Oh, w *** lot of our own gente went to fight for our rights and so when we cruise, this is for them, it's called low riding. Yeah, I was still *** matter, cruising is alive and well, it said, um, no cruising. So I said, no, they stood up, then we're gonna stand up. Now, could you call it systemic racism and be correct? Yes. It's never too late to write *** historic wrong. Chicanos refuse to be silenced or let their identity be suppressed. It's illegal to modify the suspension on *** vehicle. The low rider is making *** statement that's why the car does embody *** form of resistance? Keep riding slow and low, does he not? Ok. Yeah. Ok. There we go. Yes, let's close it and lock it. We're gonna put the ramps in. We're gonna start putting, um, all of our stuff to show the car. To be honest, we've taken our, our cars to L *** quite *** bit but, uh, super shows are definitely *** little more, uh, high maintenance. There's something about cleaning the car up, my daughter, my sons, they cleaning the car up and getting it out there and just cruising. We always are just going out of town for car shows. Like, whether we have *** car or not, we'll try to go to whatever we can. This is like *** thing for our family to stay together, something for us to enjoy together. Lucky for us that our kids love it as much as we do. Yeah, I'd say I just grew up in it pretty much since I was *** kid. I love it. I love it because we're together doing something. It's *** family thing and make it out for different events like museums, picnics, car shows. It's just exciting getting this show. Like what your club has 38th Street is uh the neighborhood. The street that our car club was uh is founded is in Duke's Car Club. When you get to the show, you're gonna see. We have all the Dukes are taking up *** whole intersection, California. We got the north and the south come together in two story convention center, cars on every floor. It's all about getting out there and sharing what we love. W car, son's car. This is my car. I think that low riding has really been, has really become *** Chicano expression of cultural pride and history and tradition on wheels. I think that what we can agree on is that low riding is born in the Mexican American experience in the Southwester part of the United States. Low riding in its inception is really *** culture of repurposing. You know, there were *** lot of cheap cars from the thirties available because in the forties, people wanted new cars, especially post world war two people would, would get them and, and fix them up. They lowered the car in the back. Right. Which was the antithesis of anglo car custom sensibilities. The hot rod, which would lower it in the front and jack it up in the back for drag racing purposes. Mhm You know this cutting against the mainstream, I mean it's illegal to modify the suspension on *** vehicle. *** low rider is making *** statement that is we're gonna drive this thing as low to the ground as we can. My name is Jacob Dominguez and I'm from the Duke's Car Club of Orange County. Retired of an old style car club. Bomb life round decent Vijit. I've been low riding since 1975 38 years, 25 years, since the late seventies. I just call her my baby family affair. The kids say Dream catcher. We've had numerous cars over the years. *** lot of heart, *** lot of money, *** lot of patience took nine years to build. Just my other lady can we can we can we redo it again. Back in the days when I was younger, low riding wasn't accepted. The police crackdown on Cruisers on J and L street in downtown Sacramento is taking its toll. This scene takes place every Friday and Saturday night on about *** dozen side streets and they see you, you low riding man, they'll pull you over for anything man. They can get. They said they send two squad cars, man. That's *** lie, man. They'd be sending all kinds of cops, man. As soon as you see the police officer back in those days, most of the time they made *** U turn and come after you, they would come up to you at gunpoint and put *** gun to your head and say, get out of your car. They'd go over there and take your, your seats out of your car and they harass you, they would demolish your car and then say, OK, you don't have nothing on you. You're OK to go. They started uh you know, putting sand bags in the trunk and customizing it, modifying it. And then they realized that Lee started messing with them because of that. They added their own touches to it and uh made it uh kind of like uh almost like like they were rebels low riding in the time that we're talking about late seventies, early eighties. The majority of people involved in the culture are Mexican American. So the impact of those laws are going to disproportionately affect to *** greater degree. Mexican American youth. Could you call it systemic racism and be correct? Yes, there's *** long history of hot rod culture and drag racing on the Great Highway. The majority of those kids were white. Are you targeting hot rods? Are you targeting white kids? And I've yet to see that happen when we cruise our cars. I mean, this is like also mental therapy for us. So I feel like our cars are one way to show who we are. It's an outward expression of our Chicano. We are in the heart of East L *** right here on Whittier Boulevard. And this is *** significant location, actually an iconic location to the low rider community and Chicano culture. It was absolutely huge. I mean, you're talking about miles of low riders on *** parking lot, both directions as that shut down. It switched to story and King in San Jose, every town pretty much had their cruise spots growing up in Modesto, we had mckenry, you know, San Francisco had Mission Street. I'm gonna be, you know, completely honest and transparent here. Not every low rider is up for Sainthood streets were open and the traffic headed for mckenry Avenue where cruising continued until the early morning hours growing up in Modesto, graffiti night was *** huge event. Every