Austin, TX
‘An extension of who we are.’ Texas lowriders cruise with pride in family, Latino culture
Austin lowrider Steve Guzman bought his first rig, a candy-apple red Chevy pickup, when he was 22. He’d just come home from serving in Vietnam. Back then, Guzman said, Austin’s lowriders fought bitterly.
His friend, Manuel Medina, lived in Montopolis, across the river from Guzman’s East Austin neighborhood. Neither would drive across the bridge.
“We had different parts of town,” said Austin rider James Sanchez, and the attitude was, “Don’t come to my side.”
But as Guzman, Medina and Sanchez grew older, Austin’s lowriding scene began to change. The bridge’s boundary grew porous. Families married across the river. As pride in their cars had once kept the neighborhoods apart, the art of lowriding brought them together.
“Time has healed,” Guzman said.
The gray in his beard reflected colors from lowriders parked nearby. Today, Guzman, Medina and Sanchez are members of the old guard. Their pride lies as much in their cars as in the next generation of lowriders who, they hope, will inherit them.
Lowrider clubs proliferated in Texas in the 1960s
On a recent Sunday, lowriders from across Austin and throughout Texas cruised through the capital to celebrate the uniquely Latino tradition. Their rally point was a new exhibit at the Bullock Texas State History Museum.
More: Five reasons to visit the Bullock Museum’s lowriding ‘Carros y Cultura’ exhibit
The exhibit, called “Carros y Cultura,” celebrates Texas lowriders: the art, culture and people.
Lowriding’s origins lie in 1940s California, where the elaborately decorated cars arose as an expression of Latino pride. The culture came to Texas about 20 years later.
That’s when Austinites, like Steve Guzman’s grandfather, first started putting bags of cement in the trunks of their cars to get closer to the pavement.
Now, there are close to 100 lowrider clubs in Austin alone, Guzman estimated.
‘Never did we dream that we would be at the Bob Bullock museum’
About 70 riders from as many as 30 clubs came to show their cars on Sunday, cruising past the Bullock museum, around the Capitol, down South Congress Avenue and across the bridge. Then they posted at Fiesta Gardens’ Chicano Park, in Austin’s Holly neighborhood, to party.
Lowriders of every shape and size cruised the streets: some richly ornamented, some glowing. Others rolled down South Congress with one wheel cocked high in the air: a maneuver known as “three wheel motion.”
The celebration grew as a way to take “Carros y Cultura” back to the streets, said an adviser for the show, Monica Maldonado.
Maldonado is the founder of MAS Cultura, a nonprofit dedicated to uplifting Austin’s Latino community through art. Lowriding, she said, was one of her first inspirations.
“But never did we dream that we would be at the Bob Bullock museum,” she said just before the cruise. A bubble-gum pink lowrider slipped past. Maybe it was the bright sun, reflecting off its paint, but tears began to well in Maldonado’s eyes.
“I’m here. I’m an Austin native, and to see our culture celebrated and bringing everyone together — there’s really no words for it,” she said, blotting her eyes.
Portraits of families rendered in paint and chrome
Each lowrider tells a story with their car. Many are passed down through generations as family heirlooms: symbols of dedication and reminders of the beauty in perseverance.
“West Texas” Eddie Velarde, a member of the Majestix Car Club’s San Antonio chapter, has been restoring his 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme for 18 years.
When he bought the car, his daughter, Selena, was just 6 months old. This year, she graduated from high school. Velarde hopes she’ll inherit the lowrider when he dies, he said, as a memory of his hard work.
“I look at this car, and it’s a symbol of times when bills went unpaid, when money was short. Life was hard, but we made it.” Velarde said, running his hand over a portrait of his daughter painted on the Oldsmobile’s trunk.
Paintings of Velarde’s mother, father and wife adorn other panels. He’s dedicated the car to his family, he said: “It’s an extension of who we are.”
Like Velarde, longtime Austin rider Trampia Guzman grew up “in the life,” he said: “I was born to it.”
When Trampia Guzman’s father followed work to fields in the Northeast, he’d call home, asking his young son to rotate the tires on his car. Lowriding was a way of life for them.
‘This is an art, and it’s miraculous’
The art gave rise to other creations.
Trampia Guzman’s grandmother taught him to sew when he was 5. He started making zoot suits, a uniquely baggy and square cut style that began among Chicanos from El Paso in the ‘40s.
Now two of Trampia Guzman’s suits are on display in the Bullock museum’s lowrider exhibit. One of them, cut from shining gold cloth, he made as a memorial to his grandmother. The material came from a set of drapes that had hung in her home all of his life.
He admired the cloth as a boy, he said: His memory of his grandmother had always been sitting in a chair in front of the golden drapes. Now, he wears the suit each year on the anniversary of her death.
Stories of love and dedication spring from the lowriders.
Trampia Guzman’s wife bought him one to restore on their 20th wedding anniversary. He said he cried when he saw the car taken apart for painting; he was so overwhelmed. His friend, who goes simply by “Gizmo,” helped him paint the car.
“This is an art, and it’s miraculous,” Gizmo said, turning his head with a grin. “You see that red car over there?”
