Latinas get attention in male-led lowrider clubs

Wolf whistles, horn honks and sometimes even catcalls greet this beautiful, classy, pampered piece of re-done chrome when she rolls into a parking lot. Driven by owner Marisa Zapien, the sleek black-and-gold 1948 Chevy Fleetline turns heads at every corner.

On this Sunday afternoon, in the parking lot of a Dallas restaurant, Zapien guides her lowriding classic into a parking space and readies for the show. The event celebrates the art, culture and tradition of tricked-out vintage cars with chassis lowered almost to the ground, a world that entices Hispanic men and women who turn old cars into works of art with chrome features, hydraulic systems, fancy paint jobs and elaborate interiors.

Zapien, 40, gets out of her car and strolls around it, a look of pride on her face. She revels in the fact that she is a female lowrider who works on her own car, a rarity in a world dominated by men and pin-up girls. "If I get dirty, I don't mind it," she says. "I like to work on it myself. Then I know how things work."

The number of Latina lowriders in the male-dominated community of car enthusiasts is growing. And these women can bounce with the best of them.

Lowriders have been around since the post-World War II years and can be found predominantly in the Southwest, West Coast and Midwest.

Hollywood often portrays them as gang-banging thugs who drive up and down city streets intimidating people, but Latina lowriders believe they buck the stereotype and have a positive influence on communities.

Most Latino car clubs have strict guidelines and do not accept members with gang affiliations. Many lowriders meet on the weekends for car shows, competitions or fundraisers. These events — often organized by women — have become a family affair.

For many years, the only women involved in the hobby were the wives and girlfriends who tagged along to car shows — or the sexy models who posed on the vintage cars. But that's changing.

Of the women who join the hobby, Denise Sandoval, a professor of Chicano and Chicana studies at California State University-Northridge and an expert on lowriders, says, "It's not about anti-men; it's about women expressing themselves, using this culture, passion for love of cars to express art and build a community."

Zapien fell in love with automobiles at age 13, when her father introduced her to car shows. Every time she hears the 1969 song Crystal Blue Persuasion, she thinks of the 1940s coupe her dad kept in the garage. Zapien thought her father would eventually give it to her, but he told her girls didn't work on cars.

"He said, 'That car belongs to your brother,'" she says. That day, she stopped speaking to her dad and decided to prove him wrong.

She was a teenager when she met her husband, a lowrider who encouraged her to customize her own car. "We went to swap meets, went to junk yards. We looked for car parts together, even when I was pregnant with my first daughter," she says.

Still an old boys' club

Patricia Hernandez of Albuquerque was 17 when she customized her first car. Today, the 26-year-old is the owner of a 1991 magenta pink Lincoln Town Car she calls "Lady Lincoln." She's put about $13,000 into her award-winning car that has chrome features and hydraulics. She's even turned her 4-year-old daughter's small pedal car into a mini lowrider.

Hernandez loves to entertain as she drives. "You just see the expression on the little kids' faces when they see such a nice car, and you hit the hydraulics, the car jumps and they get so happy. It's one of the best feelings," she says.

Male lowriders have not made it easy for women like Hernandez. "They'll see me and they'll see my boyfriend and tell him, 'You have a nice car.'" She thought the wives and girlfriends of the lowriders would be more welcoming, but she says they often give her discouraging looks. "It does make me feel left out," she says.

Most lowriders belong to national car clubs that have chapters all over the country. Joe Ray, editor of Lowrider magazine, estimates that 65 percent of the 1,200 lowrider car clubs in the United States do not allow women to join. "You still find old-school, stubborn car club leaders with strict bylaws," he says.

Ray is president of the Lifestyle Car Club in Los Angeles. He admits the 40-year-old club has never considered women as members — and probably never will. "There are other strict hand-me-down, so-called laws we personally uphold to protect the legacy of men and car clubs," he says.

Sandoval, who has been studying lowriders since 1998, says there's only one reason men want to keep women out: "It is threatening to a male-dominated sport."

Though the men shunned and ignored Hernandez, she still competed at car shows. Today, she has a bedroom full of trophies and awards. "It's a male hobby, but it's 2014; women are doing pretty much what a guy can do," she says.

Hernandez's commitment to lowriding finally got the attention of the New Mexico Rollerz Only. The New Mexico chapter club offered her the chance to become its first female member. "I'm the third woman in the world to join this club as a member," she says.

Dallas car club is like a family

Teresa Lopez, once a supportive wife in the lowrider world, got her own car — a 1980 Chevrolet Monte Carlo — from her husband, Gil, five years ago and began customizing it. "It gives the individual a sense of ownership, allows them to be the positive role model to their family," she says.

Lopez has spent about $15,000 to turn her car into a ruby-red vehicle with silver pinstripes, chrome underneath the hood and hydraulics. "I don't mind putting my shopping money aside for my car," she says.

Gil Lopez is now the president of the Estilo Car Club in Dallas, and Teresa Lopez considers herself the "First Lady" of a club that is more like a family. "Everyone comes out and brings their grills, and we all hang out under our canopies. We have a good ol' time," she says. "Unity. It's all about unity. We all know what it takes to build a lowrider, the man hours — or woman hours, as you will."

Latina lowriders aim to force men to stop looking at women as the objects that add sex appeal to the shows. Often at car shows, female models in skimpy dresses, short shorts and stiletto heels show up to pose on the customized cars. Zapien doesn't allow women to pose on her car, and male lowriders are quick to give her a hard time for it.

She has no problem telling them how she feels. "You're putting girls out there and telling them it's OK to look like that in front of our daughters, and it's not. I want my daughters to be respected," she says.

Zapien plans to pass on her Chevy to one of her four daughters and hopes they will adopt the lowriding lifestyle. "You're not only showing the guys, but you're showing your daughters to take pride if this is the lifestyle they want," she says.

She has even made a breakthrough with her father's macho attitude. After not speaking to him for 25 years, Zapien contacted him in 2012 and drove from Dallas to San Antonio to show him the 1948 Chevy Fleetline lowrider she takes such pride in.

"I needed to finish my chapter with my dad. He told me I couldn't do it, but I did it," she says. He apologized for not believing, and they've worked together to restore their relationship — and their cars.