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Number 46 at The Great 408
Sal Pizarro, 07/29/2019
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Lowrider Culture

Lowriders didn’t start in San Jose. Lowering a car’s chassis below the rims and giving it a sweet paint job — going “low and slow” as you cruised the main drag — started in Los Angeles in the 1940s. But by the 1960s, the culture had developed in San Jose, where cruising along the wide avenues of Story Road and Alum Rock Avenue became weekend night rituals for a Mexican-American community that was growing — and growing restless. Lowrider magazine was founded in San Jose in 1977 by San Jose State students Larry Gonzalez, Sonny Madrid, and David Nunez. It celebrated not only the cars, but the culture that spawned them. (Of course, it may be best remembered by some for the scantily clad women featured in its pages). Today, lowrider culture permeates mainstream society through art, music and, most especially, cars. Several South Bay car clubs still bring out their best for Show n Shine events and it wouldn’t be Cinco de Mayo in San Jose without seeing lowriders cruising down Alum Rock Avenue toward downtown.

Photos courtesy of The Mercury News.

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