COUNTERCULTURE
PACHUCOS + CHOLOS
2022

Young people of Mexican descent in the United States have always experienced contexts of severe exploitation, marginalization, and discrimination. The 1940s, and especially after being used in the Second World War, were a crucial moment for these young people. Their time in the army left them with certain characteristics that were reflected in their clothing, summarized in the phrase“walk the line well”, that is, with a neat, almost flawless appearance.

The young people, faced with these situations, decided to form gangs and establish certain streets or neighborhoods as their territory. They were fighting and getting drunk, committing vandalism, plus all the time having to dodge and hide from the police or those who were racist. These young people began to be known as pachucos. Similar to the context that these young people were going through, many black people lived and shared these conditions. Therefore, it is not surprising that the extravagant and characteristic way of dressing of these young people, better known as the famous “zoot suit”; had its origins in the African-American community of the 1930s.

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The zoot suit transformed a little later into the pachuco costume. The pachucos, without knowing it, were creating an identity so that 20 years later, what we know as the chicano movement and the cholos.
Both fight for their rights and express it through the arts and media such as graffiti; managing to originate an authentic cultural identity. The pachucos were a countercultural phenomenon in several aspects: They took it upon themselves to repudiate the system because it in turn rejected them.