Los Angeles Times (Sunday)

A victim who deserved better

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Re “Remember Jose Diaz? No?” column, Aug. 17

Gustavo Arellano’s column on Jose Diaz — whose killing in 1942 precipitat­ed the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, a precursor to the following year’s Zoot Suit riots — was touching. I teach Chicana/o Studies at UC Santa Barbara, and I always state that the Sleepy Lagoon case involved multiple injustices: the rounding up of 600 Mexican Americans for Diaz’s death, the Mexican American women sent to the Ventura School for Girls, and later all the people who were targeted in the 1943 riots.

The Los Angeles Police Department, not the Chicano movement per se, is to blame for not fully investigat­ing Diaz’s death. After the Sleepy Lagoon defendants were released in 1944, the department should have reopened the case, but it failed do its job.

While tragic, that was the history of the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — to ignore the plight of Chicana/o/x people for multiple generation­s. Diaz does deserve better.

Ralph Armbruster, Santa Barbara The writer is an associate professor of Chicano and Chicana studies at UC Santa Barbara.

Arellano’s column rekindled memories of Zoot Suit riot stories. My father would recall Navy men coming to Colton in the 1940s with the sole intent of instigatin­g and fighting the pachucos.

As an undergradu­ate, I took a class on the history of California. It was my introducti­on to the Zoot Suit riots and the Sleepy Lagoon case. At that time, in 1969, ABC produced and aired movies of the week. I sent the network a letter suggesting it produce a film about the Zoot Suit riots. I received a postcard response thanking me for my letter,

something that I appreciate­d as an 18-year-old.

In 1978, I sat in the audience at the Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood with my wife to watch the play “Zoot Suit.” Edward James Olmos’ transforma­tion into his character was spellbindi­ng. Playwright Luis Valdez and his theatre company El Teatro Campesino showcased the prelude to those injustices.

Did I remember Jose Diaz? No. I do now. Pobrecito y continue descansand­o en paz.

Ernie Garcia

Redlands

I took one look at the picture above Arrellano’s column and assumed I already knew the whole story. Obviously, he was writing about the vicious, racist attack by American servicemen on young Latinos in L.A. during 1942. The mayhem ensued as police officers looked the other way or, by some accounts, participat­ed.

Lucky for me I actually read on because I wasn’t familiar with the further miscarriag­e of justice known as the Sleepy Lagoon case. And I had never heard the name Jose Diaz, the center of it all, or maybe only the excuse by which a racist legal system decided to take one more shot at L.A.’s Latino community.

Thank you, Mr. Arrellano, for a well-researched, wonderfull­y written piece. Now, I too hope someone brings flowers for Joe. Thomas Bailey

Long Beach

 ?? Gustavo Arellano Los Angeles Times ?? THE GRAVE of Jose Gallardo Diaz, a 22-year-old man whose killing in 1942 led to the Zoot Suit riots, at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.
Gustavo Arellano Los Angeles Times THE GRAVE of Jose Gallardo Diaz, a 22-year-old man whose killing in 1942 led to the Zoot Suit riots, at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

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