This informed and accessible book captures the art, energy, passion, and pageantry of over 60 years of lowrider culture—an absolutely iconic Chicano and American phenomenon. Much like rap music and ethnic foods, Chicano lowrider culture has become sufficiently widespread in recent decades to almost be considered "mainstream." However, those outside of lowriding may not realize that this cultural phenomenon is not the result of a recent fad—it originated in the pre–World War II era, and has continued to grow and evolve since then. Lowriders in Chicano Culture: From Low to Slow to Show allows readers to see how this expressive culture fits within the broader context of Chicano culture and understand how lowriding reflects the social, artistic, and political dimensions of America's fastest-growing ethnic group. It includes chapters that explain the culture of pachucas/os and cholas/os; the unique aesthetics of lowrider vehicles; lowrider music, shows, and clubs; the mechanics of building a lowrider vehicle; and lowrider culture in the media including film, newspapers, and television. The book also traces how lowrider culture has recently expanded beyond the urban streets and into the massive exhibit halls of lowrider shows, exposing lowrider culture to even more enthusiasts.

San Diego's unique lowrider culture and community has a long history of "low and slow." Cruising the streets from 1950 to 1985, twenty-eight lowrider car clubs made their marks in the San Diego neighborhoods of Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, National City, Old Town, San Ysidro and the adjoining border community of Tijuana, Mexico. Foundational clubs, including the Latin Lowriders, Brown Image and Chicano Brothers, helped transform marginalized youth into lowriders who modified their cars into elegant, stylized lowered vehicles with a strong Chicano influence. Despite being targeted by the police in the 1980s, club members defended their passion and succeeded in building a thriving scene of competitions and shows with a tradition of customization, close community and Chicano pride. Authors Alberto López Pulido and Rigoberto "Rigo" Reyes follow the birth of lowrider culture to the present day.

"San Diego's unique lowrider culture and community has a long history of 'low and slow.' Cruising the streets from 1950 to 1985, twenty-eight lowrider car clubs made their marks in the San Diego neighborhoods of Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, National City, Old Town, San Ysidro and the adjoining border community of Tijuana, Mexico. Foundational clubs, including the Latin Lowriders, Brown Image and Chicano Brothers, helped transform marginalized youth into lowriders who modified their cars into elegant, stylized lowered vehicles with a strong Chicano influence. Despite being targeted by the police in the 1980s, club members defended their passion and succeeded in building a thriving scene of competitions and shows with a tradition of customization, close community and Chicano pride. Authors Alberto Lâopez Pulido and Rigoberto 'Rigo' Reyes follow the birth of lowrider culture to the present day." --

"This book explores how lowrider car culture allows Mexican Americans to alter the urban landscape and make a place for themselves in an often segregated society"--

This three-volume encyclopedia describes and explains the variety and commonalities in Latina/o culture, providing comprehensive coverage of a variety of Latina/o cultural forms—popular culture, folk culture, rites of passages, and many other forms of shared expression. In the last decade, the Latina/o population has established itself as the fastest growing ethnic group within the United States, and constitutes one of the largest minority groups in the nation. While the different Latina/o groups do have cultural commonalities, there are also many differences among them. This important work examines the historical, regional, and ethnic/racial diversity within specific traditions in rich detail, providing an accurate and comprehensive treatment of what constitutes "the Latino experience" in America. The entries in this three-volume set provide accessible, in-depth information on a wide range of topics, covering cultural traditions including food; art, film, music, and literature; secular and religious celebrations; and religious beliefs and practices. Readers will gain an appreciation for the historical, regional, and ethnic/racial diversity within specific Latina/o traditions. Accompanying sidebars and "spotlight" biographies serve to highlight specific cultural differences and key individuals.

Introduces the customized cars known as lowriders and discusses what they look like, their history, events that feature lowriders, and related topics.

