On August 2nd, 1942, José Gallardo Díaz was brutally beaten and stabbed on his way home from a neighbor’s birthday party in Los Angeles. After being rushed to the hospital, José was pronounced dead. The hunt for José’s killers became a proxy war on LA’s Mexican-American youth, and more than 600 Mexican-American men and women were taken into custody. 22 young men were charged with the murder, and after a three-month-long mass trial that was biased against them from the start, 17 were convicted. The trial and verdict contributed to ongoing unrest and racial antagonism playing out in the city of LA, which boiled over into what we know today as the Zoot Suit Riots. Within two years, the defendants’ convictions were overturned. José Diaz’s case was never reopened, and his murder remains unsolved. 

Our recommendations for this episode:
-Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins bit.ly/3WAAYKm
-TaskMaster UK, available in the US on YouTube bit.ly/3Wuiueh

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