Zoot Suit obit

[Doug Millison]

http://www.latimes.com/obituary/20010521/t000042702.html

Ysmael Parra; Defendant in 'Sleepy Lagoon' Trial

By FRANK O. SOTOMAYOR, Times Staff Writer

Ysmael Parra, a defendant in one of the darkest  chapters in Los 
Angeles court history, the "Sleepy Lagoon" murder case, has died. He 
was 82. Known as "Smiles," Parra died Feb. 23 in Richmond,  Va., of 
complications from Alzheimer's disease, it was reported to The Times 
last week.

With his passing, only a few survivors remain among the 12 young men 
unjustly convicted of murder in the 1942 case. In all, 22 defendants 
were tried en masse in the case. Historians consider the trial a 
product of overzealous prosecutors and a biased judge in an era when 
prejudice against Mexican Americans was widespread.  The murder 
convictions were later reversed, but not until the dozen men had 
served 21 months in prison. The trial    would change forever the 
lives of Parra and the other
defendants, whose story was later told--with some fictional 
embellishments--in the Luis Valdez play and film "Zoot Suit."

Parra was 22, married with a young daughter and working in a metal 
shop at the time of his arrest. He had grown up near 38th Street and 
Long Beach Avenue, south of downtown, and had "hung out" with his 
neighborhood buddies, his friend Henry Ynostroza recalled last week.

On Aug. 1, 1942, some neighborhood youths went swimming at a 
reservoir near the intersection of Slauson and Atlantic avenues. They 
said they were "set upon" by a rival gang, known as the "Downey 
Boys." After a fight, the 38th Street youths went home for 
reinforcements.  Among those who returned to the reservoir were Parra 
and Ynostroza. When they arrived, Ynostroza said, the area was 
deserted, but they heard music from a party at an adjacent ranch. 
They crashed the fiesta, and a fight broke out.

A day or two later, they were surprised to hear that Jose Diaz, a 
young Mexican national, had been found dead at the ranch. Authorities 
rounded up hundreds of young men and women. Among those seized were 
members of the 38th Street gang, including Parra and Ynostroza.

No evidence was found linking any of the men to Diaz's death. The 
prosecutors' case was circumstantial at best: The men had been in the 
vicinity that night.

At a grand jury investigation, a Sheriff's Department official 
presented what purported to be a biological basis for men of Mexican 
origin to tend toward violence. Sheriff's Capt. Edward Duran Ayers 
said "the Mexican element" has an inbred "desire to use a knife or 
some lethal weapon.

[snip]
  Jurors went home every night and were able to read press accounts of 
the case. One reporter dubbed the    reservoir the "Sleepy Lagoon," 
and the case soon became known by that name, the title of a song by 
trumpeter Harry James.  Articles on juvenile delinquency singled out 
Mexican American pachucos or gang members. The most stinging 
criticism was reserved for pachucos who wore the stylish zoot suits. 
[snip to end]
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