Slow, Aesthetic and Memorious. Lowrider Automobilities and the Aestethics of Nostalgia in Tijuana

Abstract

Lowriders are urban groups that become visible circulating the city streets in old cars modified with a complex hydraulic system that allow them to lower the car to floor level or lift it to a couple of feet. This is a border phenomenon whose practices are related to chicano identity, include pachuco and cholo symbolic elements, and use the car as the central mechanism of expression of the shared symbols. This paper analyzes the construction of lowrider identities in Tijuana, Baja California, and the strengthening of them through their performative exhibition in the urban space. This text presents the results of a research project regarding the implications of “automobilizing†identities.