he introduces the stunningly effective "image" of El Pachuco, overstereotyped in every way - and fascinating because of it:
A switchblade knife plunges through the newspaper [curtain]...EL PACHUCO emerges...HE (sic) adjusts his clothing, meticulously...HE tends to his hair...with infinite loving pains...HE dons...his fantastic costume...a zoot suit. HE is transformed into the very image of the pachuco myth (I, Prologue, 25).
From the first moment of Zoot Suit, the commentator/chorus/ narrator El Pachuco is presented as THE Ultimate Stereotype. He is what '40s Chicano teenage boys dreamed of becoming - and what the white mainstream feared when it saw the "Pachuco." If, as Krempel and Clay state in The Theatrical Image, "theatre art is a problem in communicating the author's intended meaning" (15), then El Pachuco as the commanding image of this play provides a clear metaphor for the Chicano's central dilemma - and the playwright's inability to make a choice.
The Chicanos who have chosen the pachuco way are allowing their self-image to be dictated by forces from outside themselves. In this case it is the "zoot suit" culture transplanted from Harlem to Los Angeles. Sociologist Stuart Hall, cited in Rosa Linda Fregoso's 1981 article "The representation of cultural identity in Zoot Suit," indicates the inherent flaw in the pachuco attempt when he notes "that cultural identity is 'always constituted within, not outside, representation'" (663). By trying to "mainstream" themselves in line with other non-conformists of the Swing Era, the pachucos are making a naive mistake: they assume that mainstream is mainstream - whatever - and are unprepared for the repressive repercussions that ensue.
At the same time, the pachucos in the story - and El Pachuco as well - still retain strong indigenous sensitivities to concepts of loyalty, family and honor. The zoot suit culture, by contrast, emphasizes "good time" music and s...