Lowrider Show

Stephen used to take me to car shows in Glens Falls, NY every summer.  The upstate NY car guy scene isn't that big, apparently, because we would see the same folks with the same cars year after year.  Due to the fact that New Mexico is largely a desert and because they don't salt the roads, there is a vast and diverse car culture here.  On any given day on the streets of Albuquerque you see a greater diversity of old cars than at a typical upstate NY car show!

One of the car styles that is important to the Hispanic culture is the Lowrider style.  There are even sub-cultures within it.  Ever since we moved here I wanted to go to a Low Rider show, and we finally scheduled a day to do it.

When we walked in the top level of the Albuquerque convention center, I almost changed my mind and left.  Looking down at the convention center floor, I saw long lines of people waiting in a security line being patted down and checked by metal-detecting wands while other guards went through purses and pockets!  I was looking for local color, but this might be more than I bargained for.  However, once we went through the line it was fun!  It was both completely different than the NY car shows I had been to, and utterly the same.  When I stood around waiting while Stephen talked to the guy sitting on the floor in one of these photos about the blah blah blah on his car, it was a totally familiar experience except that half the conversation around me was in Spanish.