Zoot Suit Riots: After 75 years, L.A. looks back on a violent summer

The lights flickered on inside the California Theatre and a band of sailors tore up and down the aisles yanking young people from their seats by the lapels of their suit jackets.

Inside the Spanish-language theater in downtown Los Angeles, the terrified crowd watched as uniformed men dragged people outside, beat them and stripped them down to their underwear.

It was June of 1943 — the start of the Zoot Suit Riots — and Victor Silva was 12 years old. He’s 87 now but still clearly remembers what if felt like to sit in that theater. He can still feel the fear of watching a truck full of men in uniform barrel down 1st Street, searching for their next victim. The police didn’t seem to care, Silva noticed. Sometimes a black-and-white cruiser drove in front of sailors, as if to escort them.

“It hit me right in the head at that moment,” recalled Silva, of Hermosa Beach. “They could do whatever they wanted.”