Cholo (subculture)

A cholo or chola is a member of a Chicano and Latino subculture or lifestyle associated with a particular set of dress, behavior, and worldview which originated in Los Angeles.

Cholo is a word from the Windward Islands; it means dog, not of the purebred variety, but of very disreputable origin; and the Spaniards use it for insult and vituperation.

[13] The press at the time accused the pachucos in the U.S. of gang membership, petty criminality, and a lack of patriotism during World War II leading to the Zoot Suit Riots.

[14] Continuing until the early 1970s, the typical Chicano hairstyle was a variant of the pompadour, piled high on the head and kept in place with large quantities of wet-look gel.

[6] Cholo style is often associated with wearing some combination of a tartan, flannel, or Pendleton shirt buttoned at the top over a white T-shirt or tanktop, a hair net over short hair combed straight back or a shaved head, a bandana tied around the head and pulled down just above the eyes, reverse baseball caps, dark sunglasses, loose-fitting khaki pants (chinos) or shorts, long chains, long socks, white tennis shoes, and stylized tattoos.

[5] Cholo style has been identified as combining the loose-fitting comfort of the traditional huipil and baggy draping of the zoot suit donned by the pachuco.

As stated by Vigil, "much of this interethnic friction revolves around ... competition for scarce job resources, especially between members of the depressed underclass and desperate immigrants.

[1] Chola style has been identified as exhibiting "a radically criminalized femininity, situating them in the purview of official and unofficial policing as well as legal and extralegal sanctions."

[9] While older residents in barrios initially embraced cholas and cholos as "a larger subculture not necessarily associated with crime and violence (but rather with a youthful temporary identity), law enforcement agents, ignorant or disdainful of barrio life, labeled youth who wore clean white tennis shoes, shaved their heads, or long socks, as deviant.

Conscious of the few opportunities to find legitimate career paths, Latino youth adopted appearances they knew would block them from the low-level service positions they were expected to fill.