The cars came rumbling through the Pasadena City College campus quad, low to the ground, pumping out the tunes and bouncing the hydraulics, suddenly interrupting and exciting the lunchtime crowd.
There was a glossy pink Chevy Deluxe, a ‘64 pearl lavender Chevy SS Impala, a silver Oldsmobile with hydraulic lifts, and a hot pink Chevy Monte Carlo, de rigeur rides for any lowrider worth his chain link steering wheel. But these rides were driven and owned by women—a rarity in the Lowrider culture.
It was the feature attraction in Thursday’s Latine Heritage Month event and the college’s ongoing centennial celebration, “Cruising PCC: Celebrating Lowrider Culture.”
The event was described as “the community’s chance to interact with cars and their owners, learn about their histories with their cars, see the love and passion they have poured into them, and understand how they have tied their love of lowriders to their own sense of community,” according to a PCC statement.
This full-day event showcased Mexican-American and Chicanx car culture by highlighting the Lady Lowriders, a Pasadena-based “women’s only” car club, along with a photography exhibit documenting Los Angeles’ Latine culture and lowriders.
“Today’s event is featuring Lady Lowriders,” explained Dr. Radhika “Rad” Khandelwal, Intercultural Engagement Director in the Division of Institutional Equity, Diversity and Justice at Pasadena City College.
“We are doing this partly to honor Latine Heritage Month,” she continued. “There is a deep history of Latine Chicano American Los Angeles car culture, and we wanted to highlight that here at PCC. It’s relevant to our student population, and to the culture and history of Pasadena as well.”
Khandelwal added that, “There’s a moment right now in car culture and Lady Lowriders are one of the pioneering women-only car clubs. We wanted to show women, in the center, in the driver’s seat, and kind of recentering this narrative from women just being side pieces or just accessories to car culture, but to actually being central to that.”
Lady Lowrider Marcela Banuelos proudly showed off her ‘64 Chevy Impala Super Sport that she bought from her father, saying, “I paid for everything myself, the paint, all the re-chrome, the hydraulics, the music, everything, and once I put the car in my name, it was mine.”
While she didn’t grow up in a “car family,” she said her Dad told her stories of the cars he owned, along with the music he listened to growing up, as well his favorite movies.
‘It made me love it, and I just got into it,” she said. “And he came home with this car one day, and none of my brothers showed any interest in it, so I asked if I could buy the car, and we worked out the payments, and then I was able to do what I wanted with the car.”
In addition to the Lady Lowriders, a group of PCC staff members showed off their rides in a nearby parking lot, displaying a ‘30s classic hot rod, the ubiquitous Chevy Impala SS, a 1966 Camaro, a Mercedes convertible, a VW bus, and a ‘57 Ford Fairlane, among other wheels.
PCC Grounds Supervisor Daryl Montgomery, showed off his light blue 1979 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that he outfitted with new paint, wheels, new music, and of course, a set of hydraulic lifts, powered by a trunk full of batteries.
Like Marcela, Daryl’s dad loved cars.
“I have ten cars right now,” said Daryl, before demonstrating his car’s hydraulics. “More classics and trucks, early ‘60s and ‘70s. Us Pasadena guys, we just love cars.”