page_title: 38th Street gang
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: 38th Street gang / History
caption_attribution_description: English: photo of two 38th street gangmembers
context_page_description: The 38th Street gang is an American criminal street gang in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Hispanic-Americans. The 38th Street gang is one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles and has been occupying its territory since the 1920s. They engage in many criminal activities. The Mexican Mafia controls and routinely uses 38th Street gang members to carry out their orders.
context_section_description: Founded in the 1920s, the 38th Street gang dates back to the pachucos and zoot suits and was formed at the border between South Central and the city of Vernon. The 38th Street gang became well known in the 1940s in the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial. Sleepy Lagoon was a popular swimming hole in what is now East Los Angeles. A Mexican American juvenile named Jose Diaz was killed there in 1942, and members of the 38th Street Mexican American gang were arrested and charged with murder by the Los Angeles Police Department.
  All five of the gang members were convicted and sentenced to prison. These convictions ultimately united the Mexican community and changed Mexican gangs. The jail sentences also acted as a glue to unite the Mexican and Mexican American community in a common cause, a fight against class distinction based on prejudice and racism, a fight against the establishment. In prison, 38th Street gang members were held in high esteem. On October 4, 1943, the convictions of the gang members were overturned and the gang members were allegedly welcomed back to their communities as heroes.
  During "Sleepy Lagoon", the media exaggerated the headlines about the gang that wore zoot suits and created wartime hysteria and prejudice against the Mexican-American community. In what was known as the Zoot Suit Riots in May to June 1943, many Mexican-American zoot suiters from the segregated parts of town were attacked by European American servicemen and residents of Los Angeles. The white servicemen and residents felt Zoot Suiters were not contributing to the war effort and were wasting valuable resources by dressing so flamboyantly. Los Angeles police officers did nothing to halt the angry mobs from rioting, arresting the zoot suiters instead of the attackers. After the riots and because of international criticism, the United States Department of War banned all military personnel from going to Los Angeles on leave. The Los Angeles City Council adopted a resolution that banned the wearing of zoot suits on Los Angeles streets, although no ordinance was approved by the City Council nor signed into law by the Mayor. 38th Street is often credited for starting a new style of dress: during the time the Sleepy Lagoon defendants were incarcerated, their prison-issue clothes were deliberately oversized, with the intention of drawing ridicule from Anglo inmates and prison staff. However, the Sleepy Lagoon defendants maintained their clothing well, cleaning and ironing it.
caption: Two members of the 38th Street Gang, circa 1993.
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