La Vida Lowrider: Cruising The City of Angels at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA

Between October 2007 and June 2008, the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, celebrated the culture of the lowrider vehicle in their exhibit "La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels." Curated by Denise Sandoval, a Chicano studies professor at Cal State Northridge, the exhibit displayed 24 vintage vehicles that had been restored by their owners as chrome-laden, flashy "lowriders." The hobby of restoring old cars to their old glory - with a new twist - is a Los Angeles pastime, especially in the Latino community. The exhibit attracted thousands of visitors and proved to be a true celebration of urban art, culture, and craftsmanship.

The cars chosen for the exhibit were ones that had been worked on by their owners for large amounts of time, and sometimes, money. (In one car's case, to the tune of $100,000.) Visitors learned that lowrider owners were not gang members, but more often artists and hobbyists who wanted to express themselves and their culture through the medium that Angelenos know best - the moving vehicle. The cars displayed told more about the culture of working-class Latinos in LA than any documentary could. Though this exhibit is no longer at the Petersen museum, it is always home to a rotating lineup of automotive exhibits, many of them focusing specifically on Los Angeles car culture.