He pointed to a pearlescent cherry cruiser, sitting low to the ground.
“That one got struck by lightning. It almost burnt all the way down, but we saved it.”
Carros y Cultura
When: On display through Sept. 2
Where: The Bullock Texas State History Museum at 1800 Congress Ave.
Info: An exhibit showcasing Texas’ unique lowriding culture, featuring ornately decorated cars, motorcycles and artworks from the Latino community
AUSTIN, Texas — One person is dead but has not been identified after the Austin Police Department responded to the scene of a deceased person call in South Austin Saturday afternoon.
According to officials, a deceased person was located in a parking lot just at around 12:25 p.m. at the 4400 Block of Pack Saddle Pass after officers responded to a check welfare urgent call.
The victim was pronounced deceased at 12:36 p.m. The incident is being investigated as a suspicious death, it is not being investigated as a homicide.
ALSO: I-35 frontage road at Williams Drive reopens after rollover crash with serious injuries
The identity of the victim is still unknown, and the age and sex of the victim has not been released.
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Anyone with information that could help the investigation is encouraged to call the APD homicide unit at 512-477-3588 or APD Crimestoppers at 512-472-8477.
A possible state takeover continues to loom over the Austin Independent School District after the Texas Education Agency denied the district’s request for an accountability pause for three middle schools.
The denial also affects money that would have gone toward Burnet, Dobie and Webb middle schools, which have each received “F” ratings four times since 2019. A fifth “F” rating would open the district up to a state takeover.
Austin ISD schools expect to see their accountability scores, or grades, later this summer. If Burnet, Dobie, and Webb middle schools receive a fifth “F” each — all in the last seven years — the district could face a state takeover.
Houston ISD was taken over by the state in the 2023-2024 school year, and it has been reported as a rocky ride for teachers and families.
Toni Templeton, a senior research scientist at the University of Houston Education Research Center, said, “Generally, what we’re seeing is a large exodus of both teachers and students from the district.” Templeton and two colleagues released the first part of an ongoing study into the Houston takeover in January. Templeton said, “What that signals to us is that parents are choosing to put students in a different schooling option,” including a neighboring district or charter schools.
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Austin ISD has not been taken over, and the district’s future hinges on the next set of ratings. Asked whether Austin ISD is in a vulnerable place and how likely a takeover is, a district spokesperson provided a statement released by Superintendent Matias Segura on Thursday, saying in part, “Over the last two years, student outcomes have continued to improve across Austin ISD.”
Ken Zarifis, president of Education Austin, also pointed to improvement while raising concerns about the state’s authority. “I think the state will take over a school district if it wants to, and I think that’s a problem, but what we’ve got here is we’ve got some information that I think that is hopeful that we’ve got to produce as far as test scores,” Zarifis said.
He added, “Yeah, I think it’s really important to see what they’re doing now? Not, what are they doing in 2022? What are they doing today? What have they been doing the last few years? And there’s been an improvement, and they’re very hopeful for at least two of the schools.”
A Texas Education Agency spokesperson said that because accountability ratings come out in August, it is too soon to speculate.
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) – The City of Austin is considering replacing the Barton Springs Bridge, citing concerns about the structure’s condition and long-term safety. However, preservation advocates are urging city leaders to fully explore alternatives before moving forward.
This week, Preservation Texas named Barton Springs Bridge one of the most endangered places for 2026.
“It’s a major road and a lot of stuff happening around here all the time, you know, public safety access, all these things are huge concerns, too. But we think that the historic nature of the bridge is really important,” said Meghan Namour, Policy and Outreach Planner at Preservation Austin.
According to city officials, the 100-year-old bridge has deteriorated over time, with cracking concrete, missing sections of concrete and other issues that have raised concerns about its future.
In 2024, the city received a $32 million bridge improvement grant from the Federal Highway Administration to help fund the project.
For longtime Austin resident Bethani Ragland, the bridge represents a piece of the city’s history.
“I’ve been here so long, since my childhood,” said Bethani Ragland, Austin resident.
She said she was disappointed to learn the bridge could eventually be replaced.
“It was built well because I haven’t noticed anything, no cracking no nothing. There’s no reason to take the bridge down. It’s just more construction in Austin,” said Ragland.
City of Austin officials say the project must still go through the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, review process.
In a statement to KXAN, the city said:
“The Barton Springs Bridge project is currently at the 90% design milestone. The project received a $32M bridge improvement program grant from the Federal Highway Administration, and will go through a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review and approval process which includes assessment of environmental assets and review of bridge alternatives. The NEPA document will review and evaluate the historic, environmental and archeological significance of the bridge. There will be an analysis of both replacement and rehabilitation alternatives included. The NEPA process is expected to be completed in 2027.”
Preservation advocates say they hope that process includes meaningful consideration of ways to preserve the bridge.
“In our own city, we have examples of historic bridges that have been repurposed for new or different uses. There’s the Pfluger Pedestrian and Bike Bridge that was added next to the Lamar Bridge. Not every case is the same but we would love for those options to at least be meaningfully considered,” said Namour.
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