summer, there would be 100,000 people on the street. But after someone was shot and killed in the early morning hours after the sanctioned event by an undercover police officer, the city refused to participate hoping graffiti night would just fade away. And that was that the whole community pays the price for the actions of the few many cities around California put ordinances out that you can't cruise in their city, mainly the Latino community. That's what they were trying to stop if the cars were too low or if they were modified, that's all they'd have to see is that the car was low so they could pull you over and that was the probable cause that they had to start doing whatever it is they did. So that's when, um, then hydraulics came about because *** lot of the people who lowered their vehicle, they were being, you know, criminalized for lowering it. So they said, ok, we'll go ahead and hire it. So there was *** form of resistance there. This is where one big, another big sign was right here. It said, um, no cruising. I started noticing those cruise, no cruising signs and I looked into the, the vehicle code and in fact, it was, you know, *** legit vehicle code. It was, uh, you can't pass more than two times within *** six hour period. Those signs reminded me of, of the awful signs we saw prior to the civil rights movement. And so I said, no, they stood up, then we're gonna stand up now. Whittier Boulevard is definitely *** place to come when you are *** part of the low rider scene. *** lot of people got pushed out of this area years ago. They would cruise right here, but then the sheriff would take place and be here and, and push us out and shut it off here. There would be, you know, an altercations of what something here or there that would take place. But those are things that happened here in East L *** on any given day, not just on *** Sunday, they would target Sundays. And we're like, why is it these issues only *** problem on Sundays when there's low riders on the boulevard, they in fact told us one time, no low riders allowed driving into *** parking location to go get some tacos with my mom and dad in the car. And I was like, wow, I was like, how embarrassing my parents had to come witness. You know, I felt it was racism. I created the change that or I started reaching out connecting with people fighting the band and that has almost 10,000 signatures in 1988 here where you're standing at the State Capitol assembly member introduced *** bill and it was signed into law that allowed local governments to pass anti cruising ordinances. We are here because we believe that cruising is not *** crime. I am assembly member David Alvarez, I am the author of the bill which we have *** number for now assembly bill 436. Today I rise to present *** 436 by assembly member, Alvarez, *** bipartisan supported bill. This bill will highlight the role of cruising by creating community, expressing love for art and bringing unity not the cruising that becomes *** crime. It's what other people do when there is cruising going on in uh the community *** B 436 will also repeal existing law that allows local authorities to stop drivers from driving cars that have been modified to *** certain height. Local government should have the ability to set time and place limitations and to make sure that traffic is moving uh, during *** cruising time, it's hard because when people make this an ethnic issue then it looks like I'm not following the, the, the, the, the the group there. There's *** lot of super shows down here. So I like coming to the super shows *** lot to meet new people and new club members. Just low rider people like low rider kids. Yeah, and girls. So right now I'm swapping my Reebok for fat laces because they look better with that. Have my sister on my clothes for me because I don't really know how to crease. So yeah, she's teaching me any time before *** car show. It's always last minute too. They always just hand me their stuff, you know, like how can you iron this? Sure. Well, usually you have to iron the pants like *** lot. People think you need *** starch but you don't need to do all that. And honestly, it's just hairspray. I just use hairspray on my creases right now. I'm just taking these threads away. I don't really wanna hang that up and burn my finger. But I get *** lot of kids have other stuff going on. They have like different hobbies. But this is what I'm into. This is what I like doing. So this is kind of my, not even hobby. It's more of like *** lifestyle. You know, these kids have *** responsibility and we've made it clear too when we're out there and we're wearing our gear. That's *** responsibility. We're representing the Duke's family car club culture started with low riding with the Duke's car club down in Los Angeles. My understanding is that they started to work on cars to get away from gang life. There are some car clubs that are more centered on community engagement. There are some that are just about showing their cars if you go to the seventies and the beginning of like Cinco de Mayo celebrations that were really an expression born out of the Chicano movement, which was *** subset of civil rights. Then what you see front and center in the parades in the park celebrations. You have low riders as you see the cruising bands come into play. Then people you know, there were more and more shows that mushroomed because people needed *** place to congregate. All told there were more than 60 customized cars on display, cruisers of all shapes, sizes and colors with the aid of hydraulic lifts. They also hop people that don't have any pride in their cars. Those are the people that cause the police in this community problems. The car has to be unique. So I have the one with the red one is most wanted. I hop I gas hob I three wheel been custom painting since I was 13 years old. This one took me three months. Start to finish 1957 Bel Air. The Marry motor car is drifting out of memory since the 1991 Mazda B 2200 