Eduardo Obregón Pagán

Los Angeles Geopolitics and the Zoot Suit Riot, 1943

In the early evening of 3 June 1943, just as the sun set over a city darkened by a blackout, about 50 sailors stationed at the Naval Reserve Training School in Los Angeles stormed through the mostly Mexican American neighborhoods that lay between the school andd owntown L.A. Their actions that night, which consistedm ostly of stripping zoot suits off young civilian men, set off more than a week of rioting as thousands of military personnel poured into Los Angeles from the surrounding bases and attacked anyone wearing zoot suits. The Los Angeles Police Department did nothing to stop the rioting servicemen, claiming that they lacked jurisdictional authority, and instead jailed hundreds of young men (mostly Mexican American but also black and white) “for their own protection.” It was not until the Army and Navy commanders in southern California took seriously the difference between “revelry” and riot and canceled military leave that the rioting stopped.

Assessing Early Spanish Explorer Routes Through Authentication of Rock Inscriptions

Rock inscriptions containing both names and calendar dates provide place-specific data on travels of explorers, if those inscriptions are truly authentic. We exemplify here a new strategy for determining the authenticity of inscriptions in arid environments in two case studies. One is an inscription purportedly created during the Marcos de Niza expedition of 1539 through Arizona. The other might have been made by the Dominguez–Escalante expedition of 1776 through the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin. The rock inscription in Phoenix, Arizona, “Fr Marcos de Niza corona todo el nuebo Mexico a su costa ano de 1539,” is likely not authentic. Although the Marcos de Niza petroglyph was manufactured before the use of leaded gasoline about 1922, it was made after the Little Ice Age ended in the mid-nineteenth century. In contrast, the engraving “Paso Por Aqui—Año 1776” near Lake Powells Padre Bay in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area has a lead profile indicating that the engraving predates twentieth-century pollution and also contains a Little Ice Age signal, evidence that the engraving is likely authentic. Nearby graffiti and natural weathering often endangers rock inscriptions, necessitating conservation efforts of authentic engravings. Conservation efforts to protect the delicate condition of the Lake Powell engraving are justified by these findings. In contrast, unnecessary expenditures and effort can result from work on engravings that are not authentic.