Lowriders Are the Beating Heart of Chicano Culture in the Southwest

Outside El Santuario De Chimayo, 20 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Arthur “Lowlow” Medina leans forward on his wooden staff.

The local artist and one of the pioneers of New Mexico lowriding motions toward his prized 1976 Cadillac parked just up the street from the Chimayo church, the spiritual center of hispanic/chicano culture in the Southwest.