Like most industries and cultures, the lowrider community is saturated in machismo. The shiny, glittering, pine-striped world of lowriding regularly battles against the clutches of toxic masculinity, with its fiercest fighters composing the Lady Lowrider Car Club based in Los Angeles. The all-women lowrider club was founded in 2021 by president Sandy Avila, a Pasadena native who noticed a lack of safe and celebratory spaces for women and female representation in the lowrider community and decided to do something about it.
Four years later, the Lady Lowriders have grown to roughly 20 members across the globe and are a boundary-busting force that has risen in prominence throughout the lowrider space and beyond. I reached out to Avila directly after seeing a handful of her Lady Lowrider comrades and their cars posted up on the streets of LA. I was curious about her cars and all that she’s achieved through lowriding. Her responses are below, lightly edited for clarity and length.
How did you first get into the world of lowriders? What was it about the cars and lowrider culture that pulled you in?
My husband is the one who brought me actively into the lower scene about eight years ago. The art of it and being able to customize the vehicles and the culture really pulled me in. I’m a car girl. I’ve always had a thing for cars, even growing up. My dad had lowriders, too, when I was a lot younger, so it’s always been a cultural, family thing for myself.
Being able to make a lowrider your own was very intriguing to me. Being able to do that has been a passion that I had been missing for a lot of years, that I absolutely love. I can’t see myself without it now.
At what point did you decide you wanted to build your own women-only cohort within the LA lowrider community?
Initially, when I first came into the scene with my husband, we did a coed car club together. That experience set the foundation of how I perceived women in the lowrider scene. For me, it was kind of difficult to be in a coed car club; it just didn’t work out. So then, my husband and I decided we were going to do our own thing. I wanted to do something that showcases and represents women because there wasn’t anything like that.
I wanted to do something that showcases and represents women because there wasn’t anything like that.
It initially started off as a brand; I made the Lady Lowrider logo and I made the plaque. I did merch like hoodies, key chains, stickers, all that stuff. I put the plaque on my car— I was like, this is how I’m going to represent as a female. After that, women started asking me, ”Hey, are you doing a club? I would love to represent with you.” And it just grew from there. Being out there and having a strong presence in the scene, women would see it and gravitate to it. I wanted to build unity with women that love lowriding, and love building cars.
I wanted to build unity with women that love lowriding, and love building cars.
How many Lady Lowriders members are there currently?
We have about 20 members right now; worldwide, we have members everywhere. We have a member in Japan, two members in Canada, a member in Mexico, and six members throughout the States in Texas, Utah, Oregon, Washington…everywhere! Our California members try to meet up as much as we can, and our other members will meet up at out-of-state events.
Can you describe your own lowrider to me and your thought process behind how you designed it?
My car is an ‘84 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. It’s a cream color with variegated leafing, brown, tan, and gold pinstriping, and flakes throughout the car. I have customized pretty much everything on the car: chrome suspension, the interior, the engine rebuild, the hydraulic system, the audio system; I have redone every piece of that car.
My husband helps me maintain that vehicle, and he’s done a lot of upgrades on it. I’m overseeing every part of it. I’m building another vehicle right now, an Impala convertible, that I’m very hands-on with. When I say “woman-built,” if I’m not doing it myself, I’m definitely there making sure that it’s getting done how I want it, and I’m supervising every aspect of the build. I’ve been working on this one day and night, I’m hoping to have it done within the next month. This is going to be almost a four-year build. The Natural History Museum wants to do a piece on it.
Your ‘84 Oldsmobile is currently on view in an exhibition at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA entitled “Best in Low.” How did that opportunity come about?
The curator of that exhibit reached out to me and asked to have my vehicle there. She wanted to showcase women. My car is a street car; it’s not just a show car. It’s very active with the hydraulics. I’ve taken it to many different shows, it’s been out of state, it’s been to a lot of different places, it’s a pretty popular car. There are about 20 or so cars in the whole exhibit. They’re really, really nice, fancy show cars. They have some cars from Japan there, too. It’s a really cool exhibit.
Having conceived of Lady Lowriders as a means of creating space for women in a male-dominated culture, what sort of challenges have you faced? How have you persevered as a woman in this community?
It’s tough. There have definitely been a lot of obstacles, being a female. Finding the right help and builders to build a vehicle is very hard in itself, even just for a male, so you can imagine how hard it is for a female. Luckily for me, my husband has been there to help me, but for certain things that we’re unable to do ourselves, finding the right person or people to help is a huge obstacle, finding people who are reliable.
We’re out here to have a good time, lowride, embrace our culture, support women, motivate… I’m looking for the good stuff!
The other big factor is trying to steer clear of the negativity, or people that are jealous or have any kind of drama. A lot of that that comes up in the lowrider scene. I just try to stay positive for myself and for everybody around me. There’s a lot of jealousy out there, but who really wants to be out here dealing with that? We’re out here to have a good time, lowride, embrace our culture, support women, motivate…I’m looking for the good stuff!
With everything you’ve accomplished so far, with your own personal cars and the Lady Lowrider community you’ve created, what are you proudest of?
I would say being on the cover of Lowrider Magazine. My car was on the cover of Lowrider Magazine this past year, and it was an edition featuring all-female-owned, lowrider women. It was probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had, I never would have expected that. Lowrider Magazine was discontinued a few years ago, and then they brought it back just to do this one last issue on women in the lowrider scene. So, being on the cover was an honor and something I would have never even dreamed of.
I was also able to co-create a makeup line based on my lowrider. I love makeup, and I don’t know if I would have been able to do that if I wasn’t in lowriding. It was really, really cool. There are a lot of other things too; I did a collaboration with Rihanna’s brand Fenty, and I did some modeling with her lingerie, and that was really cool too. But the Lowrider Magazine issue was something I will always hold dear to me.
When I built my car and came out to lowride, I didn’t know that these things were even possible or even an option, so just to be able to experience these things is really cool.
The post The Lady Lowriders Forge Their Own Path in Lowrider Culture appeared first on PRINT Magazine.