Lowriding is more than just cars. It's about family and culture for Mexican Americans

CHICAGO — For Luis Martinez, competing in lowriding bike and car competitions is about more than glory and bragging rights. The lowrider clubs in the Chicago area have become like one big family and a source of mutual support.

''It just starts with the metal,'' said Martinez, who got his introduction to lowrider culture when his mother took him to a flea market. He had his first bike when he was 12.

''To me, it's about expressing my art and what I can do with my own hands,'' Martinez told The Associated Press as he polished a shiny red bike at his home in Mishawaka, Indiana.

A movement of expression with origins in Mexican American and Chicano communities, lowriding is an aspect of Latino history in the U.S. in which people show their pride, honor family and uplift culture. But misrepresentation of the culture in entertainment and media has often associated the lowriding's ''low and slow'' motto with gang culture.

Still, decades since its emergence, and as the Hispanic U.S. population increases, lowriding has experienced a boom, as evidenced by an increase in car shows and conventions nationwide.

Lowriding involves the customization of a vehicle — from the tires to the sound system — with vivid designs and colors. Unlike hot rods or muscle cars, which are often modified to have big tires and move at high speeds, the lowrider community modified the cars and bikes to go ''low and slow,'' said Alberto Pulido, the chair of the Ethnic Studies department at the University of San Diego.

''It was a way to speak to an identity, a presence and it was done with few resources,'' said Pulido, who also directed the award-winning documentary, ''Lowriding: Everything Comes From the Streets.''

Lowriding blends Latino and American culture

According to Pulido, lowriding originated in the Southwest, although there are disputes about where exactly it first appeared. Pulido said lowriders in Los Angeles would like to make the claim they were the first, while those in San Diego want their undeniable influence in the culture acknowledged.

The culture can be traced to post-World War II, when veterans were coming home with an expendable income. And with the growth of highways and freeways in California, people wanted to modify their vehicles, Pulido said.

Today, conventions attract enthusiasts from all over the U.S. Last month, what was once a small showcase with only 40 lowriders at Lincoln Park in El Paso, Texas, grew to over 300 lowriders from clubs across the U.S.

Hector Gonzalez, of the Lincoln Park Conservation Committee, said the car clubs help members travel to all the showcases in the nation. In the '70s and '80s, lowrider clubs became a representation of the community and offered mutual aid such as ride-sharing and food donations when the local government could not or would not, Gonzalez said.

''Kids grow up seeing the cars, they pick it up and they carry on the tradition,'' Gonzalez said.

Lauren Pacheco, co-founder and co-curator of the Slow and Low Chicago Low Rider Festival, described lowriding as a global, multibillion-dollar phenomenon of self-expression and innovation.

''It's a marvel of mechanical innovation,'' Pacheco said. ''It is the beautiful artistry in the creative practice of muralism, storytelling and upholstery.''

Within the last decade, lowrider conventions have grown so much that they've made their way to Japan. In Nagoya, Japanese lowriders have modified their cars, created clubs and even come to events at Chicano Park in San Diego.

Lowrider community sheds gang culture stereotype

In the beginning, lowriding was associated with harmful stereotypes about Latinos as gangsters, Pulido said. Because the culture involved predominantly Latino participants, lowriding became racialized and that overshadowed the artistic and community service aspects of the movement.

The 1979 thriller-drama ''Boulevard Nights'' also helped to perpetuate the lowriders as gangsters trope. The film's main character, Raymond Avila, played by Richard Yñiguez tried to avoid getting lured into the violent street gangs of East Los Angeles. Lowriding vehicles and the lowrider ''cholo'' aesthetic was featured throughout the film.

While the perception of lowriding has since gotten better, Pulido said he has been to lowriding car shows where police immediately show up.

Martinez, the Indiana lowrider, said lowriding misconceptions grew in the Chicago area because the community members were tattooed in ways often associated with gang affiliation. Pacheco said the Chicago festival works to dispel those misconceptions.

''We really try not to create a space that glamorizes or romanticizes gang culture,'' she said. ''It's really a celebration of creativity and innovation and family.''

Gonzalez, the Texas lowriding showcase organizer, said the culture's focus on wheels, hydraulic systems and accessories, has helped lowriding become a booming industry.

In El Paso, people have opened small businesses orientated to the lowriding community. In the last couple of years, at least 25 new businesses opened, including body shops, upholstery shops and apparel shops, Gonzalez said.

''It has become a mainstream business,'' he said. ''Back in the 70s and 80s, it was more of a local thing. Everybody helping each other do things on their own. Now there's just all kinds of opportunities to purchase things and have things done to your vehicle.''

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Martinez said he would buy the parts he needed from a man in his neighborhood, who would buy in bulk from Lowrider magazine. He said the unfortunate thing about lowriding becoming so big is parts are now mass produced from China instead of being Mexican made.

Lowriding carries family legacy

''We have grandparents that are lowriders and then their kids and their grandkids are in tune already,'' Pulido said.

It's a legacy that Sonia Gomez wants for her 8-year-old son, Daniel Marquez. His late father, Alberto Marquez, had been a member of a Chicago area lowrider club. Too young to drive the car left to him by his father, Daniel has a lowriding bike that is more of a memorial to his dad.

''The bike is what he's doing to build it up,'' Gomez said.

The family will do an ofrenda, a display often associated with Mexican Dia de los Muertos celebrations, when local lowriding festivals are held. As part of the ofrenda, Daniel takes an image he has with his father on a lowriding bike and places it next to his actual bike, which he named ''Wishing on a Star.''

''We would either go on a (lowriding) cruise with my uncle, or we would go to actual car shows,'' Daniel recently recalled, while sitting at the driver's seat of his dad's lowriding car parked in the driveway of their home in Frankfort, Illinois.

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