Cristian Gonzalez
Something that many people don’t know about Lowrider culture is that it has its beginnings as a Chicano cultural manifestation (Mexican-American culture): it is the direct imprint of Mexico within the United States. The whole lowrider thing first came about in the 1940s or so.
The History of Lowrider Culture in America
Within the American consumer culture, it is often seen that middle-class people tend to change cars constantly, because for them cars age quickly, so they change them for new models.
That’s when Mexican immigrants come in and take these “old model” cars, customize them and express their creativity through these socially rejected cars.
This cultural expression was also permeating the African American culture and others within the United States. It consists of modifying classic cars as a way of living: the cars carry with them the expression of lifestyle and a way of manifesting it to society… It is a way of showing personalized creativity and Latino cultural identity within the United States.
What Are the Characteristics of Lowriders?
- Low suspensions
- The use of bright shades of paint
- The installation of pumpers, the system that allows to modify the height of each end of the axles of the car
- Chrome-plated elements on grills and details
- Powering of the engine or complete engine replacement
- The use of tires that are larger and wider than the factory tires
So modifying a car that has been rejected, to improve it and make it even flashier than it was before becomes an exercise in social self-improvement for the Chicano/Latino community.
During the 70s, it could be said that it was the decade of greatest apogee, which was connected with what ten years later would be the birth of the hip hop culture. It adopted the style of the Chicano Lowriders, mixing with the African American culture in the middle of the 80s, who used it as an image of prestige and respect that was gradually assimilated.
At that same time, the Lowrider culture arrived in Los Angeles and New York, cities where hip hop was consolidating in a peculiar way.
This is how the tuning of cars forgotten by the Americans becomes a car belonging to the Chicano Lowrider culture that seeks to maintain the identity of the latin community and to talk about the overcoming that one faces in daily life in a hostile land that is not entirely one’s own.
