Española lowrider day 2023

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines lowrider as "a customized car with a chassis that has been lowered so that it narrowly clears the ground. In the s and '90s, many cities passed "anti-cruising" ordinances, because police departments and the public often saw lowriders as menacing; connected to drugs and gangs. It's taken decades, but that perception is finally changing, And nowhere is the transformation more pronounced than in the lowrider hotbed of northern New Mexico.

He's been cruising this road in this vintage car since he was a kid with his dad at the wheel. And Good Friday has long been the day for local lowriders.

New mexico lowriders

Eppie Martinez: This is the grand opening of spring, you know? Everybody looks forward, as you can see today. Oh, my God, it's gonna be Martinez is leading a candy-colored caravan of cars from his Viejitos Car Club — that's "old men" in Spanish. Espanola calls itself the "lowrider capital of the world," and on Good Friday the Viejitos were joined by lowriders from many other local car clubs for a chrome-and-tailfin celebration of their culture.

Some were shining up and staying put to be admired, while others showed off the crazy hydraulic gymnastics lowriders are known for. Eppie Martinez: We got ourselves here something not too much. I got a two pump setup. It's mostly aircraft. Those hydraulic pumps, designed to operate aircraft flaps and landing gear, are controlled by switches at the driver's seat.