(ambient music) - [Narrator] Funding for Roots, Race and Culture is provided in part by the Norman C. and Barbara L. Tanner Charitable Support Trust and by donations to PBS Utah from viewers like you.

Thank you!

(upbeat music) ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ (upbeat jazz music) - Hey everybody, and welcome to "Roots, Race & Culture", where we bring you into candid conversations about shared cultural experiences.

I'm Danor Gerald.

- And I'm Lonzo Liggins.

From Japan to Brazil, the process of outfitting cars with hydraulic lift systems, also known as lowriding, has become a global phenomenon.

But its origins are right here in the United States, California and the Southwest United States, to be exact.

- But there's more to these cars and the people who drive them than meets the eye.

It's a tradition that is deeply rooted in Latino culture.

These aren't just cars, they're a community.

And some of that community is right here in Utah.

We are so excited for this show, - Yes!

- and thank you guys, for joining us.

- I'm thrilled about this.

I'm telling you, I'm excited about this.

But I want you guys to introduce yourselves first.

Go ahead, Connie.

- Hi, my name's Connie Medina, and I am vice president of As One Car Club, and I've been a member for about six years.

- [Danor] Nice.

- [Lonzo] Nice.

- My name is Nick Peck, and I own a small repair shop.

I'm kind of a jack of all trades, but I cater to the lowrider community, not just in this valley but outside as well.

- Okay, so some people are not gonna know what you're talking about, so a picture's worth 1,000 words, I think we have some footage of these West Valley Car Clubs that you guys are familiar with, let's take a look and get the audience oriented.

- Yeah, man, let's see it.

- [Nick] I love it.

- [Danor] Oh, what are we looking at here, Nick?

- [Nick] That looks like a '49 or '50 convertible, Chevy.

- [Danor] Nice.

- [Lonzo] Nice.

- [Danor] Nice, and- - [Lonzo] A '64 Chevy back there.

- [Nick] That's a '67, I actually put the hydraulic lifts on that green Impala.

- [Lonzo] Really?

- [Nick] Yeah.

- [Lonzo] That's Nice.

- [Danon] Connie, do you recognize any of these cars or anything?

- [Connie] Um, the '67.

- [Nick] That '57 rag belongs to Gary.

(everyone laughing) - [Lonzo] Wow, oh, so this is- - [Nick] That's a '49 Chev, the purple one, that's a '50 truck I believe.

- [Lonzo] So these are your clubs, and do all of these cars have like lifts or something on 'em?

- [Nick] Not all of 'em, but some of 'em.

- [Lonzo] Okay- - [Nick] Some are static, some have air suspension, which is a little bit different.

- [Lonzo] Yeah.

- That's another topic for another time.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's good- - We can talk a little bit about it today, but it's part of embracing new technology, new things.

And it's, yeah.

- Well let's talk about the old stuff first though, because there is a really rich history here.

- Well there's a big history behind the lowriders.

We went into it, and you know, we took a look at some of the interesting, fascinating past of lowriders.

So there was an article in the Smithsonian Magazine, so apparently the low riding started with the Pachucos and the Zoot Suiters.

So according Richard Ochoa, he was the founder of the Mesa Arizona based Society Car Club, any story about the history of low riders must begin with the Pachucos.

Between the 1920s and the 1940s, the rebels and bad guys are the folk heroes with the bootleggers and the Mafia dons.

So they wore these expensive suits and they bootlegged booze in their trunks, and their weighted-down trunks meant that they had you know, this money and status.

So many people in the Hispanic community began to believe the Pachucos were the serial bootleggers.

And so to imitate them, they began to weigh down the back of their cars, and to go against the White counterparts of the time, who had the fast cars that were raised up, so their cars were low and slow.

- I think the clothes was a little bit more of a, to stand out, as an individual and against it, because a lot of Hispanic peoples, and in those times especially, looked a lot like their White counterparts, if you're in something else.

You know what I mean?

In regular daily wear.

- Yeah - So wearing something that definitely makes you stand apart, I think that was a lot to do with it as well.

I'm not so sure about the origins of what attracted them to that style, but wanting to stand apart was the goal of that style.

