pachuco
pachuco boggie
Pachuco boogie brings together Mexican and American music, Afro American and Afro Caribbean sounds; the idea’s always to get dancing. At the end of the 30’s, young Mexicans living in the USA felt marginalised on both sides of the frontier. They created their own counter-cultural model. And they used music, dance and fashion to put together their contemporary social struggle. Fans of swing orchestras and wide, elegant suits, Pachuco and Pachuca groups made the dance halls their own.
At the end of the 40’s musician Don Tosti moved to Los Angeles and played in swing and jazz orchestras. And soon afterwards swing, boogie and blues started to be added to the Mexican and Afro Caribbean sounds he loved so much. What’s more, they started singing in the US Pachuco way of speaking. He wrote many pieces, but Pachuco Boogie is the song that brought him success and, at the same time, gave the new musical movement its name (it was the first Latin record to sell a million copies).
Lalo Guerrero was the second kingpin in Pachuco music. Born in Arizona, this guitar player moved to the east coast. He added the influence of swing, jump blues and Spanish rumba. Marijuana Boogie is his best-known song, and you could say that he built a bridge between jazz, do-wop and rock. Pachuco also started to take on rock attitudes and aesthetics from the ‘60’s onwards. Lalo Guerrero, like Don Tosti, recorded a load of songs. Both two musicians laid the foundations for danceable Chicano music, and rivalry between the two has fed Pachuco fans’ conversations for years. As well as being danceable, this music for young people who felt left out in the land where they had been born and also in their parents’ country is an exact, sharp x-ray of society. Many people say that rap was sung in Spanish for the first time to Pachuco Boogie sounds.
zoot suit riots
In the 30’s and 40’s working class Mexicans, blacks and Jews dressed in a special way in Los Angeles. Boys wore tailor-made suits with wide-shouldered jackets, tight waists and baggy trousers which were tied at the ankle. Their accessories were wide-rimmed hats, watch chains worn on the outside and penknives in their pockets. Hair dripping with gel. Girls wore wide jackets, suspenders, long socks, short shirts and Pompadour hair styles.
In 1942, during the Second World War, the government started a campaign to save cloth. But the Pachucos, to go against the authorities, starting using as much cloth as possible to make their zoot suits. And, for that simple but effective reason, the politicians and media of the day started a violently racist ampaign against the Pachucos. They became the people behind anything which went wrong in Los Angeles. At that time of great disturbances, those young people who felt neither Mexican not American were an easy target for that xenophobe, patriotic society. It all went up in flames on 3rd June, 1943. What happened that night was known as the Zoot Suit Riot. Marines left the barracks in Los Angeles to go and hunt the Pachucos down. They started beating up anybody they saw in a zoot suit. The disturbances lasted a long time (some people would say they’re still going on). But the city councils, police and media blamed the Pachucos. Nowadays old Pachucos in Los Angeles
say the city changed for ever that day. Young people without wealth or identity started to feel part of a country which wasn’t on any map. Pachucos, Chicanos, Latins, La Raza… A nation known by many names was born that day.
¿que pues nuez?
The word Pachuco was coined at El Paso, Texas. For Mexicans, El Paso was Chuco or Chuco Town. When immigrants were asked where they were going, they would answer “Pa(ra) Chuco”, which became “Pachuco”. The people of Pachuco developed their own way of talking. They borrowed from different sources. They took Spanish and Nahuatl from Mexico; from the US, English and, astonishing as it seems, the Spanish Gypsy dialect Caló. The latter’s influence was so big that the Pachucos call their own language, too, Caló. By 1940 it was very widespread and everyone of Mexican origin spoke it. Young people having great skill at coming up with new words, it’s a way of speaking which changes all the time. Here’s a short dictionary.
aliviense: lighten up, cool it
bolillo: anglo, “white boy”
borlotear: to dance
bote: jail
cabuliar: to make fun of
calcos: shoes
calmantes montes: chill out
cálmenla: calm down, cool it
carnala: sister
carnal: brother, close friend
chafa: embarrassed, low quality, worthless
¡chale!: no, no way
chicas patas: little one, a young girl-woman
chingón: macho, big shot, bad dude
contrólate: control yourself
descuéntate: beat it, get lost
drapes: pants
huisa: woman, girlfriend
jefita/jefito: mother, father (literal: boss)
la jura: the law, police
me la rayo: for sure, it’s the truth, I swear t
¡nel!: no! (more forceful than ¡chale!)
¡orale!: hey, right on
pedo: hassle, excitement
pendejadas: stupidness or mean act
pendejo: schmuck, idiot
pinché: lousy
ponte abusado: wise up, get smart
que desmadre: what a mess
que pues, nuez?: what’s going on?
rifa: rules
ruca: wife, chick, girlfriend a
simón: yes
suave: fine, o.k.
tacuche: suit, zoot suit, fancy clothing
tando: hat
¿te curas?: can you believe it?
trapos: clothes
trucha: alert, watch out
vato: dude, guy
verdolaga: naïve, hick
¡watcha!: look!
ya estubo: cut it, that’s enough
ya pues: that’s enough
aguas!: “be careful,” or “danger” when its shouted out
Pachuco boogie brings together Mexican and American music, Afro American and Afro Caribbean sounds; the idea’s always to get dancing. At the end of the 30’s, young Mexicans living in the USA felt marginalised on both sides of the frontier. They created their own counter-cultural model. And they used music, dance and fashion to put together their contemporary social struggle. Fans of swing orchestras and wide, elegant suits, Pachuco and Pachuca groups made the dance halls their own.
