Hello, I'm Catherine Anaya.

Welcome to Horizonte.

Chrome, custom paint and plenty of cultura.

Lowriders have a rich history in the Hispanic community, especially right here in Arizona The Tempe History Museum is celebrating that history with Ranfla Vida or car life.

And we thought, why not bring a little of that vida into our studio?

Yes, we have a beautiful lowrider right here on our set.

Joining me to talk more about the low and slow movement are Jimmy Arbizu longtime director of the Intruders Car Club, and Marco Albarran, curator of the Ranfla Vida exhibit.

So welcome, gentlemen.

So great to have you here.

And this beautiful car.

I want to start with you, Jimmy.

Congratulations.

50 years of the Intruder Car Club in Arizona.

It's phenomenal.

How would you describe the history of the lowrider movement in Arizona?

The history of the lowrider movement has been a big change from the beginning to now, you know?

I want to bring up a name, Jimmy Borunda.

He actually brought the first lowrider magazine to Arizona for its market on Van Buren and 28th Avenue.

And then he also brought the the first lowrider car show to Firebird Lake.

But from then to now is a whole different thing, you know?

It's really elevated itself through the years.

And I want to talk to you real quickly, Marco, about that, because you have owned lowriders in the past and you've been in a car club.

How would you describe kind of what Jimmy was touching on the evolution of the movement in Arizona through the years?

Well, I mean, from the beginning most of the cars, let's say, in the 50s and 60s didn't call themselves lowriders Right?

So that's that's a big change.

Late 60s, 70s that's when basically a lot of people started calling many of the cars that were customizing lowriders, and the movement started to develop from there.

Where even in television in the early 80s when MTV, started coming out later on with car shows, the 90s customizations, Japanese infusion in the mid 80s to the 90s.

I mean, it has changed a lot and how things even got all the way internationally, so it has changed a lot.

But at the same time, the base have been kept very similar to what happened in the 70s.

Well, let's talk about the exhibit itself, because this exhibit is important not just to the history of the movement, but also preserving how it moves forward.

Can you explain what went into curating it?

Since this is the first time that there's a history exhibition being developed here in Arizona that I know, I know there has be art exhibitions with a little bit of history in there, but a whole exhibition just focusing on the history is the first time.

So just doing that kind of thinking and bringing together the people that had been involved from the beginning and trying to get them to basically be part of the exhibition, it was quite a thing.

But I think because most of the people in the lowrider community, they're almost like family in a way their friendship is binding each other from the experiences that happened in the 70s and early 80s, I think there's a different perspective that everybody was very positive in terms of bringing this type of exhibition, and I think moving forward is going to be even a greater experience.

Well, let's talk about this beautiful car, Jimmy.

You own this car on one of several lowriders that you own or have owned, and it is also going to be showcased at the exhibit.

Tell me a little bit about this car in particular, because it's an incredible work of art, but it's not just a car.

What does it mean to you culturally and personally?

Well, me and my dad built this car in our garage.

I had a partner of mine Bobby Jauregui.

He did all the paint he did the hydraulics, had Eddie Torres pinstripe it, and we got a lot of time and money in it, you know?

The car, it means a lot because something that I built with my dad, you know, and now the culture, you know, you got the Chicano culture back in the 70s and 80s mixed with the lowrider.

You know, it just the combination is where we're at today.

This is a 66 Impala.

Yes.

It's like I said, it's just remarkable to look at.

You have to see it up close and personal.

But there's a lot of not just money, but a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Love that goes into this creation, right?

Yes.

And just maintaining this car for 27 years, you know, there's a lot of work, you know, this car has been to shows up and down California, Las Vegas, Denver, New Mexico.

And it's won a tremendous amount of awards, right?

Yes.

Its taken over over 40 places, plus seven best of show traditionals throughout California, Vegas and Arizona.

And there's a lot to the movement when it comes to generations, right?

That's important with these works of art.

Yes.

A lot of times they're passed down from generation to generation, right?

Yes.

And what does that mean to you?

Like, first of all, you said you worked on it with your dad, and now you'll be passing this on at some point to your sons.

My sons yeah, I got Julio.

He's here, and I got my boy James and Gordie.

They're already.

You know, they're the ones that take them to the shows now and stuff.

You know, I think they drive them more than I do.

