Zoot Suit

Act II opens with the Prologue, in which El Pachuco sings in front of the newspaper backdrop. He refers to pachucos as “street-corner warriors who fought and moved like unknown soldiers in wars of their own” (51) and the streets of Los Angeles as a “battle zone” (50). He notes that this will become pertinent later in the play, suggesting, “Let’s pick it up in prison” (50). A bell rings, shifting into Scene 1, titled“San Quentin.” In a letter to his family, Henry describes the emptiness he feels when alone in his cell at night. A guard delivers mail, addressing Henry, Joey, Smiley, and Tommy by their inmate numbers. In Scene 2, “The Letters,” Alice corresponds with the men, announcing that she will edit a bi-monthly newsletter, so they remain informed about their appeal. For the sake of their defense, she urges them to keep a clean record while in prison.

Smiley writes to Alice, dismayed to learn that his wife has been knocking on doors and asking for financial support for the gang’s defense. Smiley insists that he and his wife are uncomfortable with begging, and although Alice points out that it is fundraising, not begging, she agrees to ask his wife to not participate again. Tommy writes Alice, expressing his gratitude and asserting that he doesn’t want to be treated differently because he is white. Tommy contends that he grew up around Mexicans and is a pachuco. Joey writes, asking Alice to send them a photograph, and she obliges. In another letter, Alice informs the “boys” that on Cinco De Mayo, a radio program called “Our Daily Bread” will dedicate the show to discussing the oppression of Mexican-Americans in general and their case specifically.

Henry separates himself from the group, and the play enters Scene 3,“The Incorrigible Pachuco.” He writes Alice a letter, asking her to speak privately during her next visit. She agrees enthusiastically, and Henry informs her that he plans to drop out of the appeal. Astonished, Alice insists that the others will follow his lead and the defense will fall apart. She asserts that the group owes it to the friends and families who have worked hard to support them. Henry accuses Alice, “You’re just using Mexicans to play politics” (57). Incensed, Alice tells Henry how frustrating it has been to work with his family and community on the appeal. After her outburst, Henry agrees to continue with the case. Alice urges Henry to write an article to be published in People’s World. Henry agrees to consider it. Alice leaves, and the gang sunnily sends well wishes through her to their families. El Pachuco intercedes, reminding Henry that the new trial probably won’t be any different from the first. Abruptly, the guard blows his whistle, calling, “Rec time!”

The guard announces that the gang has a visitor, and the play shifts to Scene 4, “Major George.” Henry, Joey, Smiley, and Tommy greet George cheerfully. They banter, and then Henry asks about the appeal. Somberly, George states, “There’s been a development I have to talk to you about” (61). He informs them that he has been drafted into the army. George reassures the gang that the draft isn’t occurring to stop him from defending the gang, and that he is only one in a team of lawyers preparing the appeal. He promises, “With or without me, the appeal will be won” (62). Unconvinced, Henry responds, “Those bastard cops are never going to let us out of here. We’re here for life and that’s it” (62). The men wish George well as he leaves. The guard hands out new work assignments, intercepting Henry and taking him to solitary instead.

A saxophone opens Scene 5,“Solitary,” and El Pachuco tells Henry, “Better get used to [solitary], carnal [trans. bro]. That’s what this stretch is going to be about, see? You’re in here for life, bato [trans. dude]” (63). El Pachuco tells the distraught Henry, “You’re here, Hank, because you chose to be–because you protected your brother and your family” (64). El Pachuco contends that the appeal has no chance, demanding, “Haven’t you learned yet? […] Not to expect justice when it isn’t there. No court in the land’s going to set you free. Learn to protect your loves by binding them in hate, ése!” (64). Angry, Henry explodes. El Pachuco laughs, telling Henry, “Don’t take the pinche [trans. fucking] play so seriously, Jesús! Es puro vacilón [trans. It’s pure bullshit]!” (65).