At the end of the 40’s musician Don Tosti moved to Los Angeles and played in swing and jazz orchestras. And soon afterwards swing, boogie and blues started to be added to the Mexican and Afro Caribbean sounds he loved so much. What’s more, they started singing in the US Pachuco way of speaking. He wrote many pieces, but Pachuco Boogie is the song that brought him success and, at the same time, gave the new musical movement its name (it was the first Latin record to sell a million copies).
Lalo Guerrero was the second kingpin in Pachuco music. Born in Arizona, this guitar player moved to the east coast. He added the influence of swing, jump blues and Spanish rumba. Marijuana Boogie is his best-known song, and you could say that he built a bridge between jazz, do-wop and rock. Pachuco also started to take on rock attitudes and aesthetics from the ‘60’s onwards. Lalo Guerrero, like Don Tosti, recorded a load of songs. Both two musicians laid the foundations for danceable Chicano music, and rivalry between the two has fed Pachuco fans’ conversations for years. As well as being danceable, this music for young people who felt left out in the land where they had been born and also in their parents’ country is an exact, sharp x-ray of society. Many people say that rap was sung in Spanish for the first time to Pachuco Boogie sounds.
zoot suit riots
In the 30’s and 40’s working class Mexicans, blacks and Jews dressed in a special way in Los Angeles. Boys wore tailor-made suits with wide-shouldered jackets, tight waists and baggy trousers which were tied at the ankle. Their accessories were wide-rimmed hats, watch chains worn on the outside and penknives in their pockets. Hair dripping with gel. Girls wore wide jackets, suspenders, long socks, short shirts and Pompadour hair styles.
In 1942, during the Second World War, the government started a campaign to save cloth. But the Pachucos, to go against the authorities, starting using as much cloth as possible to make their zoot suits. And, for that simple but effective reason, the politicians and media of the day started a violently racist ampaign against the Pachucos. They became the people behind anything which went wrong in Los Angeles. At that time of great disturbances, those young people who felt neither Mexican not American were an easy target for that xenophobe, patriotic society. It all went up in flames on 3rd June, 1943. What happened that night was known as the Zoot Suit Riot. Marines left the barracks in Los Angeles to go and hunt the Pachucos down. They started beating up anybody they saw in a zoot suit. The disturbances lasted a long time (some people would say they’re still going on). But the city councils, police and media blamed the Pachucos. Nowadays old Pachucos in Los Angeles
say the city changed for ever that day. Young people without wealth or identity started to feel part of a country which wasn’t on any map. Pachucos, Chicanos, Latins, La Raza… A nation known by many names was born that day.
¿que pues nuez?
The word Pachuco was coined at El Paso, Texas. For Mexicans, El Paso was Chuco or Chuco Town. When immigrants were asked where they were going, they would answer “Pa(ra) Chuco”, which became “Pachuco”. The people of Pachuco developed their own way of talking. They borrowed from different sources. They took Spanish and Nahuatl from Mexico; from the US, English and, astonishing as it seems, the Spanish Gypsy dialect Caló. The latter’s influence was so big that the Pachucos call their own language, too, Caló. By 1940 it was very widespread and everyone of Mexican origin spoke it. Young people having great skill at coming up with new words, it’s a way of speaking which changes all the time. Here’s a short dictionary.
aliviense: lighten up, cool it
bolillo: anglo, “white boy”
borlotear: to dance
bote: jail
cabuliar: to make fun of
calcos: shoes
calmantes montes: chill out
cálmenla: calm down, cool it
carnala: sister
carnal: brother, close friend
chafa: embarrassed, low quality, worthless
¡chale!: no, no way
chicas patas: little one, a young girl-woman
chingón: macho, big shot, bad dude
contrólate: control yourself
descuéntate: beat it, get lost
drapes: pants
huisa: woman, girlfriend
jefita/jefito: mother, father (literal: boss)
la jura: the law, police
me la rayo: for sure, it’s the truth, I swear t
¡nel!: no! (more forceful than ¡chale!)
¡orale!: hey, right on
pedo: hassle, excitement
pendejadas: stupidness or mean act
pendejo: schmuck, idiot
pinché: lousy
ponte abusado: wise up, get smart
que desmadre: what a mess
que pues, nuez?: what’s going on?
rifa: rules
ruca: wife, chick, girlfriend a
simón: yes
suave: fine, o.k.
tacuche: suit, zoot suit, fancy clothing
tando: hat
¿te curas?: can you believe it?
trapos: clothes
trucha: alert, watch out
vato: dude, guy
verdolaga: naïve, hick
¡watcha!: look!
ya estubo: cut it, that’s enough
ya pues: that’s enough
aguas!: “be careful,” or “danger” when its shouted out
