techniques and unique transitions from reality to fantasy depict-ing discrimination, violence, class and race. Henry Reyna is a young man that was about to report for service duty the next day when he and his group were unjustly accused of murder. The police rounded everyone up by stereotyping them unjustly because of certain characteristics: their race, style of dressing, and hair. They were …show more content…
A gathering of people in a non-violent way. The film was unu-sual for its time as it emerged this was not a commercial success. Through the film the director gave a voice to the voiceless , telling a story based on the injustices of a minority group. The music was key ingredient going hand in hand with the Zoot Suit. The music used was part of the record of that era which was an extension of Jazz. This was the coming of age at the end of 1930 the great orchestras emerging in the U.S. like Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. Also around the border orchestras were being influenced by this music creating a fusion of their own with the glamorized style of dress that had transpired throughout the country already, the Zoot Suit. In the big music halls this style was prominent. However when this music and style passed through El Paso Texas, a border town the Pachuco was born. This style was a mixture of the nightlife, attracting attention, and glamour of Latino Heritage. This later transcended arriving to inner cities like Los
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