The Lowrider Studies Reader

Preface

Selinda Guerrero

In May of 2021, Albuquerque Police Department, one of the deadliest police forces per capita in the United States, revealed they had spent $35,000 in tax dollars and an additional $60,000.00 of in-kind donations to build and display to the community a police lowrider car. This is a police department who has experienced all eight of the recommended reforms and still today remains under the Department of Justice oversight as one the most harmful cops in the entire U.S.

I bring this spectacle of cultural appropriation up as a deliberate example of the power of lowriding as a culture. Oppressive power structures of colonialism steal everything, even our swag! This structure of state violence recognized the power of our lowrider culture. They have attempted to infiltrate our communities by attempting to assimilate into our culture. There is a long history of this practice from confidential informants being on cops payroll, such as setting up community members to be arrested and even recently a string of Black and Brown folks being introduced as Police Ambassadors. Law enforcement continue to create tactics of assimilation to infiltrate and oppress our people. Last year during the debut of the police lowrider car we organized a protest and drove through the police car show with a megaphone playing political Hip Hop! We encouraged all true lowriding communities to rally against this so-called police lowrider car and continue to encourage them to run the police off the block every time they try to show up, even if it is in a lowrider.

You see, lowriding is a sacred culture of unity and pride. As long as I can remember one of my best memories was the feeling of sitting in the “ranfla” while hitting switches. There is nothing like that feeling in the entire world! If you could capture the essence of self determination and liberation in a moment in time that would be it. It is the pride of a badass ride, bouncing in freedom, music playing loud in the background with all the homies applauding and celebrating with you! It is a moment of feeling in total control and in full power of your own self, literally liberating. The unity of our people in true solidarity that nobody can mess with, it cannot be broken, we ride for each other, in the most literal sense of this phrase.

I was just a child when my cousin took me lowriding in his 1975 Impala hardtop with the bubble window in the back. I thought I was big shot cruising with the older cousins. Riding slowly and waving at our people in the neighborhood as we rolled by. That’s when I recognized the unity that lowriding was all about. My cousin Bertha and I would walk to the back of the lowrider park San Gabriel Park in the 80’s and 90’s and car hop with all the homies to cruise on the weekends. We lived for that energy and joy. Seeing all our friends bragging about each other’s cars, having spontaneous bounce contests and hitting three wheel motion. This was also the era of mini trucks, we had entire car clubs of mini trucks, some of the homies would put “juice” on the truck beds and make the beds dance while we cruised up and down Route 66, Central Ave in Albuquerque, NM. This was 2 miles of two lanes up and two lanes down bumper to bumper cruising on the weekends. After Hip-Hop concerts they would come out and cruise with us. I had the privilege to cruise Central with Kid Frost, Lighter Shade of Brown and DJ Quick. The Albuquerque Police have criminalized cruising on Central Avenue and continue harassing and criminalizing lowriders in all their hypocrisy.

New Mexico is also the home of Espanola, the lowrider capital of the world! In the 80’s and 90’s there was no cruising better than in Espa. Some of the most beautiful cars in the world are here in rural New Mexico. Most of these cars were featured in Lowrider Magazine, you knew you were the shit when you were featured in Lowrider Magazine. I had the honor of being a lowrider car model in the magazine in my younger years at the car shows. Lowriding culture has always been part of my life and lives deep in my soul. I told my kids they could not make me a grandma until I got my lowrider, so my grandbabies could hit switches with me as we cruise through our neighborhoods.

It is the essence of Chicano, Black, and Asian Cultures. This is a worldwide phenomenon for the reasons of power and unity. This is a culture that unites across race and ethnicity with a deep respect of solidarity. This is why lowrider culture is targeted by state violence, they fear our power and unity. When Chicano, Black, and Asian folks come together in power we can accomplish anything. That is the biggest fear of global imperialism, is when communities come together in unity and resistance.

In my work as a community organizer, I often talk about why we floss so much, why our swag is so important. When people experience oppression, sometimes all we have is HOPE and these pockets of liberation. We like to shine because they told us we couldn’t, these are the experiences that give us the confidence to resist. Our people have always resisted and have always fought back since the colonization through genocide and enslavement of our people and we are still strong today standing on the shoulders of our ancestors and the old school values.

So, for all the snitches and police collaborators, our message is clear this is a culture so deep and so solid it cannot be shaken. During the 2020 uprisings, police believed they would have an advantage of pushing the uprising into downtown Albuquerque where the lowriders cruise in Albuquerque on Sunday evenings. Instead of an advantage, the lowrider community was ignited to join the uprising and went into an all night stand off with riot police. This is the night I was shot by a rubber bullet while resisting with the youth who were downtown for lowriding. This night was one of the most powerful and profound nights of uprising I supported in my work as an organizer against state violence because I witnessed young people who were not even at the protest be ignited and they were with the shit! They have felt the pressure state violence profoundly from restrictions on cruising, window tint, volume of music, too many people standing together, driving past the same location too many times, etc. They took to the streets in powerful unity and resistance and that is the power of the lowriding community!

As someone who grew up in Hip-Hop, lowriding is like an underlying element of Hip-Hop or maybe the 10th element. Lowriding holds the essence of the elements of Hip Hop from the cars dancing on their switches in the spirit of breakdancing; the woofers blast the beat of bass in your ear in true DJ fashion; most cars are designed with some of the most profound graffiti art that exists on the planet; you must be an entrepreneur to have the privilege of the investment of a lowrider; the swag because you must be dressed to impressed if your taking your car out for a cruise, and most of all we have the power of street knowledge.