{"id":668,"date":"2016-10-10T13:46:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/?p=668"},"modified":"2016-10-10T13:46:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:46:50","slug":"week-2-sleepy-lagoon-defense-committee-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/2016\/10\/10\/week-2-sleepy-lagoon-defense-committee-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 2: Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1942, Jos\u00e9 Diaz died at a party near the pond called Sleepy Lagoon. 22 men, all but one being Mexican American, were indicted for his murder. The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records, 1942-1945<\/a>\u00a0collection is an archive of materials related to the effort of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee to raise funds for an\u00a0appeal and to publicize the case. In 1944, the decision to indict was reversed by a higher court.<\/p>\n

The records in this collection include both official publicity materials put forth by the committee as well as internal records of the committee’s proceedings. It also includes the transcript of the initial trial and appeal trials.\u00a0Looking at these records brings to mind several interrelated but separately-focused narratives that could be presented using the available data<\/p>\n

The obvious narrative is one\u00a0focused directly on the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee and its efforts.\u00a0Financial records, minutes and internal notes give us an understanding of how the committee functioned and how it was structured. The materials collected by the committee on the Mexican American community in Los Angeles at the time give context to their mission in mounting the defense for these indicted men. Their publicity materials show us the kind of narrative that they themselves were trying to put forth. One thing missing from this narrative is a comprehensive idea of public and media perception of\u00a0the committee itself. While items such as the “Zoot suiter drawing” by Manuel Delgado give us one kind of perception of the committee, we do not see many materials that report on the committee itself. Hence, to properly understand the organization and its impact we would need to also look at how the committee itself was understood by the surrounding community.<\/p>\n

An alternative narrative could focus on the trial itself and its progress, as well as more directly on the experiences of the defendants in this case. The trial transcript provides an entire account of its proceedings, while correspondence from the defendants and their family members allow us a glimpse of how they were handling the entire case process. However, the collection does not give us a lot of information on the defendants and their lives, so we would have to look for this information elsewhere. Another concern is that the committee was not focused on resolving this case but rather absolving these men. Hence, their materials are not focused on the investigation of Diaz’s death, but on the perception and discrimination that led to the indictment of the 22 men. Materials directly relating to Jose Diaz are not included in the collection, but if we chose to build a narrative around the trial they would have to be included. Diaz’s death was never fully resolved, which a narrative of the trial would have to address.<\/p>\n

More broadly, these records help to document the attitudes toward Mexican Americans in Los Angeles at that period and could be part of an important narrative regarding racism and discrimination. The Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 in Los Angeles were a series of racial attacks primarily aimed at Mexican Americans, and had roots in the misconceptions and fear drummed up by the Diaz case.\u00a0Similar attacks occurred against Latinos in other cities across the country. This sort of narrative would require a great deal of more information, however these records would constitute a significant chapter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1942, Jos\u00e9 Diaz died at a party near the pond called Sleepy Lagoon. 22 men, all but one being Mexican American, were indicted for his murder. The Sleepy Lagoon … Continue reading “Week 2: Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}