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.”
New Mexico
Snow storm impacts New Mexico, Gun crimes, Tijeras bridge, Toxic algae blooms, Early voting turnout
Thursday’s Top Stories
Thursday’s Five Facts
[1] Snow moves in with colder & breezier day around New Mexico – A winter storm continues moving through New Mexico. Snow will cause travel impacts in parts of the state Thursday morning before drier and colder weather moves in. Snow will wrap up by mid Wednesday morning, allowing for the snowy and icy roads to clear up by the late morning. While it will be drier Thursday, the storm will leave behind much cooler temperatures Thursday afternoon. Friday morning will feature some of the coldest temperatures we’ve felt so far this season.
[2] Lawmakers suggest new rules after new data released by ATF on gun crime in NM – A new report reveals that 78% of all gun crimes in the state are committed with firearms that were legally purchased from licensed dealers. From there, most of these guns are sold to individuals who are prohibited from buying firearms legally. Two Democratic lawmakers have announced their plans to introduce a bill that would create stricter rules for gun sellers, including training on what to watch for when selling to repeat buyers. Another proposed bill for the upcoming session would limit the sale of military-grade weapons in the state.
[3] Emergency funds will rebuild washed-out Tijeras bridge – Bernalillo County officials approved roughly $3 million for the Tijeras Watershed Restoration Project. The project was almost done, but in July, a storm swept through the watershed and heavily damaged a pedestrian bridge and the arroyo around it. They hope restoring the watershed to a wider and flatter area will force stormwater to slow down, creating a floodplain that can support habitat and absorb water. The new pedestrian bridge could take longer because construction materials are in high demand.
[4] Toxic algae bloom advisories lifted for five New Mexico lakes – The New Mexico Environment Department has lifted advisories for harmful algae blooms at five New Mexico lakes. Those advisories were issued earlier this fall for Eagle Nest, Maloya, Lower Charette, Snow, and Hopewell lakes. Toxic algae can cause health problems for both people and animals.
[5] Strong turnout reported for runoff early voting in Albuquerque – The Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office said it is seeing a strong turnout for the Albuquerque mayoral runoff. Since early voting began on Monday, the clerk said nearly 45,000 people have cast their ballots. That includes nearly 30,000 in person. Early voting runs through Saturday. Election day is Tuesday.
New Mexico
Power restored in Edgewood and Moriarty after widespread outages during storm
EDGEWOOD, N.M. – Hundreds of residents and businesses in Edgewood and Moriarty went without power for a while during the of Wednesday night’s winter storm.
An outage map from Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative showed large clusters of outages as of 7 p.m. on Wednesday. By 7:30 p.m. power was restored.
On a social media post, CNMEC said: “We have received word that our power supplier, Tri-State, has lost a transmission line. Power will be out for the entire area until they can make repairs. We will post updates as we receive them.”
The outages came as the first winter storm of the season arrived in the East Mountains.
New Mexico
New Mexico United to host open tryouts
Tryouts are Jan. 10 at Kraemer Fields.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If you’ve ever wanted to see if you could play for the New Mexico United soccer club, your time is coming!
New Mexico United is hosting its next round of open tryouts Jan. 10, at Kraemer Fields in Albuquerque. This marks the club’s fifth open tryout since its inaugural 2019 season.
Since it started, United has signed identified key players and even signed some to their first-team squad, including Josh Goss and Phillip Beigl.
Tryouts are open to male players who are 17 years and older. Additional details, including registration information, can be found here at this website.
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