Zoot Suit

When El Pachuco enters at the beginning of the play, the stage directions describe him as “the very image of the pachuco myth” (5). In his zoot suit, he encapsulates Chicano pride, machismo, and suaveness. He is “the secret fantasy of every bato [trans. dude] in or out of the Chicanada” and, in his words, “más chucote que la chingada [trans. more gangster than a motherfucker]” (6). El Pachuco serves as an omnipotent narrator with the ability to control the story. Of the other characters, only Henry Reyna seems to be able to see and interact with El Pachuco, and he thus becomes Henry’s inner voice and alter ego. He is often the pin that bursts the bubble of Henry’s hope or optimism. When he is attacked during the riots and stripped naked, the removal of his zoot suit reveals a small loincloth, and El Pachuco “looks at Henry with mystic intensity. He opens his arms as an Aztec conch blows, and he slowly exits backward with powerful calm into the shadows” (68). El Pachuco not only represents the spirit of pachuco culture in the 1940s, but the pachuco’s connection to a rich ancient heritage.