Pachucos are
Mexican American youths who developed their own
subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the
Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothing (such as
zoot suits) and spoke their own dialect of
Mexican Spanish, called
Caló or
Pachuco. Due to their double marginalization stemming from their youth and ethnicity, there has always been a close association and cultural cross-pollination between the Pachuco subculture and
gang subculture.
One famous pachuco is Roy Estrada, a bass player and former performer in the Mothers of Invention.
The Pachuco style originated in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez Mexico and moved westward, following the line of migration of Mexican railroad workers ("traqueros") into Los Angeles, where it developed further. The word "pachuco" originated, probably early in the 20th century, in a Mexican Spanish slang term for a resident of the cities of El Paso and Juarez. Even today, El Paso and Juarez are the "El Chuco Town" or "El Pasiente" to some.
Another theory is that the derivation of the word "pachuco" came from Pachuca, the name of the city in the Mexican state of Hidalgo where Mickey Garcia, thought by some to be the originator of the zoot suit, befriended a local of the town known as "El Hueso". El Hueso was an elderly man known only to have a tattoo on his right shoulder. It is unknown what the tattoo says but few have claimed that it bears two names one beginning with a "J" and the other with a "B." Mickey Garcia brought his style from Pachuca, Mexico to San Diego. Another theory says that the word derives from pocho, a derogatory term for a Mexican born in the United States who has lost touch with the Mexican culture. The word is also said to mean "punk" or "troublemaker".
