Updated March 26, 2026 at 2:01 PM EDT
To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, we鈥檙e cataloging that define the country鈥檚 history.
Chrome gleaming. Paint shimmering. Suspensions dancing. Lowriders have long turned city streets into moving works of art.
Now, a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution is tracing the history of lowriding from its roots in Chicano communities to its influence on art and activism.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is Gypsy Rose, perhaps the most famous lowrider of all time.
Here & Now鈥檚 Indira Lakshmanan spoke with , director of the National Museum of American History, about why the car is such an important piece of American culture.
Can you describe the exhibit?
鈥淲elcome to 鈥楥orazon y Vida.鈥� It鈥檚 literally the heart and the life of lowriding culture that we鈥檙e exploring here in this beautiful exhibition. The Gypsy Rose is a standout, totally tricked-out, totally candy Impala that made television and movie history. She was both in 鈥楥hico and the Man鈥� and 鈥楤oulevard Nights鈥�: Both 1970 classics for TV and film.
鈥淎nd lowriding culture really gets to the heart of the way in which, especially the post-war United States and especially Los Angeles, grew up. So you have the American dream, right? Your own car. Your own little house. You use the GI Bill. You get these incredible kinds of markers after all of the heartbreak and loss of World War II, except if you鈥檙e Mexican American and African American and many others. Those opportunities were not necessarily easily afforded to you. You could still ride in segregated streetcars and segregated buses. You were even told which stops you could get off at all throughout Southern California.
鈥淪o if you could get a car, maybe your papi鈥檚 1930s car, you had it made. You could then apply the skills of an autobody and this incredible artistry, chrome and paint and etching and pinstriping. The incredible work we鈥檙e looking at here with the Gypsy Rose, which is plastered with these gorgeous pink roses and, of course, the pink velvet interior. You really start to see the rise of this remarkable culture of men and women coming together in community and in safe spaces like garages and community halls and churches.
鈥淪o if anyone鈥檚 ever seen this amazing car, maybe with a lot of hydraulics, you鈥檝e seen a sliver of what we鈥檙e showing you here with lowriding culture.鈥�
Does the interior of Gypsy Rose really have a bar inside?
鈥淎bsolutely. If you鈥檙e going to go slow and low and roll, you鈥檝e got to have some beverages. And this is important, though, all kidding aside. In this exhibit, we鈥檙e surrounded by these absolutely beautiful photographs by many Latino and Latina photographers who have captured lowriding culture across the world, including in Japan. We also see signs as late as the 1990s that say, 鈥楴o loitering. No lowriding.鈥� Echoing the segregated signs that you would see throughout California and Texas and through the Southwest. 鈥楴o dogs. No Mexicans. No shoes.鈥�
鈥淭his led to the tension that we see from people banning loitering or cruising. Because if you鈥檙e going to invest this remarkable amount of time and artistry into creating these cars, you鈥檙e going to show them off. So cruising became a critical part of so many people鈥檚 lives. You work hard all day. You cruise around a little bit at night, especially in the summer. It鈥檚 hot. You roll down the windows, you turn up the music, you sip on a little beverage and away you go.
鈥淪o this was also a very contested space, too. For the beauty and the joy and the community of lowriding culture, it was also a police space. It was a really complicated set of spaces.鈥�
Why is this car so important to telling the story of America?
鈥淚t is a joy, first, that we even have the Gypsy Rose here and that the families have loaned it to us. But if you think about everything that the museum has to help people learn about the last 250 years, the ways in which American culture has represented struggle and its quest for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I think it is beautifully manifested in the Gypsy Rose.鈥�
This interview was edited for clarity.
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produced and edited this interview for broadcast with . Walkey also produced it for the web.
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