SUSO

LOW AND SLOW

Turning the jalopy into an ethnic banner.

The Lowrider has a strong claim to be one of the most grossly misunderstood subcultural icons of Americana. Spawned on the boulevards of East L.A, these hydraulic ‘carruchas’ have been embedded in gangland culture by Hollywood and in turn the white middle-classes of the United States.

Films like Boys N The Hood and Friday make the convenient link between drug dealers and lowriders, but the Mexican-American Chicano people, who gave birth to the movement, are fighting to dispel the myths. The truth is that the cars are rooted in the culture of a group of people defiantly confronting racial oppression. In every step of the process, from choosing the vehicle, to the paint job, designs and upholstery, the driver is representing his and his community’s history, traditions and aspirations.  

"I'm a bald-headed dude in a lowrider, so I get stopped by the cops," says Albert DeAlba, a second-generation customiser, "But if you come to one of our picnics you'll see we're the opposite of the gangbangers. We bring our kids and we mix with each other. It's like a code of honour. We show respect. When our fathers started doing this, they just wanted to be different and to be proud." 

They take junk and turn it into art, and in doing so provide a window into the fine balance of a hybrid nation. For many Chicano, it is a rejection of both America and Mexico in favour of their own culture, one that doesn’t have a long history or a manifesto for the future, but that it is being played out on the bonnets of Chevy Impalas all across Los Angeles. The Virgin of Guadeloupe, a suffering figure of Jesus, the bars of a jail cell, Mexican heroes and Aztec warriors. A Ferrari is a car, but a lowrider is a folk parable.

Categories Culture Design Tags Design Cars

By on 21/10/08