California Lifts Ban on Lowrider Cruising

Lowriders defy convention: they lean, they hop, they bounce. Their paint jobs are works of art, sometimes with museum-worthy images or a melding of colors that gleam with a lustrous sheen. Lowriding, the drivers will tell you, is not just about the car, it’s about convening with the community and celebrating art and culture. But for decades, restrictive bans in California prohibited where lowriders could cruise. Last month, activists succeeded in pushing lawmakers to lift the state’s ban, which they said discriminated against and targeted Latino and Black communities. Despite the bans, lowrider culture flourished in California and devotees can now be found across the globe, from Japan to Argentina. We’ll talk with lowriders about what the change in the law means and what riding low and slow means to them.