Department of Chicano Studies and Foreign Languages (CSFL)

Los Angeles Mission College

Coyolxauhqui:

Lady of the Golden Bells.  One of the Aztec images of the Moon. 

Professor Jose A. Maldonado

Chicano Studies and History

“Ladies and Gentlemen:

The play you are about to see

is a construct of fact and fantasy.

The Pachuco Style was an act in Life

And his language a new creation.

His will to be was an awesome force

Eluding all documentation . . .

A mythical,  quizzical, frightening being

Precursor of revolution

Or a piteous, hideous heroic joke

Deserving of absolution?

I speak as an actor on the stage.

The Pachuco was existential

for he was an Actor in the streets

Both profane and reverential.

It was the secret fantasy of every bato

Living in or out of the Chicanada

To put on the Zoot Suit and play the Myth

Mas chucote que la chingada!   ¡Pues órale!”

El Pachuco, from Zoot Suit

By Luis Valdez

Contact Information:

Professor

Jose A. Maldonado

Los Angeles Mission College

13356 Eldridge Ave.

Sylmar, CA 91342

Phone:

(818) 833-3412

E-mail: maldonja@lamission.edu