Low & Slow: Lowrider Culture On The Border

Low & Slow: Lowrider Culture On The Border

In El Paso, Texas or Chuco, Tejas, the Lowrider is more than a weekend hobby. Lowriding is a way of life. It is not subculture to the Mexican American experience but part of a complex form of lived history and visual culture. It is a unique iteration of a deeply rooted tradition in auto-mobility. In El Paso, the lowrider could trace its earliest roots to the 1940s, most notably after the Second World War. Arguably, the trend originated in California and made its way to Texas. With the resurgence of full-scale car production after the war, affordable vehicles allowed the working class to access their own ranflas. By the 1970’s, lowriding was a well-known past time representative of a unique brand of “Americanness.” Lowriders were also part of a larger expression that included pachucos/pachucas with their zoot suit styling and cruising. This included an affinity for listening to “oldies.’’ The lowrider lifestyle with all its panache and florid expression is also a form of self-determination in the American visual landscape: a belief that Mexican-Americans resist mainstream aesthetics in favor of their own canon. In other words, to ride on one’s own terms, low & slow with ‘stilo. Low and Slow: Lowrider Culture on the Border has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: El Paso Museum of History

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Cowboys - El Paso

The names of these two men were once written in pencil under the ...

Argyria Louise White, aged 5 months

There were a number of families named White living in El Paso at ...

Tigua Children In The Parade

Tigua children during a Sun Bowl Parade.

Children In The Sun Bowl Parade - 1936

Children in the Sun Bowl Parade in 1936.

Sun Bowl Parade - 1937

Sun Bowl Parade in 1937.

Pamela Ann MacGuire-1966

Pamela Ann MacGuire- Sun Bowl Queen for the year 1966.

Felix Manuel Bustillos

Felix Manuel Bustillos graduated in 1938. His picture on the ...

Carmen Sanchez

The image of the graduate Carmen Sanchez was taken in 1963.

Carmela de la Torre (Valdez)

This little girl in the beautiful white dress is called Carmela ...

Jake Erlich - El Paso, Texas

Many of us know of Erlich as the “world’s tallest man,” as ...

Parade Downtown - 1908

Mobile car in front of City Hall.

John Neff Wedding Party

John Neff 1938 - 1939 Sun Bowl President

Henry M. Walker - Secretary of the El Paso Central Labor Union

Henry M. Walker served in 1898 in Galveston, Tex. as president ...

William Moellar

Car in parade---1908.

Mrs. W. L. Crockett

The Crocketts were originally from Las Vegas, New Mexico. Mrs. ...

Mills Building

The image shows Pioneer Plaza and some of the buildings which ...

Historical Building

The building at 100 E. San Antonio had been a landmark in the ...

Power Plant looking east.

This may be the Power Plant on Santa Fe St.

Yard between electric plant and warehouse looking east.

Possibly the power plant on Santa Fe St. You can see a wooden ...

Electric Power Plant looking southwest.

A beautiful brick building with power lines strung everywhere. ...

Sol C. Schutz

Sol Schutz, an El Paso pioneer, was born in 1845 and died in ...

Graduates

These four young people may be an early graduating class from El ...

First To Graduate From El Paso's Only High School-1887

Image caption: Kate Moore was one of two members of the first ...

home.search_collection