- [Lonzo] Hence that's the lowrider style.

What about you, what do you think Connie?

- [Nick] It's the same thing with lowriders.

- [Connie] I've always heard that like, it originated back in Los Angeles, kinda like there was, when after the War there was boneyards where there was the aircrafts, and they would go over there and get the hydraulics from the planes and actually put 'em in their cars, to make 'em go up and down and, it just kinda became a part of history.

- [Danor] That's amazing.

- [Lonzo] Yeah, and that's the thing, is like, there's, I've read many different versions of the origins of it, you know, some of it was in L.A., some of it was in the Southwest, but they all like, had different parts to 'em - I believe it was in, I don't know the exact date, 1958, there was a guy, gentleman by the name of Ron Aguirre - Yes - He had a car, that was called, I believe, X-Sonic, it was a super, super modified car, and he'd adapted some aircraft hydraulics to lift and lower.

Now these times everybody was what we call static lowered, cannot lift or lower.

You're just low.

Everybody was at a park car show and there was some 2x4s and some wood let up for everybody to go by, Ron pulls out, goes on the side of everybody, and they're all looking, like, where's he going?

Who does he think he is?

Gets to the curb, hits a switch and slowly raises his car, pulls up over the curb then lays it back down on the grass, and go, and that just started a wildfire.

- [Donar] That's a showstopper, right there.

- Yeah, what are you doing?

Where did you get that?

- What is that?

Yeah.

- That's great.

Well, this, this also was a really big part of, they had the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943, because a lot of the other counterparts were a lot of servicemen were very upset and frustrated because they're like, here we go, there's an example right there, it culminated in - [Lonzo] Those are the soldiers from the Navy.

- [Danor] the Zoot Suit Riots.

Yeah, and so they were attacking these people because they're like, there's this anti-, they saw it as an anti-patriotism sentiment, and they thought, well, things are very lean right now, why are you making these outlandish suits and wasting all of this material, that's unnecessary, so it ended up, really, getting pretty crazy.

And I know the jazz song Zoot Suit Riots, but really understanding the history of it, I had no idea until we started learning about lowrider culture.

- Yeah, that's right, so like, and then California, the police began to associate the cars with like, the outlaws and the troublemakers.

So 1958, California Vehicle Code 24008 was passed, it outlawed any car on a public road that was lower than the bottom of the wheel rim.

So soon after that, the hydraulic systems came in, where they lowered the cars when the cops were, they raised the cars when the cops were around and then lowered them when they weren't there, so that's where you're talking about, - [Nick] There you go, it's right there.

- [Lonzo] So for example, so the front of that car would have been normal, then the back of the car would have been the, the lower part of it.

- [Danor] Yeah.

- [Nick] So yeah, that's just a perfect example.

- Yeah, and I wanna, I wanna hear about your car clubs, speaking of which, because car clubs are kind of a unique part of lowriding.

So with your car club, how does it, you know, how does it stand out?

I mean, you obviously have, it's been around since 1983, can you tell us a little bit about it?

- Yeah, we, we pretty much meet, like once a month, we go to events, we try to be involved in community events, fundraising, we have people that call us for quinceañeras, if we can take our cars so the girls can take pictures, we just pretty much interact with the rest of the lowrider community, we have families that they've been in it, their kids are in it, their grandkids are in it.

- Seems like that helps keep the kids out of trouble, a little bit too, because they got something fun to do.

And if you're not, if you don't keep a kid busy, trouble's gonna find him, right?

- We're all about keeping the kids off the street, keeping them busy, I mean we have mentors, some of the older guys that have shops, own their shops, you know, can help the kids.

- That's awesome.

- So Nick, 'cause I want to hear your histories, how did you guys get into this?

And tell, tell me your story, your origin story.

What started you in the lowriding world?

- Well, my grandfather was a mechanic, so I was always in the garage with him, so I was fascinated by cars.

You know, I as attached, he was my father figure, I didn't, my biological father wasn't around, so my father figure was my grandfather, so I'm following him around the garage, now he was, he grew up in the Depression, and he didn't, cars were for transportation, A point, point A to point B.

