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When Luis Valdéz's play Zoot Suit opened in Los Angeles, California, in 1978, a local newspaper trumpeted the event by proclaiming, "On July 30, 1978, the Second Zoot Suit Riot begins." Less than one year later, Zoot Suit opened on Broadway, thus becoming the first play written by a Chicano to appear on New York City's Great White Way. The New York run was only four weeks, but the play proved to be a long-running hit in Los Angeles, In 1981, Valdéz directed a movie version, which featured Edward James Olmos.

Valdéz's play, which is excerpted here, focuses on the events leading up to and following the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial of 1942. That year, white newspapers in Los Angeles began reporting that Mexican American teenagers increasingly posed a threat to public safety. Although the reports were unfounded, a sort of siege mentality took hold of the Anglo population.

In retrospect,...