One may have seen more lowriders on the cruise lately. This Jan. 1, State Bill AB 436 became law, legalizing lowriders and striking down all local ordinances against car cruising.
In celebration, The Museum of Sonoma County has organized a major art show and calendar of fiestas celebrating the lowrider and the culture from which it rose up, dropped down and bounced, bounced. Most of our 20-odd local clubs have chosen to participate, offering stories and memorabilia about this history of the cruise.
For this interview, I spoke to the president of Rosetown Connection, Fernando Hermosillo, and the crew whose club contributed a cherry ’63 Impala to the art gallery.
Before continuing into the interview, I wanted to make a note on this museum show’s rich subtext. Art museums have traditionally and conventionally been given the power of defining what art is (i.e., “art is whatever is displayed in an art gallery”), so there is an element of this institution declaring that lowriders are fine art with this show (hurray/duh).
And, as institutional art museums are part of the power structure, there is also an element of an apology for the ban, which had confused these artists and all-American car nuts with gangsters and brought in a 30 year period of official harassment.
CH: How do y’all feel as you walk around this art show?
FH: We love it. The highlight is having our car participating in this museum show. Something we thought never was going to happen. It’s very welcoming. We’re being embraced; our culture is being embraced.
CH: Your club member, Alberto Chavez, put a lot of love into this Impala. Can you tell us a bit about the building of a low rider, using his ride ?
FH: He basically bought it as a junkyard car. Some features he added to it were two-tone trim, engraved chromium parts, wire wheels, new chromed engine, LED lights, massive sound system, and an air ride system to raise and lower it. He’s put maybe six years into it, but the work is never really finished.
CH: You told me it also costs between 20 and 70 K to trick-out. Not something you would want to risk in some jack-fool gangsterism.
FH: Exactly.
See this historic show. It continues at The Museum of Sonoma County until the end of November with a big block party Oct.19. Also peep at the Rosetown Connection IG. This link and QR code will take you there : linktr.ee/CruisinLINKS.
