Julia Alvarez's novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, narrates the journey of four sisters who emigrate from the Dominican Republic to the United States. They lose touch with their Spanish language and culture before becoming fluent in English. Similarly, Sandra Cisneros reflects on her childhood in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Chicago through the lyrical vignettes in House on Mango Street.

Ernesto Galarza's 1971 novel, Barrio Boy, and Jose Antonio Villareal's 1970 novel, Pocho, both depict the experience of growing up in a barrio from a young boy's perspective.

Victor Villaseñor's 1997 novel, Macho!, portrays Cesar Chavez's strike efforts through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old boy who migrates from Mexico to California.

Ricardo Sánchez's poems in the 1971 collection Canto y grito mi liberación (which means "The Liberation of a Chicano Mind") delve into the complexities of living between two worlds. Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales's epic poem, "I Am Joaquin," examines Chicano identity. Lorna Dee Cervantes's poetry addresses the erosion of ethnic identity in transplanted families; her poem "Freeway 280" expresses frustration over urban renewal programs that destroyed Chicano neighborhoods.

Several films explore themes similar to those in Zoot Suit. Robert Redford produced and directed The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), a charming comedy about Mexican-American citizens who resist oppressive big business owners attempting to violate the farmers' civil rights. Edward James Olmos, who portrays El Pachuco in Zoot Suit, stars in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982), a film about a Chicano accused of murder that keeps viewers questioning his guilt until the very end. Olmos also directed and starred in American Me (1992), a powerful film depicting the life of a hardened Chicano prison inmate and his family.