With a snap of his fingers, the lights shift and city sounds play. El Pachuco shifts to Scene 6,“Zoot Suit Riots,” commenting, “This is Los, carnal [trans: bro]. You want to see some justice for pachucos? Check out what’s happening back home today. The navy has landed, ése–on leave with full pay, and war’s breaking out in the streets of L.A.!” (65). El Pachuco and Henry watch as several military men, including Swabbie, dance at the Avalon Ballroom. Rudy, dressed in Henry’s drapes, joins the party with Bertha and Lupe. One Marine gives money to his girl who then pays a pimp. A group of sailors attempts to hit on Lupe and Bertha, who rebuff their advances. Rudy and a Cholo defend the women and a fight breaks out. Just as Rudy threatens the military men with a knife, El Pachuco intervenes.

El Pachuco takes Rudy’s knife and sends the brawlers offstage. He snaps his fingers, and the Press appears, reporting, “Serious rioting broke out here today as flying squadrons of Marines and soldiers joined the Navy in a new assault on zooter-infested districts” (66). The sailors taunt El Pachuco, and the Press refers to “The Zoot Suiters, those gamin’ dandies” (66). El Pachuco interrupts, “Why don’t you tell them what I really am, ése, or how you’ve been forbidden to use the very word…” (66). El Pachuco goes on, admonishing, “The Press distorted the very meaning of the word ‘zoot suit.’ All it is for you guys is another way to say Mexican” (67). El Pachuco asserts that the suit stands for pride in appearance and “urban survival” (67). The Press argues that the suit is “an affront to good taste” (67) and that those who wear them “are trying to outdo the white man in exaggerated white man’s clothes” (67). The Press and the military men converge on El Pachuco, stripping him of his suit until he wears nothing but a small loincloth.

Nearly naked, El Pachuco “turns and looks at Henry with mystic intensity. He opens his arms as an Aztec conch blows, and he slowly exits backward with powerful calm into the shadows” (68). As Henry falls to his knees, the lights go down and the play transitions into Scene 7,“Alice.” The guard reads letters from Alice to Henry. Alice writes about the riots, a fancy fundraiser in a West Hollywood night club, and finally her disappointment at his lack of response. The Guard interjects his flippant commentary, then releases Henry from solitary, tossing his mail at him. Henry reads a letter in which Alice expresses her concern, having discovered that he was in solitary.

Exasperated, Henry asks, “Why do you do this, Alice?” (70). She insists that they will appeal the case until they win. They argue until she admits, “If you lose, I lose” (71). Henry apologizes, and they make up. Henry tells Alice that he imagined her while he was in solitary, “Only the other one never gave me so much lip. She just listened. She did say one thing. She said…” (71). Alice tells Henry that she can’t say what he wants. She affirms, “Because I can’t allow myself to be used to fill in for all the love you’ve always felt and always received from all your women. […] I’m trying to help you, goddammit. And to do that, I have to be your friend, not your white women” (71-72). Offended, Henry insults her and she slaps him. Dismayed, she tells him, “Oh, Hank. All the love and hate it’s taken to get us together in this lousy prison room” (72). They kiss. The guard enters to escort Alice out. As she leaves, she informs Henry that Rudy has joined the Marines. The guard reappears, informing Henry that he is being transferred to Folsom Prison “with all the rest of hardcore cons” (73).

El Pachuco appears, once again fully dressed. Henry watches as El Pachuco lifts his arms, and “Lights go down as we hear the high sound of a bomb falling to earth” (73). Scene 8,“The Winning of the War,” opens with the reverberation of an exploding bomb as “a white flash […] illuminates the form of pachuco images on the black backdrop” (73). Machine gun fire joins the sound of bombs, and military men march. Rudy joins them in a Marine uniform. Enrique and Dolores adjust his clothing, and Lupe takes a photo. While his family watches, he takes up a switchblade from behind a stack of newspapers and joins the military men in drill formation. The Shore Patrol takes Rudy aside and begins to interrogate him. In the barrio, residents enter holding newspapers. As the Press, Rudy, and Shore Patrol narrate the unfolding events of World War II, the residents perform daily tasks. Finally, The Press add the headline that the defendants of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial have won their appeal. The barrio residents cheer and rejoice, tossing torn-up newspaper as confetti.

