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Lowriders: Los Angeles
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[I]n Espanola, New Mexico, the lowriders claim it began there and the town has proclaimed itself Lowrider Capital of the World. On the other hand, Chicano lowriders in Los Angeles claim it started here with the pachuco/zoot suit culture of the 1940s and that it accelerated in popularity after WWII with the rise of the automotive industries in Los Angeles. African Americans in Los Angeles ... participated in the lowriding scene, and have been important innovators. There is a long history of interconnection between Black and Chicano communities in Los Angeles reaching back to swing and jazz scenes of the 1940s to the R&B scene of the 1960s and 1970s, which has influenced lowrider culture and continues to do so.
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To authorities, lowriders were punks and delinquents. Lowering a car was the automotive equivalent of a zoot suit, with its oversized shoulders and legs, and cuffs that scraped the sidewalk. Like zoot suits, lowriders were a mark of defiance and provocation. (Zoot suits lent their name to Los Angeles' ethnic riots in 1943, when off-duty servicemen rampaged, attacking Mexican Americans.)
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California lowriders become art, big business. A 1964 Chevrolet Impala is displayed as part of the "La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels" exhibition at Petersen Automotive museum in Los Angeles November 6, 2007. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
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Summer is the most popular season for lowriders, as the weather often encourages being outside either in or nearby the vehicle. Some lowrider clubs have weekly meetings in the summer where owners and friends will have a BBQ/cookout followed by cruising a popular drag (or strip) after dark. Aside from local drags and their parking lots, lowriders are most commonly seen at privately organized lowrider car shows that often feature a variety of different vehicular and joto non-vehicular events, the most popular of which are the wet T-shirt/bikini contests and the hop and dance hydraulic competitions where competitors compete against each other to see who can hop the highest or complete a list of moves within a time limit (dancing). There are several magazines devoted to presenting, preserving, and chronicling lowrider culture, the best known of which is Lowrider Magazine, currently published by Primedia, although this magazine is losing favor with people who actually own and drive lowriders due to the over-whelming amount of advertisements, most of which are unrelated to lowriders.
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