To a large extent, Caló went mainstream and is one of the last surviving vestige of the Pachuco, often used in the lexicon of some urban Latin Americans in the United States to this day.
![hey pachuco from the mask hey pachuco from the mask](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000209381639-13h3yc-t500x500.jpg)
Pachucos called their slang Caló (sometimes called "pachuquismo"), a unique argot that drew on the original Spanish Gypsy Caló, Mexican Spanish, the New Mexican dialect of Spanish, and American English, employing words and phrases creatively applied.
![hey pachuco from the mask hey pachuco from the mask](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-sCevVajv_w/maxresdefault.jpg)
Ĭonnections have also been found between "Pachucos" and mixed civilians who lived near the Mexican–American border during the turn of the century, and between "Pachucos" and the poor soldiers who fought in the Mexican Revolution in the armies of Pancho Villa. Cummings who postulates a possible indigenous origin of the term. The word is also said to mean "punk" or "troublemaker." Yet another theory is put forth by author Laura L. Īnother 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. "Pachuco" could also have derived from the name of the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, as the majority of Mexican migration to the United States came from the Central Plateau region, of which Hidalgo is a part. In order to cross the American border with success the migrants would have to dress nice and look nice other wise they would get rejected at the border. Throughout the years the term "pa El Chuco" was used when Mexican immigrants were heading to El Paso looking for a job. The majority of Mexican migrants would cross the border in order to work for this famous shoe company in El Paso. The word "pachuco" is uncertain, but one theory connects it to the city of El Paso, Texas, which was sometimes referred to as "Chuco Town" or "El Chuco." People migrating to El Paso from Ciudad Juarez would say, in Spanish, that they were going " pa' El Chuco." Some say "pa El Chuco" comes from the words Shoe Co., a shoe company that was located in El Paso in the 1940s during the war. To Chicanos, the pachuco had acquired and emanated self-empowerment and agency through a "stylized power" of rebellious resistance and spectacular excess. In Mexico, the pachuco was understood "as a caricature of the American," while in the United States he was perceived as so-called "proof of Mexican degeneracy." Mexican critics such as Octavio Paz denounced the pachuco as a man who had "lost his whole inheritance: language, religion, customs, belief." In response, Chicanos heavily criticized Paz and embraced the oppositional position of the pachuco as an embodied representation of resistance to Anglo-American cultural hegemony. Pachucos were perceived as alien to both Mexican and Anglo-American culture–a distinctly Chicano figure. Out of the zoot-suiter experience came lowrider cars and culture, clothes, music, tag names, and, again, its own graffiti language." They spoke caló, their own language, a cool jive of half-English, half-Spanish rhythms. In LA, Chicano zoot suiters developed their own cultural identity, "with their hair done in big pompadours, and 'draped' in tailor-made suits. Pachuco zoot suiters were influenced by Black zoot suiters in the jazz and swing music scene on the east coast. In the border areas of California and Texas, a distinct youth culture known as pachuquismo developed in the 1940s and has been credited as an influence to Chicanismo.
![hey pachuco from the mask hey pachuco from the mask](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/11fNNCVDevk/maxresdefault.jpg)
It later spread throughout the Southwest into Los Angeles, where it developed further. Pachucos emerged in El Paso, Texas, among a group of Chicano youth who were influenced by African American culture and urban ' hep cats,' although it may have roots in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, where loose-fitting clothing was popular among men. Although concentrated among a relatively small group of Mexican Americans, the pachuco counterculture became iconic among Chicanos and a predecessor for the cholo subculture which emerged among Chicano youth in the 1980s. Some pachucos adopted strong attitudes of social defiance, engaging in behavior seen as deviant by white/Anglo-American society, such as marijuana smoking, gang activity, and a turbulent night life. It spread to women who became known as pachucas and were perceived as unruly, masculine, and un-American. The pachuco counterculture flourished among Chicano boys and men in the 1940s as a symbol of rebellion, especially in Los Angeles. Pachucos are male members of a counterculture associated with zoot suit fashion, jazz and swing music, a distinct dialect known as caló, and self-empowerment in rejecting assimilation into Anglo-American society that emerged in Los Angeles in the late 1930s.