Well, they are something to look at in person, that's for sure.

So let's talk about some of the negative stigma that's been associated to the movement to the owners.

Have you seen that shift through the years, Marco?

Well, we had to we had to remember that the same mistake was basically hit on the Pachuco and Pachucas before in the 30s and the 40s and in many cases and many instances it didn't change much in terms of is a change.

The only thing that changed was what was representing how you dress differently.

And then with the customization of the cars and having the car hydraulics and the wheels and tires and the scraping, and the hopping, all those things that were things that were basically attacked at the same time.

And not only the way we were dressed as Cholos and Cholas, but because it was already a community that has been attacked from the way back in the and, you know, decades.

So it was not something new.

It's just something that continued because lowriding, the lowriding culture was different and that's the only thing.

But do you see a shift in the perception, especially when you have celebrities like Devin Booker from the Phoenix Suns, who owns a lowrider or lowriders and you know, is very instrumental in kind of bringing attention to it.

You get it to a broader audience but also you have people internationally getting involved in lowriders.

Right?

Right.

So yes, there has I mean, the efforts to to work with a community in terms of the lowriders that we know right now were being done since the 70s.

And one of the reason was because of the stereotypes, because of the, you know, how they viewed the Cholos and the Cholas.

That were gang members, but in reality, the lowrider community were based on family was based on friendship.

You know, yes, there's a few people here and there that, you know that that did something bad within, you know, the community.

But then the lowrider community itself didn't see themselves that way.

They see themselves as something positive, and they wanted to contribute some way back.

And through those years, it took all this years to actually make to make some of the people that are, that are in certain positions to start accepting not only that, but because many of the of the lowrider members became engineers, became attorneys, became politicians, became educators, you know, business people.

So, of course, all this is going to reflect the lowrider community in a more positive way.

And that and that was from the beginning.

Remember, lowrider community is a family oriented movement.

That's what it was.

And we see car clubs very, Jimmy, involved in the community giving back to the community.

But there are still some cities in Arizona that ban cruising.

Talk to me a little bit about what cruising was like back in the day, when you would see lowriders going down Central Avenue?

Yeah, back in the early or the late 70s is when I started cruising.

And I remember that line going off from baseline all the way towards Buckeye.

In fact, in reality, I think we had the longest cruising spot in the world because once, once you kept going, you have Circles, Records, and Tapes Downtown and you had Andy's Hydraulics So when you wanted a music, you drive over there and then when you wanted new hydraulics, you know, so South Parkway hydraulics Andys was open.

But at the same time you had the hot rodders that would come down to Circles, Records, and Tapes.

They would go to the south side, we would go to the north side.

And that went all the way to Bethany.

It was something, it was something.

And you cruise from Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

On Sundays you were out in Candle Park, you were at South Mountain, you were on Central.

So again, it goes back to that rich history and the and the generational history that you were talking about.

Before we end, I just want to touch on the Tempe History Museum is also hosting something really important, the Female Function Car Show, which is a collaboration of Arizona female owned lowriders, on Sunday, November 16th from noon to 5 p.m This is important because women have been, Marco a very big part of the lowrider movement.

Right?

Right, exactly.

You know, we have Josie Lopez was the president of of the Arizona Lowrider Association and co-founder of the Arizona Lowriders Association.

And that takes us all the way to the late 70s, early 80s, you know, and women have their own lowrider clubs back then.

You know, it's just sometimes the message is not clear in terms of how it moves through the time.

And we wanted to make sure that they they had an opportunity to have a car show during our stands at the exhibition and open the opportunity for that.

And it's going to be on November 15th.

So it's coming up.

Very excited for that and for this exhibit.

Jimmy, as I mentioned, has offered many of his possessions to the exhibit.

And of course, this beautiful 66 Impala is going to be showcased there, too.

So thank you, gentlemen, for talking more about that with me and the rich history that we have for the lowrider movement here in Arizona.

Reminder that the exhibit is free.

Ranfla Vida Lowrider exhibit.

It's now through December 31st at the Tempe History Museum, and I look forward to it being a big success.

Thank you both for being here.

Appreciate it.

Hope to see you there.

Absolutely.

And we will continue having conversations like these because they are important and they matter to you.

I'm Catherine Anaya.

Thank you for watching.