Diversidad Nacional - Los cholos de guadalowjara #indio120s

Cholo life, hanging out on the streets, it all comes from Los Angeles. Bald and tattooed, yes I like it. It's people that come and go, or like me, who have never been there, but are very much into this thing, its culture. I liked it a lot ever since I was a kid, at fourteen I made my first ride, and I started fixing cars, and always old cars. I'm proud of being called cholo, it's cool. Two years ago, exactly, it'll be two years in February, I started looking for a lowrider club, which is what I liked, but there was nothing. It's been eight years since this craze was over in Guadalajara, and there was nothing. So I started looking for something and I ended up at classic car clubs, clubs I didn't really like. But then I found a long time friend called Pachangas, and we thought about doing something that was our own style. Next week we already had the name Guadalowjara, and now there's about twenty or twenty five members. I got into this in 1998. There were two guys that used to come down from the US, and they brought their cars and founded the Obsession club, a local chapter, and started gathering folks. This is Isra, with his '64 Impala Voyenne, Lalo, '64 Impala, Moy, '63 Impala, Pelón, '69 Impala. My name is José Manuel, better known as Pelón. We're here at Penal, the most important place for us lowriders. This is where it all started. Yes, they are ties many of us have, some from LA, mainly California, and we liked it. Little by little we've been fixing our rides, and we are proudly trying to keep this style alive. Bombs, solenoids, batteries, and the switcher up front, it's all gotta be together, otherwise it won't work. It's ten controls, basically. One is for raising and lowering the front, another is for raising and lowering the back, another for raising and lowering one side, while the other is for raising and lowering the other side. There's another one for raising and lowering the whole car. In Guadalajara, a gathering of more than three people is considered gang activity. and we do get together in numbers, so yes, unfortunately we've been disturbed. We're not troublemakers or anything like that, we just get together, and that's all. But sometimes people don't get it. This one I got from a friend who brought it from Los Angeles. You go in from the side. In fact, with this type of seat, you have to enter sideways, that's why they rotate, otherwise getting out would be a pain. I have a shop and I'm the one who sells air suspensions here in Guadalajara. I bring everything from the US. People have always tied lowriders with rap, especially Chicano rap. Here in Guadalajara there's "Crazy Demon" "Mad Train", they're the ones being played because they're the best from around here. I come from Guadalajara's toughest hoods, where there's nothing but lead, where everyone's mad, there's death all around, the streets are empty, mi gang is in your hood, beware, the guns are around. There are not as many chances here as there are in the US, over there you see the cars all fixed up and you say, "Wow!", but these guys work for their *** cars. Over here we do it differently, Mexican style, Gudalowjara style. Sometimes you can't find the pieces so you adapt them. We struggle more for everything, especially the money. Switches go on when the key goes in, hydraulics down so it looks low, rims to the max so that you can see it rolling, the last detail on the ride there it goes, all down, a club from Guadalajara exclusive for their rides, that jump and dance, that show off with their girls, *** and low roll low, Guadalowjara and the *** division. This is a molding workshop, where you can get any molding you want. They make them from scratch, if you don't have it or can't find it, this is the place. I'm Joel Moreno, better known as Moreno. I restore chromes, bumpers, and moldings. Our work here is basically handcrafted, we don't use a lot of machinery. We improvise tools to get the job done. We're now working on this '57 Bel Air, preserving, as I said, most of the original parts. Then there are some final touches on behalf of the client's wishes, the rims, the moldings. Many people forge their own stories with tattoos. I get one depending on what I got through. This here says Pelown (bawldy), with a w, that's me. Then there's Guadalowjara, which still needs to be finished. Lowrider. You do feel strange looks, but for me, it's normal, I look and myself and think, yeah, I'm all tattooed. But then if I see some guy who has even more tattoos I just stare at him and think, "Damn!" This is called Chicano Art. I've been working in Guadalajara since 2009. I was in Los Angeles before that. I'm gonna get a tattoo that says "LA." For me, LA is what we represent, we Mexicans are part of California. We may not be a majority, but we do represent the people. Chicano style is more about gray and white, or maybe only faded black. Many times we use the person's own blood for fading the black pigment, achieving a sort of shadow. Chicano style comes mainly from the prisons. Prehispanic symbols: Maya, Aztec codes, codexes, Mayan warrior faces, Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, these are the Chicano style's most representative symbols. That's *** awesome. Actually, this movement started in East LA. It was around the '30s that people started making lowriders. It was the pachucos, yes, in the '40s and '50s. They'd put sandbags in their trunks so that the car would tilt upwards, and up front there'd be two or three guys trying to get the springs to close. Then they'd put a chain and a lock to the spring for the cars to look low. That's how it was until they invented hydraulics. We're at Mario's workshop. He paints sheets; he's an airbrush painter. He's gonna paint something in Memo's trunk. Let's see how it turns out. Chicano stuff, man. Look, this is kind of what I want. It's an Aztec warrior; only thing is I want the Aztec calendar behind him. In this case we're going to work on a brown drawing. It's going to be the drawing of an Aztec warrior, which is what they're into, and there's gonna be the Aztec calendar and the Iztacchihuatl and Popocatepetl volcanoes. It's done, boss, come check it out. Criticism is accepted! I loved it, I'm speechless. The club is having a gala, simply for being Guadalowjara, make some noise and come on over with fistfuls of young hynas. Cruising is going in line, going around town, one after the other. We gather and form a line and cruise up to the Minerva roundabout. At Minerva we park, we get together once a week, everyone, just like a family, like brothers. Once a week we hang out, we drink some beers or something. This is the one and only club, that pump their hydraulics, that show off in their classics. We all come from different neighborhoods, but we get along as if we were brothers, there's no 'This guy's from another hood, there'll be trouble.' This is neutral, this whole thing is; there are no gangs or fights. For me it is not a fashion, it's a way of life. Time may pass, cars may pass, anything can pass, but the name's mine and I'll always be a Guadalowjara. Whoever wants to join, whoever wants to leave, that's their business, I'll always be here.