History
The riots began in Los Angeles, amidst a period of rising tensions between white American servicemen stationed in southern California and Los Angeles' Mexican-American community. Although Mexican-American men were overrepresented in the military, many white servicemen resented seeing so many Latinos socializing in clothing many considered unpatriotic and extravagant in wartime.
Read more about this topic: Zoot Suit Riots
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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