When the author was growing up in East Los Angeles his mother told him about the "classy" gangsters of East L.A. who wore Zoot Suits. Through research, he learned that the Zoot Suiters were much more than well-dressed Latinos: they had a sense of honor and pride and exhibited class under adverse circumstances. In August of 1942, Jose Diaz, a…

September 11, 2001, is a day most American high school students remember. They may not fully grasp the events that took place, the reasons behind the terrorist attacks on the United States, or their implications, but they remember. They were children when this national trauma occurred--and they saw those unforgettable television images of the…