California ends cruising ban that targeted Chicano low-rider culture

Judy Woodruff:

For decades, many cities in California have enacted bans against cruising, where people parade their custom-built lowrider cars on city streets. But, recently, there has been a push to overturn those ordinances, which many argue have been used to unfairly target Latinos.

William Brangham reports from San Jose for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

William Brangham:

In San Jose California, it's a night for celebration. That's because, for the first time in more than 35 years, lowriding is legal again.

Speaker:

Let's be proud, let's be safe, and let's keep it low and slow.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

William Brangham:

Hours ago, outside city hall, San Jose formally ended its ordinance against cruising, where drivers take their lowriders, these classic cars that have been stripped down, jacked up, refashioned, and painted every color on the spectrum, and drive them up and down city streets.

Robert Gutierrez, New Style Car Club:

Like they say, cruising is not a crime.

William Brangham:

For Robert Gutierrez, who first began lowriding in the 1970s, repealing this ban was a long time coming. We talked with him and two other longtime members of the New Style Car Club.

Robert Gutierrez:

Now that hopefully everybody's on the same page and they know were just out there having fun with our family and friends, and we are obeying the law, what is wrong with it?

John Ulloa, San Francisco State University:

Lowriding has been a target of police suspicion since the beginning of lowriding.

William Brangham:

John Ulloa is a historian at San Francisco State University who has studied the lowrider movement.

He says lowriding dates back to the 1940s and grew alongside the Chicano civil rights movements in the 1960s and 70s.

John Ulloa:

Having the cars and the people who built the cars, people who drive the cars present is quite a cultural statement, and it's a reminder — it's a visual reminder and a visual cue about our pride as Chicanos.

William Brangham:

It was popularized in the famous song famous song "lowrider" by the funk band War. This 1975 hit went to number one on the Billboard R&B charts. It was also made famous by movies like 1979's "Boulevard Nights."

Narrator:

You have got to live through "Boulevard Nights."

William Brangham:

But as its popularity grew, spreading everywhere from Brazil to Japan, lowriders in the U.S. have often clashed with law enforcement, which argued the cars are often illegally modified, block traffic, and drivers were linked to gang activity.

John Ulloa:

When you modify the suspension a car, it's illegal. If you customize a car and you shave your mirrors, well, that's a vehicle code violation.

And are all lowriders up for sainthood? No. Do some lowriders have passed gang affiliation? Yes. But I would say that, for the most part, lowriders are hardworking people.

Flavio Huizar, Sacramento Lowriding Commission:

We got to understand, when we when we think about the no cruising ordinances, right, if you notice, the signs are only in the brown community.

William Brangham:

Flavio Huizar is with Sacramento's Lowriding Commission.

Flavio Huizar:

These ordinances came in to deal with the gangs, right? But, in the process, they threw a net over the whole entire brown community, Latin community, Black community.

And, basically, what they said was, they said everybody in these beautiful canvases on four wheels are gang members.

William Brangham:

Canvases on four wheels, that's what many in the lowriding community wish more people would see.

Ricardo Cortez, Artist, Lowrider:

No one builds a lowrider to keep it hidden in their garage.

William Brangham:

Ricardo Cortez is a lowrider and artist who teaches young kids about this movement.

Ricardo Cortez:

I see lowriding as an art form. For me, just like art, it needs to be seen. It needs to be witnessed. It needs to be experienced in order to understand it.

Jose Orendain, Artist, Car Builder:

So, when the sun comes out, you will see it just glistens.

William Brangham:

If building lowriders is an art form, painter and carmaker Jose Orendain's driveway is an open air gallery, this green 1965 Chevy Impala, or this 1952 Chevy pickup he's rebuilding with his son, and especially this, his own car, a 1952 Chevy fastback.

Jose Orendain:

So these cars are pretty much a huge canvas to me. I just say, how far can I take this? How far can I go? How many lines can I push, you know?

And I feel that's the artist's way, right? Like, you want to — you want to be different. You want to set yourself apart from the rest. You want to show your identity with whatever you're sculpting. And this is mine right here.

William Brangham:

He says, when he buys an old car, before he does anything to it, he goes through a somewhat unusual practice.

Jose Orendain:

When I'm building a car, I sit down and I listen to the car. I just sit in front of the car and watch it and just hang out with it. And then the car reaches out and kind of tells you what direction it wants you to go.

William Brangham:

He followed the same process with his wife Estrella's car, but what he heard her '64 Chevy Impala Super Sport saying was a bit different than what Estrella wanted.

Estrella Luna, Wife of Jose Orendain: So, when I saw this vehicle, and we started talking about actually working on it, I did say I wanted it gunmetal gray. And I said, but whatever you do, I said no pink and no rainbow glitter.

(LAUGHTER)

Jose Orendain:

Yes, and I think it looks good. It looks good.

William Brangham:

And the marriage is still intact?

Jose Orendain:

Yes, it is.

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

William Brangham:

The last no cruising sign has come down in the city of San Jose, and lowriders are back together, celebrating their craft and their community.

For the "PBS NewsHour," from the front seat of a hopping '79 Lincoln Continental Mark V, I'm William Brangham in San Jose, California.

Judy Woodruff:

William is having entirely too much fun. We can hear those cars speaking to us right now.