something that I grew up admiring and I, you know, got to build, build this and live my dream. I put my family tree on it. That's my nephew. That's my sister. Yeah, I say all the vehicles are beautiful. There's no ugly car, but I gotta find where the mistakes were made. And that's *** kind of my way of judging. I counted so far 621 cars so far 203 100 categories. We got the luxury vehicles, we got the B cars, we got the bicycles, we got hot rods, rot rods, trucks, we'll be judging the paint himself, which is one. Um And then we judge the graphics, we judge the murals, hydraulics, you know, trunk bed, engraving, plating wheels. So pretty much at the end, we adapt the numbers and 12 and three and the best car wins and seeing your friends getting together with their car club members and it's like *** big family kind of, you know, c like family reunion, like for the hoops, that's just what I prefer is bigger, hoops, bigger the hoops better. The person just has like all the stuff that I wear, like the *** and everything, the nails, the flowers because I take pride in the way that I dress. It's like if you don't take pride in the way that you dress, it's like going out cruising with dirty wheels. It doesn't matter like, anywhere that I go always, people are gonna look at me *** certain way. Now I'm just used to it. I feel like people just, they don't understand that because they don't get to know these people. But yeah, *** lot of these people are just like everyday people that you meet in your life. The start of *** lot of the car club culture became because it was *** way for you to stay in your neighborhood, still have respect from people and they didn't expect you to go out and do *** lot of this, you know, the dumb stuff that was gonna end you up, killed or imprisoned so many clubs from the sixties that started this and have went through all those growing pains and at *** time when it wasn't *** good time for low riding, you know, they're here standing today is the time for everyone, all the members to demonstrate their true leadership and to support the cruising is not *** crime statewide bill. Yeah. Today we stand in solidarity with our low riders in this great state of California and call upon our state legislators to once and for all end the target racist injustices and pass the bill that will ban no cruising ordinances throughout the state of California. At the state capitol, *** proposal to repeal *** ban on low rider cruising in the state has been introduced. The current law has been in place since 1988. It's never too late to right *** historic wrong. And you know what? It's never too soon to get going now and make sure it has happens as quickly as possible. When the law was going through the process, it goes through different committees. We were lucky and it passed, every committee went to the Senate and, and we got the votes and it passed any further comments, discussion, debate on this on this measure. See, none. Secretary, please call the roll small Cuevas Bradford Humber on *** vote of 33. The measure passes now on my 58 and cruising is now legal all across the state. After Governor Newsom signed *** 436 the ban was lifted and took effect January 2024. You know, we're not doing anything that's harming anybody. We're not breaking any laws. So why, why shouldn't, why should we be told? No, *** lot of our own gente went to fight for our rights. And so when we cruise, this is for them, it's us giving, paying them back for what they did for us. It brought the love for low riding back. We see it used more than ever in terms of movies, videos, music videos, it's become mainstream now at the Super Bowl, you know, halftime show being in commercials, you are *** fighter Modelo beer. You know, corporations have figured out that low riding is hot right now. So everybody's gonna cash in, it's worldwide now. It's encrypted. You got Japan, you got Australia, you got other countries that are all into low riding. I got people from all over the world that stop by. Isn't that beautiful? This is the poster uh for the Rufai Carrus exhibit and this kind of symbolizes the women and their solidarity. It just really wants to focus on like the females that have been in this culture for such *** long time, but kind of have been in the shadows in the more recent years. Women are saying no more like I know how to do all this stuff. My youngest daughter on our rides to like work in school. We would sit in the car and bounce ideas off of each other. The beauty of it is that these low riders are able to create these works of art through their own expression. This is what this is how they express themselves. I was always inspired by my mom always seeing her getting ready, seeing all the different looks she would do. It was nice because we got to spend *** lot of time on this project and it's just been fulfilling. Oh, you can give me *** hug. Very proud of you. Thank you. Proud of you too. Assembly Concurrent Resolution 218 by Assembly Milu Rivas and others. AC R 218 seeks to celebrate the first Sunday of summer as California Low Rider Day. It's important to keep low rider culture alive because of the significance that it has within our culture. And I think that we're doing *** great job of that. I love seeing young people take an interest. I think that as much as we can pass this along to the next generation and next generations, we will keep it alive. Seeing her take that all in and, and knowing that she's gonna hold that torch one day, she's gonna be the one with her kids in the car and see how proud she is riding. And you know, having that Mexican flag with her. I wanna learn how to paint cars and pin stripe them and then I wanna learn other things along the way, like how to do interior. At one point in my life, I'm gonna have to step aside and let nature take its course and let the kids be the next generation. You know, knowing I did my part, hopefully, every summer I can learn *** new thing. That's what I'm hoping for. Now, we're done.