In fact, I can't even operate a motor vehicle!
However, I was a fan of Lowrider Magazine.
The copies of Lowrider Magazines that I bought
Yes, there were the cars & the women in the magazine.
But there was more to the magazine than that!
The magazine was also a window to the Chicano (Mexican-American) culture and was very assertive in standing up against the stigma & stereotyping towards Latinos & other minorities.
The magazine had articles and printed letters from readers about being racially profiled by police, mall security, school officials and more.
The magazine also printed artwork with various symbols from the Chicano, Mexican and other Latin@ cultures.
For me, being in Hawaii and of part-Mexican ancestry, this magazine gave me an insight into a subculture of people of a similar ancestry but living in a different context from me.
While most of the focus of Lowrider Magazine is on the Latino community, it wasn't limited to that! The magazine did interview African-American rappers (like Snoop Dogg & Ice Cube) and showcased lowrider shows in Japan!
The magazine was about making everyone feel welcome into a subculture started by Chicanos.
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In the 21st century, magazine readership, in general, has declined. Many publications have either shut down or just focused on digital content.
Lowrider Magazine is no longer publishing print copies. It will be an end of an era when people would go to a 7-11 to get the latest copy!
However, Lowrider Magazine will still have an online presence at
https://www.lowrider.com/
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From Mitú, a website focused on the Latino community in the US
Javier Rojas, “End of an Era as Lowrider Magazine Will Cease Printing After 42 Years,” Mitú , December 20, 2019, https://wearemitu.com/culture/lowrider-magazine-publishing/.
After 42 years, Lowrider magazine is nearing its last ride as the publication will cease printing at the end of this year. For many Chicanos living in Southern California in the 1980s, the magazine became a cultural icon when it came to content on everything from cool cars to flashy tires. Beyond just the world of cars, Lowrider gave insight on political and cultural issues that were focused on Chicano identity. In some ways, the magazine played a role in bringing lowrider and Chicano culture to the mainstream in a way that no publication had before.
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The magazine was much, much more than just pin-up models and cars.” Noe Adame, a correspondent for L.A. Taco, told the news site.
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“At its heart, it’s been a key tool to keeping alive Chicanismo and Chicano identity,” Denise Sandoval, a lowrider expert and professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge, told the LA Times. “I’ve met so many people who are not Chicano, that because they’re part of the lowrider community, they learn about Chicano history through that magazine.” Lowrider also challenged negative, stereotypical perceptions of lowriders as tough thugs and gang members.
From the Los Angeles Times
Dorany Pineda, “The Life and Death of Lowrider: How the Chicano Car Magazine Shaped California,” Los Angeles Times, December 14, 2019,
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-12-13/lowrider-magazine-ceases-print.
In its first generation, Lowrider was more than just a car magazine. It was capturing historical moments within the Chicano community. For one of its regular sections, “Lowriders of the Past,” readers would send in photos of family members posing with their customized vintage cars from back in the 1940s Pachuco era. Another section, “La Raza Report,” featured writeups about political or educational happenings in the community. The magazine also ran a Dear Abby-like advice column, poetry and short stories.
“It was really an art magazine, a community history magazine, all around the love of lowriders,” said Denise Sandoval, a lowrider expert and professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge. It even funded a scholarship program for Latino students.
Though the magazine’s political and social messaging eventually diminished, it continued to celebrate and lift up an otherwise overlooked and underrepresented community.
“At its heart, it’s been a key tool to keeping alive Chicanismo and Chicano identity,” Sandoval said. “I’ve met so many people who are not Chicano, that because they’re part of the lowrider community, they learn about Chicano history through that magazine.” Lowrider also challenged negative, stereotypical perceptions of lowriders as tough thugs and gang members.
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From the San Francisco Chronicle
Montse Reyes, “Lowrider’s Last Cruise in Print,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2020, https://www.sfgate.com/culture/article/Lowrider-magazine-founded-in-San-Jose-takes-its-14946068.php?t=4590df8ed0.
The tradition of riding low and slow has deep roots for Latinos in the United States, stretching back to the 1940s, when Mexican American youth in oversize zoot suits — known as pachucos — would throw in bags of cement or sand to lower their Chevrolets. The lowriders were roving political statements, a declaration of both pride in Mexican heritage in the face of discrimination, and defiance of the fast-and-slick hot rods popular among young, white Americans.Technology evolved, with sandbags soon giving way to hydraulic pumps that could raise or lower the customized cars with the flip of a switch at the owner’s behest, creating the modern lowrider style most have come to recognize today.
The magazine took note of how the police treated Latinos driving lowriders and contrasted it to how the police treated Anglos who tend to ride hot rods.
A 1958 law in California outlawed cars that had any part lower than the bottom of the wheel’s rim. From then on, lowriders became associated with gangs and violence, arguably spurred by racist stereotypes of the young, often working-class brown and black men who drove the cars.
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The police involvement always seemed to have an element of racial profiling, according to Hernandez.
“While we were doing that on Mission Street, across the city, in the Sunset, on the Great Highway, the hot rodders — which were all the white boys — were racing for pink slips,” he says, meaning the winner takes the loser’s car. “And the police and the city never messed with them.”
Lowrider magazine provided an antidote. Spurred by the energy around the Chicano civil rights movement, Madrid, Gonzalez and Nunez set out to feature lowrider culture with appreciation and affection, while also covering social and political issues important to the Chicano community.
Alongside customized cars, Lowrider’s pages featured sections like La Raza Report, short stories, poetry and comics made by Chicanos. At one point, they even started a now-defunct music label, Thump Records, and had a scholarship program for young Chicanos.
Thank you Lowrider Magazine for being in existence and for lifting up the spirits of millions :)
