Fear of juvenile delinquents and street crime during the early 1940s leads to the mockery of a trial of a Chicano gang. The youths are sacrificed by a biased legal system eager to soothe an outraged community. While one committed attorney tirelessly works to remedy the miscarriage of justice, one of the young prisoners miserably contemplates his life sentence. To cope with his anger over this false imprisonment, he invents "El Pachuco", a zoot suit-wearing persona full of youthful machismo and vigor. His alter-ego communicates the prisoner's rage, and exemplifies the stylized, culturally complex life of Mexican-American hipsters in Los Angeles.
