In Toronto, lowrider car culture builds community and honours its Chicano history by Yader Guzman

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In Toronto, lowrider car culture builds community and honours its Chicano history

yader guzman

Aug 7, 2023

Location: Toronto

Summary

Lowrider culture and history goes back far beyond the West Coast gangster rap image most associate it with today. The roots date to the postwar years of the 1940s when returning Mexican-American servicemen began modifying their cars alongside the growing hot rod culture of white America. But wanting to differentiate themselves as a form of self-expression, the lowriders went in the opposite direction from the hot rods.“Where the hot rods are built for speed, with the backs lifted up, big wheels, and the front low like a drag car, the Latinos would use sandbags, stones, and whatever heavy thing they could get their hands on, to get their cars as low as possible. ‘Low and Slow’ is the motto,” says Jeff Forgione, owner of custom fabrication shop Switches and Thangs and president of the Toronto chapter of Majestics Car Club. Mr. Forgione has been building lowriders in Toronto for almost 20 years. Before he had his own shop – where he now builds cars that can take up to two years to complete and cost upward of $250,000 – he learned by tinkering in his driveway, which is the way most in the community build their cars.
As these original lowriders grew in popularity and began to take on more cultural significance within the Mexican-American Chicano movement in late 1950s California, laws were passed to restrict the use of cars modified to be lower than the bottom of its rims. In response, the surplus of Second World War aircraft hydraulics parts were used by the Chicano community to lift the cars on command, giving birth to the modern lowrider that can be raised, dropped, and bounced off the ground. Since the rise of West Coast gangster rap in the 1980s, the lowriders popularity has exploded to reach all parts of the globe, with established car clubs in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, France, and Japan, which is currently home to arguably the biggest lowrider scene in the world today. While the association with rap music has led to the spread of lowriding and the culture around it, it’s also brought with it a negative connotation to gangs and crime – an association Mr. Forgione rejects.“It’s a passion for cars, art, and community and we’re paying homage to the culture appropriately,” says Mr. Forgione. “I mean, I can’t imagine those guys in LA back in the day would ever imagine that this would ever have reached Japan. I think they’d be proud, as they should be.”
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In Toronto, lowrider car culture builds community and honours its Chicano history
Started by Mexican-American serviceman modifying their cars in the 1940s, lowrider culture finds a new home in Toronto
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Yader Guzman

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