- Yeah, yeah - Now one time, I remember I was about 7 or 8 years old, we were on the front porch, it was a summer night, and some cars come caravaning down our street.

Some lowriders, and one of the cars had hydraulics, it laid out and just shot a shower of sparks.

- (group laughs) - That's gotta be cool.

- And I was just like, I mean - What was that!

- Later, my grandfather told me, like, you were just, like, dumbfounded, in awe, and he said I knew at that minute that you were gonna ask for one, or want one at some point in your life.

- Where it all started with me and lowriding is, I had a three month-old little girl that passed away, so that was 13 years ago, probably about six years ago I ended up getting a really good deal on a car, I have a '67 Fastback, and it just kinda brought me and my family together.

We met up with our car club, became a part of it, and it's really helped me with like, my depression, anxiety, and so it's really helped me with with that.

- And see, and that's the, the negative thing that people think about lowriders, when people see a group of people driving down the street, what are the first impressions you think that come into people's minds.

- I think we've gone a long way since there was some really bad, and what tells me that, when I was young, when I was in high school, we'd get pulled over by police, and harassed, searched, that doesn't happen now.

So things have changed a lot, but group people that don't know, they might think, oh, they're in a gang, or this is this, this is that, the style of dress, the, you know, the way you carry yourself, you know.

They may think that, but, anybody that thinks that and when they come to one of our events or something, they gonna change their mind.

- Yeah.

- Are there a lot of women in the lowrider community?

I mean, I know it's a family-oriented thing, but, I mean, you're vice-president of your car club.

- Yeah.

- That seems like a big deal.

- I think back in the day, the women were mostly you know, they was there to help their husbands, or be there to support them, building their cars.

And it's actually came a long way.

Now you got, girls that have their own lowrider car clubs, - [Danor] Nice - There's one in L.A., it's Lady Lowriders, and it's nothing but females, there's a lot of girls out here that have their own cars.

Like, they don't want to be standing there helping out, they want to be cruising, - They don't wanna be in the passenger's seat, they want to be in the driver's seat.

(laughs) - Yeah, no.

They wanna have their own cars, they wanna three-wheel, they wanna learn what to do.

- I think there's a lot, it's gotta be beneficial for kids, too, right?

- Yeah - I mean, 'cause kids gotta get a lot out of this, cause I've heard, I was reading an article you were talking about, kids getting like, STEM benefits from it, you know.

Like the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Can you tell us about that?

- Well, there's just yeah, there's definitely room for kids like, in a automotive tech program, there's stuff in their high schools that kinda stuff, for sure.

There's programs, they've unfortunately, like here in Utah, like in the high schools, that's shrunk quite a bit.

- [Lonzo] Hmm.

- So there's definitely some programs, you know, that are out there that people need to take advantage of and start thinking about that kind of stuff.

- Yeah, a lot of kids don't, they don't get into the automotive repair, the autobody stuff these days, - Yeah.

- They're just more into YouTube, and like, (laughs) - [Danor] Right.

- and TikTok.

- And I think it just helps, like the kids, when they come out, to the events, they see, oh wow, you know, or the flashy rims, paint jobs, and it encourages them to want to be a part of, hey, can you teach me, or even if they're in high school and they wasn't a part of autobody, they're gonna think about it, and be like, hey, you know, maybe I should you, know, get in autobody, or think about it being a trade or a skill.

- Well, we got a video here, of the cars bouncing, 'cause I want you guys to tell me about why is this, why do the cars bounce like this, we're gonna go ahead and show it, because I think kids, I was into this when I first saw it.

(booming music) (car clanking) Tell us a little bit about this, guys.

- I know that car really well.

I did a lot of work on that car.

So that has 14 batteries in the trunk, two pumps to the front, two pumps to the rear, that's what you would call a double-pump system, it's a '63 Impala.

Fully reinforced frame, - [Lonzo] Oh okay, I see that they're measuring, there's like, is that like, is a contest of things to see who can bounce the highest?

- To see who's the highest.

It's competitive.

I competed in the late '90s, early 2000s, with the Lowrider Magazine tour, - Wow.