Cultural Studies: An Anthology is a comprehensive collection of classic and contemporary essays in the diverse field of cultural studies. It is designed for classroom use in a variety of settings and departments, from communications and film studies to literature and anthropology. With an international scope and interdisciplinary approach, this book represents the diversity, depth, and leading scholarship of this complex field. A blockbuster anthology bringing together classic and contemporary essays in the fragmented field of cultural studies Takes an international and interdisciplinary approach, representing the diversity, depth, and leading scholarship of this complex field Offers a range of important perspectives on key topics, including policy, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, identity, visual culture, and diaspora Provides an overview of the history of the discipline, and argues for better placement of cultural studies within the academy Designed for classroom use in a variety of settings and departments, from communications and film studies to literature and anthropology, contextualizing essays with helpful introductory material and extensive bibliographic citations Michael Ryan is an internationally renowned academic and author; he is supported here by an global advisory board of leading scholars

Tribal Streetwear is lifestyle streetwear brand that seeks to represent a variety of southern California sub-cultures that includes graffiti, street art, skateboarding, surfing, tattoos, hip hop, breakdancing, punk, lowriders, and custom culture. Based in San Diego, California, Tribal has strong Chicano roots in its aesthetic and spans the globe with retail stores on several continents. The text presents a series of articles, essays, and personal reflections that explore the various dimensions of Tribal Streetwear, and how the impact of their designs continues to balance the precarious act of being relevant and responsible with their resources. The book is divided into four sections. Section 1 features essays that set a context for the text. This includes a history of Tribal and where it fits within the history of streetwear, a personal narrative of the founding of Tribal, and lastly an essay on the uniqueness of southern California aesthetics and the fascination with this southern California inspired fashion. Section 2 is a series of interviews with notable artists, musicians, and cultural tastemakers that have contributed toward street culture and Tribal. These include Mr. Cartoon (tattoo artist), RISK (graffiti artist), PERSUE (street artists), Mike Giant (tattoo artist), Dyse One (graffiti artist), Craig Craig Stecyk III (skateboard culture), Bob Hurley (surf culture), and the Beastie Boys (hip hop). Section 3 includes a series of invited and peer-reviewed academic articles on distinct subjects within the street culture genre that further dive into the inputs and influences of Tribal Streetwear. They include breakdancing, surfing, skateboarding, graffiti, street art, tattooing, music (hip-hop/punk), lowriders, custom culture, and Chicano Studies. Section 4 is a series of photo essays that capture the three decades of Tribal Streetwear and serves as a visual history of the brand and the evolution of its graphics.

Shape Shifters presents a wide-ranging array of essays that examine peoples of mixed racial identity. Moving beyond the static “either/or” categories of racial identification found within typical insular conversations about mixed-race peoples, Shape Shifters explores these mixed-race identities as fluid, ambiguous, contingent, multiple, and malleable. This volume expands our understandings of how individuals and ethnic groups identify themselves within their own sociohistorical contexts. The essays in Shape Shifters explore different historical eras and reach across the globe, from the Roman and Chinese borderlands of classical antiquity to medieval Eurasian shape shifters, the Native peoples of the missions of Spanish California, and racial shape shifting among African Americans in the post–civil rights era. At different times in their lives or over generations in their families, racial shape shifters have moved from one social context to another. And as new social contexts were imposed on them, identities have even changed from one group to another. This is not racial, ethnic, or religious imposture. It is simply the way that people’s lives unfold in fluid sociohistorical circumstances. With contributions by Ryan Abrecht, George J. Sánchez, Laura Moore, and Margaret Hunter, among others, Shape Shifters explores the forces of migration, borderlands, trade, warfare, occupation, colonial imposition, and the creation and dissolution of states and empires to highlight the historically contingent basis of identification among mixed-race peoples across time and space.

Black and Brown in Los Angeles is a timely and wide-ranging, interdisciplinary foray into the complicated world of multiethnic Los Angeles. The first book to focus exclusively on the range of relationships and interactions between Latinas/os and African Americans in one of the most diverse cities in the United States, the book delivers supporting evidence that Los Angeles is a key place to study racial politics while also providing the basis for broader discussions of multiethnic America. Students, faculty, and interested readers will gain an understanding of the different forms of cultural borrowing and exchange that have shaped a terrain through which African Americans and Latinas/os cross paths, intersect, move in parallel tracks, and engage with a whole range of aspects of urban living. Tensions and shared intimacies are recurrent themes that emerge as the contributors seek to integrate artistic and cultural constructs with politics and economics in their goal of extending simple paradigms of conflict, cooperation, or coalition. The book features essays by historians, economists, and cultural and ethnic studies scholars, alongside contributions by photographers and journalists working in Los Angeles.