McGrath to Be Feted for ‘Zoot Suit’ Role

Social justice crusader Alice McGrath will travel to San Diego on Thursday, where she will be feted at a revival of Luis Valdez’s famed Chicano-themed play “Zoot Suit” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.

As the young Alice Bloomfield more than 50 years ago, McGrath organized the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, which obtained a reversal of the murder convictions of 12 young Latino men during a time of race riots against Latinos.

In overturning the 1942 case, an appeals court reprimanded Judge Charles W. Fricke for displaying prejudice and hostility toward the defendants, who were referred to as “zoot suiters” because of the long coats and wide pants they wore.

Following a party that turned into a melee near a south Los Angeles pond called Sleepy Lagoon, a young man was found beaten to death. Six hundred Latino youths were arrested, 22 were tried for murder and 12 were convicted and sent to San Quentin.

Years later, Alice Bloomfield’s efforts became the driving force behind a central character when Valdez penned his 1978 play, first produced at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and followed by a brief run on Broadway. The play was eventually made into a movie of the same name with Edward James Olmos re-creating his stage role as El Pachuco and Tyne Daly starring as Alice.

Now 80, the energetic McGrath will attend the production at the Lyceum in Horton Plaza as a guest of the Appellate Defenders and the San Diego La Raza Lawyers’ Assn.

She has now seen herself portrayed as a 23-year-old civil rights activist by four actresses.

“Oh, yes, I like it,” said the Ventura resident. “Very few people see themselves portrayed. Usually you have to be dead,” As he wrote “Zoot Suit,” Valdez consulted with McGrath regularly. He has called her “the play’s heartline.”

Although she is revered by many Latinos for what many see as heroic efforts in the early 1940s, McGrath shunned such a label. She did agree that it makes her happy to be portrayed as “a good guy” in “Zoot Suit.”

A community activist all her life, McGrath currently manages the Ventura County Bar Assn.’s volunteer pro bono program, which helps people obtain legal assistance.

“Even without publicity,” she said, “we have a waiting list of requests for our services.”