I would like to take the opportunity in this column to get a little into what the purpose and intent of Lowider Magazine is.
The idea of a Lowrider Magazine has been kickin' Barrio dust for some time. Usually one would have to depend on chance opportunities where a Chicano was portrayed on t.v. or the movies. La Chicanada is generally viewed as somewhere between the Cisco Kidd, Emiliano Zapata and Cesar Chavez. However, there are no horses in East L.A. and no more farmworkers in San Jose. Chicanos are urban and the rural Chicano acts like the urban. Youthwise, the popular word is Lowrider cause that's what they are, and I are. (me) From age 35 to 15 the in trip is the Lowrider trip so the popular style is when you ride, you lowride.
Lowrider Magazine is that carruchita that will take you for a ride through the Barrios of Califas and Arizona and on to Texas. Lowriders from San Jo, L.A., Fresno, Oxnard, Tucson, San Antonio, and El Paso will come before you through the medium of this magazine. The Lowrider style is a very colorful arena of Chicano youth going about their business of living. The Lowrider clubs reflect some of the unique concepts that they portray. These are names for example on car plaques, jackets, and t-shirts that say, New Arrivals, Classics, Uniques, New Image, Brown Sensations, Nuestra Raza, Mystics, Latin Pearls, Thee Individuals, and many more which vibrate sophistication rather than "macho violence" of the club names of yester-year, such as Jackson Kings, Night Intruders, Lords, Barons, etc.
The Lowrider style which is predominently the Chicano youth scene has yet to be exploited by t.v. When Chicanos watched a program that was supposed to be about them, they got tripped and said, "Wait a minute, that ain't us. That's not how we act!" What happened here was that the NBC folks were scheming on how to sell a t.v. program about a trippy people called Chicanos who lived in East L.A., and especially about the young Chicanos, more commonly referred to as Lowriders. They couldn't just put on a program of all Chicanos right away like they did with Sanford and Son about black people. The rest of the country didn't know what Chicanos looked like, much less how they lived, so they had to have someone else other than a Chicano introduce Chicanos.
In short, what I'm trying to communicate is that the popular image of what La Chicanada is, has yet to be televised, filmed or published. The U.S. much less the world has yet to know about these gente called Chicanos, and especially the younger generation known as Lowriders. All previous communiques have been outsider's point of view, that is, people from the outside projecting about the inside. You have to be from the people, and of the people to be able to righteously present that people's lifestyle. Thats what this communique call Lowrider Magazine is all about. A mirror of La Chicanada, a magazine of Lowriders, by Lowriders.
