Isamale Tamayo is a leader, a mechanic and involved in the community. But his personal favorite is the lowriders. Lowriders are a big thing in Mexican American culture.
“Why are lowriders so popular in Mexican American culture? Because you could see a lowrider, and that’s a part of you, it is the way you express yourself,” said Tamayo, “In a car or a bike or something that makes you you.”
Lowriders are cars that are low to the ground with candy paint – colored with gold and flakes – on 13 inch wire wheels and on hydraulics. Lowriders started in southern California in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Some claim that lowriders are gang related. but now it is different because it is more like a family thing.
“Back in the days, it was kind of like that,” said Tamayo. “But it evolved into [something] different. Now it’s more of a family event.”
Tamayo has been low-riding since he was a kid.
“10 years old,” Tamayo said.
His first car was a blue Coupe De Ville from the year 1983.