In collaboration with the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Moab Museum will debut a new exhibit Friday celebrating Chicano identity, artistry and influence on the American Southwest through the cruising culture of lowriding.
“It’s been in and around our neck of the woods, primarily within the Four Corners,” said Diego Velasquez, director of communications for the Moab Museum, noting its prominence in New Mexico and Arizona.
“Lowrider Culture in the American Southwest” will open free to the public at 9 a.m. at 118 E. Center St. Food, music and a car show by Duke’s Car Club of Salt Lake City will follow from 4 to 7 p.m. Art Limon, founder of the Los Angeles Lowrider Alliance, will speak about lowrider cars as a respected form of artistic and cultural expression.
The exhibit centers on the cultural significance of lowriding within Latino communities across the Southwest. The style flourished among Mexican American communities after World War II.
If you go
What: Lowrider Culture in the American Southwest
When: Opens Friday at 9 a.m.; car show, food and music from 4-7 p.m.
Where: Moab Museum, 118 E. Center St., Moab
Details: Exhibit celebrating Chicano identity, artistry and the cultural significance of lowriding in the American Southwest.
Admission: Free
“I think in telling this story, and for the people who have participated in this artistry, it's kind of a reminder that the Latino community has broad, long standing roots in this place a lot longer than people often remember or interpret it,” Velasquez said.
The exhibit defines lowriders as customized classic cars, modified to sit low on the ground while hopping and cruising. The featured art honors the tradition as a means to bring people closer.
The exhibit defines lowriders as customized classic cars modified to sit low to the ground while hopping and cruising. Featured artwork honors the tradition as a way to bring people closer.
“Folks will band together – not only with their car clubs, but with their families – to lend artistic elements to the detailing of these cars,” Velasquez said. “So families are able to pass on a bit of their oral histories and traditions and family stories through the artistry in these cars.”
The exhibit is part of the Moab Museum’s initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. The effort aims to celebrate the diverse stories and cultures integral to the nation’s heritage.
“Establishing what the semiquincentennial meant to us, we decided that it was too narrow of a scope to tell one particular story and wanted to get at what it means to be an American, at this time and historically speaking,” Velasquez said.
Other exhibits in the series address violence against Indigenous communities in the Southwest and family histories of migration throughout the U.S.
“We’re a small rural museum, trying to tell a story: the history of our area,” Velasquez said.
Additional information about exhibits offered by the Moab Museum is at moabmuseum.org.
avanderveen@the-journal.com
