Photo: Getty Images
A new art exhibit in San Francisco is highlighting how lowrider art and the lifestyle contributed to a positive social change for the Latino community in the city.
CBS SF reports that lowrider culture was once considered a criminal activity.
“I was arrested 113 times during that period,” Roberto Hernandez, a lifelong lowrider, activist, and curator of the exhibit told CBS. His experiences led him to form the Lowrider Council of San Francisco which fought police crackdowns on lowriders.
“Here in the Mission, we were not white; we were brown young men and women who were doing something that was not part of society,” he said.
The Lowrider Council was able to collect evidence, hire lawyers and sue the city in federal court. They won the case and it resulted in police reforms and a greater acceptance of lowrider culture.
“I felt proud to be brown and cruising down the street in my lowrider from then until this day. It’s just a great feeling,” said Hernandez. “Lowriders are in music videos, movies, commercials. We’ve been invited be a part of the 50th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. We get invited to all these social gatherings that I would have never imagined being invited to."
The exhibit celebrating that journey is located at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and will run through September 27.