All Lowrider Information on this page came from:
Sandoval, D. (2005). Lowriders. In Suzanne Oboler & Deena J. González (Eds.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Oxford University Press.
Lowrider Defined:
The word “lowrider” is used to describe a car that is customized in a particular way: low to the ground, usually containing a hydraulic mechanism, with a fantastic candy paint job, chrome features, and customized upholstery.
Historical Facts:
Lowriders as Cultural Expression
Lowriding is a ritual that finds its roots in Mexican culture, and also in American automotive history and the car culture that emerged after World War II. As automobile manufacturing resumed after WWII and car culture exploded, the demand for new cars increased. This in turn produced a surplus of used cars that could be bought by veterans, youth, working-class people, and ethnic minorities.
Many car customizers used their vehicles to express resistance to the culture of conformity that existed in the 1950s. During this period, different groups developed their own styles of customizing. Whereas Anglo hot-rodders customized their cars by raising them off the ground and enhancing their speed, Chicano lowriders reversed those aesthetics—cars were lowered and were built to cruise slowly. The speed, the look, and the sound of one's car became a symbol of cultural resistance, and working on one's car became an outlet for artistic expression. Chicanos lowered their cars by cutting their suspension coils and placing lowering blocks on the rear axles to keep the cars as low to the ground as possible. (This is called the “OG” style, or old guard style, of hydraulics.) The driver would also load the trunk with ballast, in the form of sandbags, bricks, or bags of cement, to lower the body even more. The goal was to have the car as close to the ground as possible. Some owners would even install street scrapers on the bottom of their car so sparks would fly out from underneath the chassis.
Lowriders as Art
During the Chicano Art Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, lowriders began to be seen as “art on wheels”. Cars became the canvases to represent oneself and one's dreams and hopes for the future. They also called on society to look at Chicanos, since the cars draw so much attention. The cars not only make a highly stylized statement of workingman's art but they also use barrio life as a source for the creation of art. For instance, many lowrider cars were influenced by the Chicano mural movement of the late 1960s. Soon, murals began appearing on the cars. A wide variety of captivating images have been airbrushed onto the front ends, rear ends, sides, and even interiors of lowriders. Depictions of the Virgen de Guadalupe, Emiliano Zapata, beautiful pinup models, and even family members can be found on the cars, as well as stylized images of Aztec warriors, pachucos, and other images of popular culture, such as the Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla and the rapper Tupac Shakur. Although in the late 1960s and 1970s, lowriders were rarely considered legitimate art, by the beginning of the twenty-first century they could even be found in mainstream art museums.
Many lowriders today have not forgotten the contributions of the Chicano Movement and the Chicano art movement. George Luna, known as “Crazy George” in lowrider circles, used his cars as canvases to tell stories about Chicano history and the Chicano experience. His car, “Midnight Illusions”, reflected his dedication to his cultural heritage. The car was a 1947 Chevy Sedan Delivery painted midnight blue and covered with murals of Chicanos' Aztec heritage. The murals capture the moment when the ancient Aztecs decided to build their great metropolis Tenochtitlan (the site of present-day Mexico City) on the spot where they saw an eagle clutching a snake. The murals contain images of the Virgen de Guadalupe and Jesus Christ that reflect Luna's religious faith. He wanted the artwork on his car to be a history lesson for younger Chicanos about their indigenous roots. The cars of Luna and other lowriders are moving monuments that capture barrio life and express the various elements of Chicano culture. The cars become visual history lessons of Chicano cultural identity.
All Lowrider Information on this page came from:
Sandoval, D. (2005). Lowriders. In Suzanne Oboler & Deena J. González (Eds.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Oxford University Press.
