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Crimes ofFashion The Pachuca and Chicana Style Politics CATHERINE S. RAMÍREZ In Mario Suárez's 1947 short story "Kid Zopilote," Pepe García, the protagonist, spends a summer in Los Angeles and returns to his hometown , Tucson, Arizona, speaking caló, the so-called pachuco patois, and wearing a zoot suit.1 Pepe's flamboyant ensemble consists of a "long finger-tip coat," "plumed hat," pair of "thick-soled shoes," and "thick watch chain," from which a knife dangles. To his mother's chagrin, Pepe has become "a cursed pachuco," whom the people ofTucson mock and nickname "Kid Zopilote." Meanwhile, the young women whom Pepe dates are dubbed "Kiddas Zopilotas." Their attire is as spectacular as Pepe's: one wears "dresses so short they almost bared her garters"; another sports "shiny red slacks and a very high pompadour" (Suárez 1947, 131-32). "Kid Zopilote" reveals an important generational difference in Mexican Americans' perceptions of the pachuco and zoot subculture.2 Some Mexicans (most notably Octavio Paz) and Mexican Americans of Suárez's generation disparaged pachucos and the zoot subculture.3 Yet, beginning in the late 1960s, many Chicano writers and artists began to point to the zoot subculture ofthe early 1940s and, more specifically, to the Sleepy Lagoon incident of1942 and the Zoot Suit Riots of1943 as crucial moments in the politicization ofMexican Americans and in the creation of an oppositional, rather than assimilationist, Chicano cultural identity.4 Furthermore, some valorized the pachuco as a hero, as the embodiment ofChicano resistance and style, and as a harbinger ofthe Chicano movement. Octavio Romano-V. (1969), for example, placed the pachuco within a pantheon ofMexican and Mexican-American champions , which included the nineteenth-century Californio bandit Joaquin (Meridians:Jeminism, race, transnationalism 2002, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 1-35)©2002 by Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved. Figure ?. a young MEXICAN-AMERICAN MAN POSES IN HIS ZOOT SUIT (CIRCA 1942). Murrieta and the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Tino Villanueva admired the stylish manner in which the pachuco "saunter[s](" "sway[s]," and "leans the wrong way/in assertion" in his 1974 poem "Pachuco Remembered" (40). And, on the eve ofthe premier ofZoot Suit, a play that features the pachuco as its protagonist, Luis Valdez declared the pachuco a "Chicano folk hero" and credited him with giving "impetus to the Chicano Movement of the 1960s" (1978, 3). In lauding the pachuco as a rebel and hero, these writers stressed that the zoot suitwas more than a mere sartorial fad. Instead, they argued that the zoot suit functioned as a sign of defiance and difference—hence the violence to which its wearers were subjected during the early war years.5 Additionally, "Kid Zopilote" is valuable because it offers a contemporary glimpse (however brief) ofpachucas, as represented by the "Kiddas Zopiloras." The pachuca was the female counterpart to (and often the companion of) the pachuco. Like pachucos, pachucas had a distinctive look. Many teased their hair into high bouffants (called "rats") and wore whatwas considered excessive makeup. They usually donned short skirts and long coats (Figure 2), and some wore the masculine version ofthe zoot suit (complete with "punjab" pants and "finger-tip" coats). Angela McRobbie has charged that, within cultural studies, studies of"'youth culture'" have, by and large, emphasized "male youth cultural CATHERINE S. RAMÍREZ forms" (McRobbie 1980, 37). She argues that prominent British subcultural theorists have defined "style" "as a male [and] never unambiguously masculine prerogative" (ibid., 43). Within Chicano studies, the style and subculture of pachucos have received much attention. As Vicki L. Ruiz observes, "Among Chicano historians and writers, there appears a fascination with the sons ofimmigrants, especially as pachucos" (Ruiz 1998, 53). Few scholars have examined, much less acknowledged, the participation ofpachucas in the zoot subculture.6 This essay seeks to reinsert Mexican-American women—namely, pachucas—into narratives of the wartime zoot subculture. Moreover, it offers a narrative of Chicana style and Chicana style politics. By style, I refer to a signifying practice (in this case, the display ofthe zoot subculture 's codes via clothing, hair, and makeup). By style politics, I refer to an expression of difference via style. This expression of difference...

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