Zoot Suit at Arizona State University

Authors

• Daniel Valdez
• Lalo Guerrero
• Luis Valdez

It’s Los Angeles, Calif., the years 1942 to 1943. The war in the Pacific is in full gear, American big band music has young people at home dancing up a storm and the Zoot Suit is the uniform of choice for Chicano gangs on the streets of Los Angeles. One August morning a young Chicano boy is found bloody and beaten by the side of a road near a county reservoir. His death leads to the indictment of a local Chicano gang and the infamous Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial, a kangaroo court fanned by media hysteria. When the verdict is announced the Zoot Suit riots begin, and the mythical mystical figure of El Pachuco is born.

Playwright Luis Valdez is America’s greatest Latino playwright. “Zoot Suit” is his masterpiece – a muscular mix of historical fact and agitprop fiction. Featuring a cast of 33 actors/singer/dancers and a live orchestra playing hot Latin Jazz form the 1940’s, “Zoot Suit” is a not-to-be-missed classic filled with swagger and swing.