- I'm, I'm a two-time world champion, one-time national champion, I set seven world records.

- [Danor] What!

(laughs) - Yeah, that's my thing right there.

- Yeah, the bouncing?

- The hopping is the thing.

Yeah, hopping.

- We actually have some video of cars driving down Stage Street, that can show some of this.

Yeah, so there's one the car, one of those cars is up, what's that called?

That's, when it's all the way up?

- [Nick] That's just locked up.

- Just locked up?

- That's, yeah, when you're all the way up we call it locked up, when you're down, we call it laid.

- Uh-huh.

- You know, laid out.

- So he's just bouncin'.

- Yeah, he just hittin' it.

Hopping the front a little bit.

There's the back.

- Yep.

- That's locked up in the back.

That's locked up all the way around, really.

- Yeah.

- That has what you call a lock-up on it.

I actually did the lock-up on that car.

- Yeah.

I was surprised - Now that's three-wheel right there.

- That's the three-wheel motion right there.

- [Danor] (whoops) So explain it to us.

- So one wheel is up, and the rest of the wheels are down.

- Yeah - [Danor] Is it hard to drive like that?

- (laughter) - [Nick] Well, it's a different, it's a different look.

- (laughter) - [Danor] Well, it seem like you don't have to steer like normal.

- No, they don't have any footage of this, gashopping, like what that black car was doing, when you do that driving, that's all, all you see is, you got the steering wheel, and blue sky!

- (laughter) - You just hope that when you come down here, you gotta take a good look first.

- Still, you use it between the lines!

- (laughter) - So what's your favorite part of cruising, Connie?

Do you like the bouncing?

- No, I'm not a bouncer.

I mean, people they ask me, you know, we'll be cruising, I'm like, no, I don't have hydraulics, you know.

- When these cars are created, some of the pictures I've seen, they have a lot of the detailing that's done on the cars.

It's very much a representative of that culture.

- I mean you have, Black car clubs in, African-American Black car clubs in L.A., that have like, you know, civil rights movement things, muralled on their cars.

The theme to their car is just like that.

Yeah, of course, everybody wants to put their, their culture with it, for sure.

- Well, it's been a big part of hip-hop culture.

- Yes.

- You know, a lot of guys have rapped and sung about that.

- Do you feel like that was good or bad for lowriding?

- I think it's kind of a little of both.

I mean, I think, like the rapping, the rapping, the music videos and stuff, they pretty much wanted the lowriders, you know, a different look, so they incorporated the lowriders, but some people may portrayed a stereotype it.

But, I mean, it's not all that - [Nick] Well, - everybody thinks.

- 90% of lowriders in music videos are in gangsta rap genre, you know, hip-hop genre, so, there's your implication right there.

Gangsta rap.

- See that's what I'm saying, like a lot of people might associate, well those are guys are just like the dudes in the videos.

But it's not.

You guys are family.

- But, the thing that it did good for lowriding is when gangsta rap, hip-hop, when that broke underground, and became mainstream, guess what it brought with it.

It brought lowriders.

- Yeah, we, we got Ice Cube.

But this is the classic picture right here that I remember, and this was Boyz n the Hood, right, this was his, what kind of car does he got, Nick?

- That's a '63 Impala.

It's like gold, vertible.

- When I saw that on that movie, I mean, even before that, I remember there was a song that came out from it, Eazy-E, ♪ Crusin' down the street in my six-four.

♪ and I was like, what is a six-four?

I remember I was like 12 when I first heard that song, and I was determined to figure out what a six-four was.

And that's pretty much the same car that he has right there, is that, that Impala, it's one year earlier.

- [Nick] Yeah.

- But I feel like kind of became a lot of people's entryway into lowriding, was rap music.

- [Nick] Right.

I know it was mine.

And from there, it seems like a lot of kids connect with lowriders via rap music.

- [Nick] Right.

- Yeah.

- But there's a difference between, 'cause you talked about like, there's difference between Black car clubs in L.A., and then there's Latino obviously, which is the roots of lowriding, is there a lot of, like connection between clubs around the country?

- [Nick] Oh, yeah, for sure.

