A pachuco was a Chicano youth in the mid- 20th century who wore flashy clothes and may have been a gang member. Originating in California, pachuco style spread to the rest of the American Southwest and to Mexico. (see also Zoot Suit Riots). According to Mexican author Octavio Paz in his essay, The Pachuco, the pachuco phenomenon paralleled the zazou subculture in World War II Paris in style of clothing, music favored (jazz, swing, and jump blues), and attitudes, although there was no known link between the two subcultures.

Germán Valdez , most known by his artistic nickname "Tin Tan ", often displayed the pachuco dress and employed pachuco slang in many of his movies.

The pachuco subculture declined in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, due to recession and the increasingly violent nature of gang life resulting in an abandonment of anything that suggested dandyism, Mexican-American gangs adopted a uniform of T-shirts and khakis derived from prison uniforms, and the pachuco was truly dead.