Forever Cruising exhibit puts lowrider art, culture and community on display

For decades, lowrider culture has been an important part of the San Jose community.

"Since the 1970s, San Jose has always been big as a cruising central," Research Services and Social Sciences Librarian Estella Inda explains, "we were one of the first to bring down the "no cruising" signs, to remove that ban and work with the community to highlight the culture."

To further feature the lowrider community, the SJSU King Library's AAACNA Studies Center and the United Lowrider Council of San José created the "Forever Cruising: Cultura de Lowrider" exhibition.

"I love celebrating the culture because…it doesn’t get the recognition it’s supposed to be getting," Inda reveals, "I feel like people see the car, but don’t understand what it means, the history behind it."

The exhibit celebrates the creativity, heritage, and cultural pride of the lowrider community with different publications, photographs, awards, articles and even model cars on display.

Outside the library, visitors can get an up-close look at the etching, pinstriping and paint designs of local lowriders.

"You can really see the craftsmanship and the artwork that goes into a lowrider," Inda shares, "every part of it is important because this is people’s lives and work that have gone into this piece of art."

According to Inda, "Forever Cruising" is designed to entertain, educate and bring the community closer together.

"Put your artistic spin on the car, put your family heritage on this car and display it and share it and show it and be proud of that," Inda declares, "come together in camaraderie from that community."

Check us out on:

Localish is all about bringing out the good in America’s cities. Our locally-sourced stories transcend city limits so you can live like a local wherever you go.

#Localish #GoodPeople #GoodNews

[__cypher__]

How the HELL are you gonna put low rider and culture the same sentence!