- How many racial groups in Salt Lake?

Are there, - Every one.

- That do- - Every one.

Every racial group we have in Salt Lake has a representative of- - In the lowriding clubs?

- In the lowrider community.

Every walk of life, every, every church, every station in life.

- Okay, I'm going to ask you a big, big elephant in a room question.

Are any white people lowriding?

- Yes, of course.

- Rich white people?

- Yes of course.

- For real?

- Wow, that is awesome.

(laughs).

That is great.

- One of the guys, he's currently, he's got a really nice ice cream truck that's in the community.

But he owns probably the most prestigious barber shop for sure in Salt Lake, if not in the United States.

And he's, he's, I don't know what you call rich or wealthy but he's well-to-do.

He lives a comfortable lifestyle.

He's a good friend of mine.

He's had several lowriders, he a, he's a good guy.

- First of all, how may car clubs do you know that are here, in the Valley, if you were to guess.

- Probably about right now, 30.

We have about 30.

- [Danor] Wow!

- [Lonzo] Wow, there are that many different ones.

- In the last two years we've grown a lot of new car clubs.

So, I mean, that's a plus for us.

Because it's just growing our community.

- Now is there a specific thing you have to sort of like, your car has to do this, or be that, to be in a lowrider club?

Because- - Each car club has their own standards, their own, - Okay - You know, there's some guys like me, it's gotta be cut.

Cut is slang for having hydraulics.

It has to be cut.

To me I don't, that's, I'm just an old-school traditionalist with that.

- That's cool.

- You know, so if I, you know, my club, that's how would it would be.

Each car club has their own standards, like, you have to do so much work to you car each year, or you have to keep it up, or you have to have the chrome undercarriage, or just a bunch of different things, there's other car clubs, you know, that are a little bit more relaxed of what you need to do but mostly just taking pride in your car, cleaning it, keeping it up.

Beyond the cars and those sort of things, do some clubs have like specific missions, or specific goals that they're, like you mentioned, the girl's club in L.A., a woman's club.

- Well, we have, Utah's pretty unique, we're a smaller community, we have a lot a cars and stuff, but we all come together, we have what's called the Utah Rider's association.

- Okay.

- So that umbrellas all of us.

- Oh, that's cool.

- We meet, we meet regularly in the off-season, it's easy to meet in the regular season, we talk when we're at events, but Utah, unfortunately you can't lowride year-round.

But, we meet in the offseasons, and discuss issues, and stuff comes up, you know?

- For the community?

Like, to, give us some examples.

- We do community, like, we do like Toys For Tots drives, each club does their own thing.

But we do Toys for Tots.

- I actually have been doing a toy drive in memory of my daughter for like, four or five years, and we just pick different, like, primary children's, the Road Home, the Youth Center, and just pretty much give back.

And the community, all the car clubs take part of it too.

- That's so amazing to think about that.

You know when you see this, this crew of lowriders driving down the street, there's so much more than meets the eye, than just the cars.

- Let me ask you guys a question, let's say I come in, I go, Nick, I've got my '83 Buick Regal.

- (laughter) Let's talk money here, right?

So I mean, what does it cost to get one of these things off the, like your average lowrider that you see, that's like, that's up on the, like we were watching on the screen, that's bouncing and jumping around like that, what does something like that cost?

- It's considerable investment.

I mean, depending on how much work you're putting in yourself, that's the thing, most of the lowrider community are really hands-on.

So they're gonna be putting in a lot of the work theirself, if, I mean it, it's just like restoring you know, a hot rod, or restoring one to original, and it, it incurs some cost.

I mean, a Buick Regal, something like that would cost, I mean, anywhere between, depending on what you find the car for, you know, $8,000 up to, I mean, they're, you start putting the money in them, they're $30-40,000.

- [Lonzo] (whistle) - [Danor] Wow.

- [Lonzo] You can make money at those car shows, - [Connie] Yeah.

right, I take it?

- Oh yeah, there's prize money, there's, - [Lonzo] There's that bounce club.

- [Nick] Yeah.

- So what would you say to the people who have a negative stereotype abut lowriding?