Joyous music shifts the play into Scene 9,“Return to the Barrio.” Henry greets his family, including Rudy, who has obtained a leave from duty to attend the celebration. The party moves into the house, and Henry sees El Pachuco. He says, “It’s good to see you again, ése. I thought I’d lost you” (75). El Pachuco tells Henry that he has been “here in the barrio” (76). Henry declares, “We won, didn’t we? […] We won this one, because we learned to fight in a new way” (76). Proclaiming this “the perfect way to end of this play” (76), El Pachuco gestures and the lights go down. Then he gestures again, and the lights come back up. He says, “But life ain’t that way, Hank. The barrio’s still out there, waiting and wanting. The cops are still tracking us down like dogs. The gangs are still killing each other, [f]amilies are barely surviving, and there in your own backyard, life goes on” (76).

Della arrives, and Henry hugs her. After her release from the girls’ reformatory, Della moved in with Henry’s parents. She informs him, “I think they expect us to get married” (76). As El Pachuco asks Henry if he is “still going to give her that big pachuco wedding [he] promised” (76), Alice enters, informing Henry that she is going home. Alice and Henry squabble, and Alice tells him she loves him in Spanish. Rudy enters and congratulates Henry on his upcoming marriage to Della. Faced with a decision, Henry’s family pressures him to move home and marry Della. Both Alice and Della offer to leave. Henry tells Alice, “What about what we shared in prison? I’ve never been that close to anybody” (78). Alice reminds him, “Della was in prison too. You know you had thousands of people who were clamoring for your release, but you were Della’s only hope” (78).

To Della, Henry says, “Look, ésa, I know you did a year in Ventura. I know you stood up for me when it counted. I wish I could make it up to you” (78). Della replies, “Don’t give me your bullshit, Henry. Give it to Alice” (78). As Henry tries to decide, his family and friends chime in. Rudy talks about “killing Japs” overseas, adding, “I saw some pachucos go out there that are never coming back” (79). Rudy asks why Henry didn’t tell the police that he was at Sleepy Lagoon, and Henry replies that he was attempting to keep Rudy’s record clean. Smiley tells Hank he and his family are moving to Arizona in search of a clean start. Finally, Henry takes Della in his arms, choosing her.

Amid the chatter, Rudy and Joey begin to argue over Bertha. A scuffle ensues, and Rudy dissolves into tears. All but Henry’s family, George, and Alice leave. Rudy insists that Henry should have taken him to jail with him. Rudy admits that when Henry left, the sailors and Marines attacked him. He was on a date with Bertha, feeling slick in Henry’s zoot suit. Then, the soldiers dragged Rudy into the street, beat him, and tore off his drapes, stripping him naked in front of everyone on the street. Tommy enters frantically, announcing that police had arrived and were attempting to arrest Joey on the assumption that George’s car, which is parked out front, must be stolen. Irate, Henry tries to go with George and Alice to face the officers, but his family and Della plead with Henry to stay out of it. Enrique finally stops him, roaring, “Te digo que no! [trans. I’m telling you no!]” (82). The Reyna family and Della embrace.

The Press enters, announcing that Henry would return to incarceration in 1947 for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. In prison, he would kill a fellow inmate and stay behind bars until 1955, when he would become addicted to drugs. Henry would die “of the trauma of his life in 1972” (82). El Pachuco interjects, “That’s the way you see it, ése. But there’s other ways to end this story” (82). Rudy tells his version, in which Henry would die in Korea at Inchon in 1952, “being posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor” (83). In Alice’s ending, Henry and Della marry in 1948 and have five children, three of whom attend university, “speaking caló and calling themselves Chicanos” (83). George says, “Henry Reyna, the born leader” (83). Henry’s family, friends, and the judge echo this sentence, calling Henry a “social victim,” a “street corner warrior,” a “friend,” “brother,” and “son” (83). El Pachuco ends the play declaring, “Henry Reyna…El Pachuco…The man…the myth…still lives” (83).