High-school students explore their cultural identities and celebrate the San Fernando community through personalized 3D lowrider cars.

Giovanna Ochoa and Jess Perry-Martin

San Fernandoʼs deep love of Chicano culture is evident throughout the murals that fill the city, along with a deep appreciation for custom-painted lowrider cars, which symbolize Chicano pride, identity, culture, and heritage. This vibrant community inspired me when I collaborated with my mentor teacher, Jess Perry-Martin, on this lesson. Together, we considered how car culture shapes our community and how students could create personally meaningful art centered on their experiences and stories. By aligning this lesson with the values and traditions of the community, we invited students to showcase who they are and where they come from through visual storytelling.

The lesson began with discussions designed to help students connect personally and culturally to the project:

• Why is it important to remember where we come from?
• What’s your favorite car you’ve seen on the road? What design elements stood out to you?
• What makes a community a great place to live?
• What makes you who you are? What are your favorite hobbies or activities?

The lowrider movement emerged in the 1940s within the Mexican-American communities of Los Angeles, beginning as a form of creative self-expression, a statement of cultural pride, and a response to discrimination. By the 1970s, lowrider car clubs like The Dukes Car Club had grown immensely, influencing car culture in the United States and globally. Today, lowriders embody the ownersʼ unique stories and serve as a powerful symbol of pride.

For this project, my mentor teacher and I encouraged students to explore their identities, culture, and heritage and celebrate their connection to their community. Inspired by East Los Angeles artist Jacqueline Valenzuela, the project invited students to focus on the beauty in their own lives and surroundings, reflecting the themes often explored in Valenzuela’s artwork.

Other artists who inspired this lesson include Gilbert “Magu” Luján and Frank Romero, Los Angeles natives and central figures in the Chicano Art Movement. Luján and Romero were part of the Los Four collective, which left a lasting legacy in Chicano art in Los Angeles. Mark Machado (aka Mr. Cartoon) is another artist who inspired this lesson, as his artwork is deeply rooted in Los Angeles street culture, incorporating elements of Chicano symbolism that reflect the Chicano community.

For the art-making process, we provided students with a 2D lowrider car template designed by artist Jacqueline Valenzuela (@pieldemazapan). The template is not available online as an open-source download, but there are other lowrider templates available online. The image was enlarged to 11 × 14" (28 × 36 cm), and students glued it to 11 × 14" mixed-media paper for added durability.

Students explored a variety of media, including colored pencils, markers, and oil pastels to personalize their lowriders, incorporating patterns, symbols, and design elements that reflect their identities, culture, heritage, and community.

Once the lowrider designs were complete, students transformed their creations into 3D lowriders by cutting along the templateʼs outer black line and folding and gluing the edges. Black paper strips were then cut to create a roadway, and the completed lowrider cars were glued onto it and arranged to resemble a lowrider car show.

This project extended beyond the art classroom, with the completed lowriders displayed on top of the lockers in the hallway for everyone to see. The lowrider car show transformed the hallways into a vibrant exhibit of creativity, pride, and community spirit while serving as a powerful reminder of the unique qualities that exist within every student. The project inspired the advanced painting students to take on the challenge of creating acrylic paintings of lowriders owned by family and community members, broadening the impact of this curriculum.

Giovanna Ochoa is a student teacher at ArTES Magnet High School and is currently in the California State University at Northridge (CSUN) art teacher credential program. Her mentor teacher is Jess Perry-Martin, visual arts teacher at ArTES and lecturer in Art Education at CSUN. Ochoa says, “Jess is passionate about art education and inspires her high school and college students. Her love of art shines through in her teaching.”

Chicano Lowrider Art: Cultural Identity and Artistic Expression