SANTA FE, N.M. — Those classic cars called lowriders are the focus of a summer celebration in Santa Fe.
The spotlight on lowrider culture includes exhibitions at the New Mexico History Museum and the New Mexico Museum of Art.
The low-to-the ground cars are decked out with hydraulics, chrome and candy-colored paint jobs. The celebration kicked off today when more than 100 lowriders cruised into one of the state’s most historic plazas in the heart of Santa Fe.
Lowriders have become fixtures across the Southwest. There are some similarities with the cars that cruise the streets in California and Texas, but there are also differences with the culture that has been thriving for decades in New Mexico. The cars have become rolling works of art and symbols of Hispanic cultural identity.
“The New Mexico style is a little more focused on family, faith and place,” said Kate Ware, a curator at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Ware spent more than a year helping to pull together a collection of photographs, sculptures, paintings and videos highlighting the lowrider lifestyle and its connection with religion and community.
Of the more than 50 works in the “Con Carino” exhibit at the art museum, some date back to the 1970s. The show will run through Oct. 9.
At the history museum across the street, there are lowriders, hubcaps, a chromed-out Chevy small block engine and dozens of photographs that capture the essence of lowriding. In one corner is a scale that’s used to gauge how high a car can hop, the term used to describe the front end bouncing off the ground, triggered by a custom hydraulic lift system.
“Lowriders, Hoppers, and Hot Rods: Car Culture of Northern New Mexico” will be on display at the history museum through March 5.
Daniel Kosharek, the photo curator at the history museum, said there are people who use cars just for transportation and then there are those who use the cars for self-expression.
“Two types of people, two world views,” he said. “This exhibit is about the latter — people who express themselves through pride in their ride.”
Lowriders can come in any flavor, from the classic bombs made between 1930 and 1955 to hoppers that are outfitted with suspension systems that have evolved into high-tech rigs from the earliest days when sand bags were used to weigh down a car to get it closer to the ground.
Steven “Sparky” Gomez has tens of thousands of dollars invested in his Packard. He’s been offered double its worth but there’s no way he’s selling it. For Gomez, lowriding is a family tradition started by his father back in the 1940s.
“You get a car that somebody else discarded and as you see, you turn it into a piece of art and it’s better than drugs and alcohol. There’s no limit,” he said. “And then you feel like a movie star when you’re in it because everybody’s waving at you.”
