New Mexico
An intimate look at New Mexico’s lowrider culture – High Country News
There’s more than gleaming metal surfaces and a sexy street presence in Gabriela Campos’ photographs of lowriders in New Mexico.
Dagger fingernails and polished glass, swirls of blue ink wrapping muscled torsos, tough-guy biceps cradling newborn babes — the images capture quintessential New Mexican culture, one that boldly proclaims its stature among lowrider communities in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tokyo.
Her lens cruises like the cars, a magic carpet ride with a kick-ass orgullo.
Campos rode in the New Mexico scene for years, getting to know the unabashedly proud drivers whose vehicles are a personal expression of life in the streetlight glare in New Mexican towns like Burque, Spaña and Chimayó. Her long familiarity with the culture enables her to capture the celebratory atmosphere and shared love of pageantry. She illuminates the badass drivers, tattooed chicas strutting alongside Impalas and Regals and Caddies alive with dizzying lines and Chicano-themed murals. Dancing cheek-to-cheek down Burque’s streets and scattering light from radiant metallic spokes, lowriders speak to a cultural identity that cannot be subverted or stereotyped or captured by any meme.
Her lens cruises like the cars, a magic carpet ride with a kick-ass orgullo.
In her eyes, lowriders are poetry in motion, statements in style that shout in bold double-underlined letters, “I’ll show you who I am! Stand back, heads up, look at me!”
The don’t-mess-with-me attitude of the drivers is accompanied by a warm invitation to join them for a ride beneath the vast New Mexico clouds. Campos shows that lowriders are so much more than colorful cars and rebellious tough guys; she shows hometown heroes, a cadre of spirited vatos and everyday fathers and mothers and children, all empowered by cruising the streets in their artfully crafted and lovingly cared-for behemoths.
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This article appeared in the May 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Drop It Low.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
New Mexico
Actor Timothy Busfield turns himself in following child sex abuse allegations in New Mexico
Timothy Busfield turned himself into police on Tuesday after authorities in New Mexico issued an arrest warrant for the director and Emmy Award-winning actor accused of child sex abuse.
A spokesperson for the Albuquerque Police Department confirmed to CBS News that Busfield had surrendered. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County on a child sex abuse charge. The arrest warrant, which was signed by a judge, said the charge was for two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.
An investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department on Friday filed a criminal complaint which alleged a child reported that Busfield touched him inappropriately. The acts allegedly occurred on the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” a TV series that Busfield directed and acted in.
In a video provided to TMZ, Busfield said the allegations “are all lies.”
“I did not do anything to those little boys,” the 68-year-old actor said in the video appearing to show him in Albuquerque. He said he arrived in the city after driving 2,000 miles. Busfield’s attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
The criminal complaint filed by an investigator with Albuquerque police says the boy reported that he was 7 years old when Busfield touched him three or four times on private areas over his clothing. Busfield allegedly touched him five or six times on another occasion when he was 8, the complaint said.
The child was reportedly afraid to tell anyone because Busfield was the director and he feared he would get mad at him, the complaint said.
The boy’s twin brother told authorities he was touched by Busfield but did not specify where. He said he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble.
When interviewed by authorities, Busfield suggested that the boys’ mother was seeking revenge for her children being replaced on the series. He also said he likely would have picked up and tickled the boys, saying the set was a playful environment.
The mother of the twins — who are identified only by their initials in court records — reported to Child Protective Services that the abuse occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024, the complaint said.
“The Cleaning Lady” aired for four seasons on Fox, ending in 2025. It was produced by Warner Bros., which according to the complaint conducted its own investigation into the abuse allegations but was unable to corroborate them.
Busfield is known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething,” the latter of which won him an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series in 1991. He is married to actor Melissa Gilbert, who deactivated her Instagram account amid the allegations.
Gilbert indicated through a publicist that she won’t speak publicly at the request of attorneys for Busfield while the legal process unfolds.
“Her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family,” publicist Ame Van Iden said in a statement. “Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time.”
The investigation began in November 2024, when the investigator responded to a call from a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The boys’ parents had gone there at the recommendation of a law firm, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, one of the boys has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. A social worker documented him saying he has had nightmares about Busfield touching him.
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