Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity: Mexican Americans and the Los Angeles Police Department, 1900-1945

Latinos in American Society and Culture

by Edward J. Escobar

In June 1943, the city of Los Angeles was wrenched apart by the worst rioting it had seen to that point in the twentieth century. Incited by sensational newspaper stories and the growing public hysteria over allegations of widespread Mexican American juvenile crime, scores of American servicemen, joined by civilians and even police officers, roamed the streets of the city in search of young Mexican American men and boys wearing a distinctive style of dress called a Zoot Suit. Once found, the Zoot Suiters were stripped of their clothes, beaten, and left in the street. Over 600 Mexican American youths were arrested. The riots threw a harsh light upon the deteriorating relationship between the Los Angeles Mexican American community and the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1940s.

In this study, Edward J. Escobar examines the history of the relationship between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Mexican American community from the turn of the century to the era of the Zoot Suit Riots. Escobar shows the changes in the way police viewed Mexican Americans, increasingly characterizing them as a criminal element, and the corresponding assumption on the part of Mexican Americans that the police were a threat to their community. The broader implications of this relationship are, as Escobar demonstrates, the significance of the role of the police in suppressing labor unrest, the growing connection between ideas about race and criminality, changing public perceptions about Mexican Americans, and the rise of Mexican American political activism.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, Race

372 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 1999

Reviews

[XSPO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escobar, my former professor, delivered a meticulously researched and profoundly important academic work when writing this book. It masterfully dissects how early 20th-century police practices, often fueled by racial prejudice, were instrumental in shaping the political consciousness and identity of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles.

Escobar moves beyond mere incidents of discrimination, delving into how institutional racism, racial profiling, and the criminalization of Mexican American identity ultimately spurred significant political activism within the community. It's an essential read for understanding the historical roots of contemporary issues in policing and race relations, offering invaluable insights into a critical period of American history.

[Yocelin Garza · Rating 5 out of 5]

really great book i learned a lot that i didnt know about as a latina it is very empowering. i read it for a class and i am so glad i did

[Kelli Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Escobar’s Race, Police, and the Making of Political Identity, focuses on the tensions that developed between Mexican-Americans and police in the Los Angeles area of California. Escobar traces the modern tensions between these groups back to changes that occurred between 1900 and 1945. During those decades, Escobar claims that the LAPD and Mexican-American developed an antagonistic relationship with one another. Escobar explains that this negative relationship developed as a result of anti-Mexican sentiment in the southwest United States and adopted specifically by the LAPD. This anti-Mexican discrimination led to increased focus on Mexican-Americans as criminals and trapped Mexican-Americans into a corner that forced them to organize themselves in a group to directly protest or respond to the actions of the LAPD. The development of these two groups contributes to the current tensions in the southwest.