I would say, come to our events, come and talk to us, and we're just like anybody else.

We have families, we work, we you know, a lot of our people that own vehicles, or build their own cars, they're sacrificing themselves, you know, going without lunch, or they wanna put their money into some rims, or get a paint job, you know, so, we're just like anybody else.

Come to our event, come hang out.

We've actually came a long way, we have the Lowrider Magazine coming here on July 27, - Nick was telling me about that.

- Yes.

- And tell us about that.

- And that hasn't happened since- - '99.

Bajito Tour.

- So lowriders are really, for the audience members that don't know, Lowrider is a really popular lowrider magazine.

It's like one of the premier magazines, in the lowrider community.

It's been around for as long as I know.

- 1977.

Lowrider Magazine's been around since 1977 and I think two or three years ago, it's no longer in print form, it's all, you know, electronic, it's all, online.

And they've always done a tour.

So Utah got back on the tour this year, July 27.

It's gonna be at Mountain Expo.

- So why now?

- Love it.

- Why now?

- It's just the whole movement is big right now.

Lowriding is growing, it's not just Utah where it's growing.

It's like earlier when we were talking about, you know like how women are coming, you know, having their own cars and stuff.

Lowriding mimics everything.

I, like, as far as equality, you know, and women being more involved in everything, from professions, to everything, lowriding's gonna follow suit and, car culture is big, so lowriding's gonna follow suit, Lowrider's gonna get bigger.

There's more demand for that kind of stuff.

There's, I think social media, - Yeah.

- We all have the ability to take footage and instantly post it.

- And a lot of people see it.

- And it's right there at your finger, I mean you can't look at everything that's on Instagram, Facebook, all in an hour, you couldn't look at it in a whole day.

- So let me ask you this Nick, I mean, you've been doing this your whole life, it's legacy that you, that connects you to your grandfather.

To your family.

If someone were to ask you, like, what does this really mean to you?

What do you want people to walk away with.

Give us, speak it from the heart.

- Well, I mean, lowriding is, it's how I feed my family, it's my, it's what I do for a living.

And I'm blessed to do that.

And some days are good and other times are bad.

And my family, you know, and my family is patient with me, and they understand, you know, sometimes they're good and sometimes they're bad.

But I'm happy with what I do.

- Connie, I'm curious, you know, as we head out here, same as Nick, what do you want people to know about lowriding in your life.

You know, before we wrap up here.

- I would say that, it just helped me be a better person, and help me kinda, show my son and my family, like my mom, my dad, like they'll come and support us at our events, and you know, it's just, we're just one big family.

- One stereotype that I kinda think that lowrider gets is that it's a Hispanic thing in it, it may have it's origins, but I don't want anyone to ever feel like, well, I'm not Hispanic, I can't be a part of that.

- Hm-hmm - For sure, I mean, if you're, if you're a car person, and you like lowriders, you're welcome.

You're welcome at my shop, you're welcome at my, you know, my events, or whatever.

And I know the same goes for anybody in this community, nobody's gonna say, Oh, you're not Hispanic, or you're not Polynesian, you, no, no, it's not that.

Oh it's not that.

You're a lowrider.

At that point, you become a lowrider.

You're not Black, you're not White, you're not Hispanic, you're a lowrider.

- I think there's now, there's like, everybody is just a part of it, I mean, we all love to cruise, we all love to lowride, we all have the same passion, which is building cars, cruising, we all take pride in our cars, I mean, people they do, they do their paint jobs, their graphics and everything, so it's kinda like an artist you know, takes pride in their work.

And that's what all these people are, they're artists with their cars.

- Well this has been a lot of fun.

That is it for this week, y'all.

If you have any comments on this episode, we'd love to hear from you.

Feel free to drop us a line on social media anytime.

- Or you can visit our website, where you can catch other episodes you can just go to pbsutah.org/roots.

Until next time, for Roots, Race and Culture, y'all, we are out!

- [Narrator] Funding for Roots Race and Culture is provided in part by The Norman C. and Barbara L. Tanner Charitable Support Trust.

And by donations to PBS Utah from viewers like you.

Thank you!