First recorded in 1940–45; from Spanish (Mexico, southwestern U.S.) : probably originally a resident of El Paso, Texas, equivalent to (El) Pas(o) + -uco pejorative noun suffix, with expressive replacement of s by ch; compare Mexican Spanish pachuco “worthless card hand,” derivative of paso “pass”
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A video of Vietnamese men dressed in pachuco style has gone viral on social media, sparking conversations about appropriation and who gets to partake in the culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2024
There also was a friend of Billy’s, a mysterious pachuco from Delano known as “CC,” who one day in the mid-1940s had the temerity to sit in the white-folks section of the Delano Theater.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
The Mexican immigrant was familiar with zoot suits through the films of the Mexican comedian Tin-Tan, who satirized pachuco culture in a series of films in the 1940s and 1950s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
Some sociologists now see the pachuco movement as the first example of militant separatism among Chicanos, an assertion of a distinct identity hostile to Anglo culture.
From Time Magazine Archive
Like many other teen-age Mexican Americans, Chavez became a pachuco, affecting a zoot suit with pegged pants, a broad flat hat and a ducktail haircut.
From Time Magazine Archive
The audience awards went to “Josephine” for the U.S. dramatic competition and David Alvarado’s “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” for U.S. documentary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
Then all of a sudden, the phone rang and they asked me if I wanted the role of El Pachuco.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2026
And El Pachuco, in his high-waisted “drapes” and angled hat, who narrates “Zoot Suit” while occasionally stepping outside the Brechtian Fourth Wall to freeze-fame the action or utter caustic commentary, is its righteously insolent heart.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
An indelible throughline links El Pachuco to the Jaguar Knight; the Central Valley farmworker to the urban Chicano; El Teatro Campesino to the Mark Taper Forum; and “Zoot Suit” to all of it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
In the role of the mythical character of El Pachuco: Oscar-nominated actor Demian Bichir.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2017
But other pachucos saw that CC had gotten away with something.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
But the musical by Luis Valdez was a distinctly Los Angeles production: it was commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum and portrayed a 1940s murder trial involving Mexican-American zoot-suit-wearing youths known as pachucos.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2017
To the pachucos, the baggy, finely tailored zoot suit was a symbol of pride, a way to assert their identity.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 13, 2016
That diversity is certainly on display and the show documents the influence of British youth culture on Latinos, juxtaposing photographs of British Teddy Boys with zoot-suited Mexican American youth, known as pachucos.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 13, 2016
And there are pachucos and homeboys, elegantly rendered on paper towels and restaurant napkins in their zoot suits and bandannas, figures who stare down authority with style and swagger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2016
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