Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A.

by Eduardo Obregón Pagán

Pagán provides the first comprehensive social history of the "Sleepy Lagoon" murder trial and the Zoot Suit Riot that followed, arguing that they resulted from a volatile mix of racial and social tensions that had long been simmering. In reconstructing the lives of the murder victim and those accused of the crime, Pagán shows how demographic pressures, anxiety about nascent youth culture, and the war effort all contributed to the social tension and the eruption of violence.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Sociology

327 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 24, 2003

Reviews

[Alex Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eduardo Obregón Pagán’s Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. contextualizes the 1943 Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots into a larger movement of anti-Mexican sentiment. Pagán covers the murder of José Díaz and the subsequent trial of young Mexican Americans. In his narrative of the Sleepy Lagoon Murder and trial, Pagán connects the sensationalized trial with the Zoot Suit Riots. The book discusses increasing tensions between Mexican American and Anglo-American Angelinos after the trial, arguing that zoot suits became a targeted symbol of criminalized young Mexican American men. Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon is built on extensive primary source research into oral histories, contemporary newspaper articles, correspondence, and written accounts. Pagán contributes to the historiography of the World War II Homefront by connecting the Zoot Suit Riots to wider anti-Mexican sentiment in wartime Los Angeles. His historiographical contributions surround his convincing link between the Sleepy Lagoon murders and the Zoot Suit riots.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

An important book about an important part of both American and Latinx history, I wish this book were better edited. It seemed more like several essays that Pagan wrote and then threaded together in to a book, disregarding the many times he used the same anecdotes (for example, I believe he wrote about Ayres' testimony labeling the Sleepy Lagoon defendants as murderous Aztecs three different times in this book) and the same points. Easily, a third of this book could be discarded on grounds of it being duplicated elsewhere in the narrative. I would love for an editor to transform this very academic thesis into a readable and digestible book for those interested in the Sleepy Lagoon murder case, the Zoot Suit Riots in LA, and the cultural climate for Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles at that time.

[Maritza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a necessary read for me to learn more about real events that happened in Los Angeles having to do with Chicano history.
While it took me 3 months to finish reading, I did get to learn about the history of prejudice in the Los Angeles court system as well as the military presence that once existed in downtown Los Angeles.
I would recommend this to people interested in historical events that have shaped communities for decades.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear. No prizes for editorial excellence here.

[Kim Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

For most people who live in L.A., the Zoot Suit riots are legendary. But what I discovered from reading this book is that what many know about this episode in history (at least in my experience) is myth, not fact. The reason for this, I assume, is that the facts are so complex. And it is the complexities that make this book worth reading. The main goal of author Pagan seems to be to put the riots, and the events leading up to them, in context. Sometimes, the context got a little too detailed and academic for me, but overall, I was glad Pagan spent the time and energy to give the riots their place in history - U.S. history, Mexican-American history and L.A. history. Within various larger contexts, the focus of this book is a period of time during WWII that included the murder of a young Mexican-American man, the subsequent trial and conviction of 17 (yes, 17!) young Mexican-American men of his murder, and then, months later, attacks by soldiers on Mexican-Americans that led to the famous Zoot Suit riots. I feel that everyone living in L.A. should read this book, to better understand the city's history of racial injustice and its tangled cultural dynamics.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really unusual read. Re-examines the unsolved case of Jose Diaz's murder at the Sleepy Lagoon in 1942, and places it in its larger context of national anxiety about the Axis powers, the looming Communist threat, white supremacist thinking, and the youthful hijinks in America's own back yards. As much a sociological analysis as it is a true-crime story, Pagan helps the reader make sense of the bizarre Zoot Suit Riots that broke out a few months after Diaz died. He even does a better than average job of solving a pretty cold case.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historical narrative wrapped around a murder mystery.