Lowriders are cars that express identities—social, cultural, aesthetic. With their extended bodies and low to the road roll, the cars have been a vehicle of choice for cruising, a popular pastime in many American communities since the mid-twentieth century. Lowriding puts both the cars and their riders on display.

In these essays, Roger White (National Museum of American History) describes how a car named “Dave’s Dream” and other personalized lowriders became automotive masterpieces and cultural statements in Mexican-American communities. Kevin Strait (National Museum of African American History and Culture) shares how in the 1990s, lowriders emerged as mobile props, and sometimes lead characters, in music videos of West Coast hip hop artists. For Emil Her Many Horses (National Museum of the American Indian), the lowrider’s association with parading and being seen reflects the role of automobiles at the annual Crow Fair and Rodeo where elaborately decorated cars have begun to replace horses on the parade route.