By Gerardo Licón – www.KCET.org – Photo Los Angeles Public Library/Shades of L.A. Collection

Much attention was brought to pachuco culture in Los Angeles as a result of the Sleepy Lagoon incident of 1942, the Sleepy Lagoon trial that concluded in early 1943, and the Zoot Suit Riots of mid-1943. These incidents popularized a perception of pachuco culture that associated its participants with wearing zoot suits, jazz music, juvenile delinquency, a lack of patriotism, swing dancing, and Mexican American youth.

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