INTERVIEW: ‘Lizard in a Zoot Suit’ is new YA graphic novel set in 1940s Los Angeles
Image courtesy of Marco Finnegan / Provided by Superfan Promotions with permission.
The infamous Sleepy Lagoon murder, which saw 17 young Mexican-Americans arrested for allegedly perpetrating the crime, is the backdrop for the new YA graphic novel Lizard in a Zoot Suit by Latinx cartoonist Marco Finnegan. The historic incident began with the death of José Gallardo Díaz, whose body was found near a swimming hole in Commerce, California. The cause of death was never determined, but the 17 were still arrested on suspicion of committing the crime. Later, 12 of the defendants were convicted and sent to San Quentin Prison.
Following the Sleepy Lagoon trials, Los Angeles experienced what historians call the Zoot Suit riots, and that’s when Lizard in a Zoot Suit is set. The exact year of the story is 1943, and the neighborhood in Los Angeles is the historic Chavez Ravine community, which eventually was uprooted and deeply impacted by the building of Dodger Stadium.
The protagonists for the graphic novel are twins Flaca and Cuata, who encounter a 5-foot lizard, a mysterious forgotten species, and it’s up to the girls to protect the animal from a corrupt military scientist, according to press notes. The new graphic novel, out Aug. 4 from Graphic Universe, is billed as a story that intersects history, race, class and science fiction.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Finnegan, who was born in El Paso, Texas, and has lived in California for 30-plus years. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How much historical research did you conduct to learn about the Zoot Suit era and what happened in Los Angeles during this time?
I spent a lot of time researching the Zoot Suit era and the Sleepy Lagoon murder. There’s a great book called Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. by Eduardo Obregón Pagán that helped me frame the world that led up to the riots. There is also a few podcasts and a great PBS documentary on the era. It had interviews with Chicanos, sailor[s] and community members who participated in the riots. I also watched/read anything in pop culture that alluded to or referenced the riots, including Luis Valdez’s play and Culture Clash’s Chavez Ravine play.
How would you classify this graphic novel? Is it purely historical? Historical fiction? How much creative license did you have?
The story is definitely fiction, but I tried to make the twins — and the world they live in — as historically accurate as possible. Even the idea of the Lizard people living under L.A. comes from a news article about a man in the ’30s who was allowed to dig for the lost Mayan lizard catacombs he claimed were under the city. The story is very much grounded in this relatively unknown era of Los Angeles.
You set the story in a neighborhood that eventually was destroyed to have Dodger Stadium built. Why is this significant?
The Chavez Ravine area that is now home to Dodger Stadium was originally a thriving group of neighborhoods that was primarily made up of Mexican Americans. They had their own school, their own stores and their own culture. It’s a part of L.A. history that has figuratively and literally been buried and mostly forgotten. When my stepdad’s mother came to Los Angeles from Mexico the story goes that she rode the horse until it died, and when it died she built her home, which was in the area where the stadium now stands. The folks who lived there were swindled and forced out of their homes with the promise that new and better housing was going to be built for them … well, that obviously never happened.
Do you feel that the Zoot Suit era is largely forgotten by people nowadays? Or is it very much in the minds of people in the Los Angeles area?
Outside of that swing song, I think the Zoot Riots are mostly unknown to the general public. The Zoot suit has been folded into pop culture as a symbol of machismo and cool, but its origin as a badge of rebellion has been lost. The Zoot suiters were targets of violence because they chose to spend their hard-earned money (which most earned by building war plane parts) on flamboyant suits. This was seen as unpatriotic by mainstream America. That perception gave the sailors the excuse to beat up Pachucas in the name of America. The media at the time vilified these kids, based on how they looked and dressed.
Your intended audience are young adults? Adults? Both?
The book is positioned as a YA title, and that’s accurate in the way that a lot of early [Steven] Spielberg movies can be called YA. You have kid protagonists, but the core the story is about a family trying to understand each other and navigate the world — and a mysterious giant lizard.
How did you achieve the visual style for the book?
I love old comic strips from the ’30s and ’40s and wanted to emulate that look a bit. I like to imagine that if this book had been around in the ’40s, the style would have matched its contemporaries.
How would you describe your two main characters Flaca and Cuata?
Flaca and Cuata are twin sisters. Their names are not the names on their birth certificates, but rather nicknames they acquired along the way. This is a very common thing that happens in Mexican culture, and I wanted to acknowledge it in the book.
Cuata, [which] means twin, is very much into the boys, dressing nice/stylish and being the life of the party. She is big hearted and very trusting, but her intelligence and bravery are sometimes ignored by those around her.
Flaca, which means skinny, is quick to fight and break the rules, but is also struggling with who she is and how others see her. The boys see her as one of the guys, and her mother wishes she was more feminine. But she really does not want to play the role of a good daughter who wears dresses and is submissive. That’s what leads to much of the conflict between her and her ma.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Lizard in a Zoot Suit by Marco Finnegan is available Tuesday, Aug. 4 from Graphic Universe. Click here for more information.
