In the early 1950s, hot rodders were souping up used cars to make them fast, sacrificing looks for speed, with exposed engines and dingy old paint jobs. The lowriders in the Southwest did the opposite. The lore is that they lowered cars in imitation of bootleggers’ weighted-down cars packed with contraband. The lowrider was low and slow, bajito y suavecito. The point was to be seen, not to get somewhere fast.

Drivers began cruising their lowered cars along Whittier Boulevard in Los Angeles on Sunday evenings, and a whole social scene followed. This prompted California to prohibit cars from sitting below their wheel rims in 1958. So Ron Aguirre, a Los Angeles mechanic, found a workaround: he installed hydraulics that could quickly raise the car to legal height.

Elaborate hydraulic systems, candy-colored paint, and custom upholstery were a way to imbue a stock Detroit sedan with style and Mexican American pride. A beautiful lowrider car was unmistakably its owner’s, with romantic airbrushed portraits of family, the Virgin of Guadalupe, or cultural heroes. Cruising evolved into car clubs, and as the first generation of lowriders aged and settled down, it became a family culture, with cars passed down as heirlooms.

The Smithsonian collection includes a 1969 Ford LTD that David Jaramillo of Chimayo, NM began customizing in the 1970s. He was killed in an accident in another car, and his family and local artists completed the modifications he had planned. They named it Dave’s Dream.

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Links:

• Dave's Dream, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

  
  

• The Lowriders 1980-81, photographs of New Mexico lowriders by Meridel Rubenstein

  
  

• Life in the Low Lane: A History of Lowrider Culture in the Valley - Kenechi Anigbogu, PHOENIX, May 5, 2022

  
  

• The Cultural Significance of Lowriders in Mexican-American Identity – Texas State Historical Association

  
  

• Lowriding: Ancestral Healing and Political Resistance – David Escobar, FoundSF, n.d.

  
  

• Inside L.A.’s Lowrider Car Clubs – Nili Blanck, Smithsonian Magazine, May 5, 2021

  
  

• Lowriders: Cars with Identities, National Museum of African American History & Culture, n.d.

This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.

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