The History of the Zoot Suit

By 1943, Zoot suits were very closely associated with crime and with juvenile delinquency. Calls to police were common just because someone in a Zoot Suit was inherently suspicious. A lot of Mexican youth who were part of the Pachuco culture were too young to enlist. There were also stories of men wearing their Zoot suits when they reported in and being turned down for military service because of the perception that they would be troublemakers.