Fernando Ortega drives past colorful murals in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, in his 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix. Ortega custom-built the car, which he calls “Mi Carruca,” for his wife, Francine. Credit:Gabriela Campos/High Country News
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There’s more than gleaming metal surfaces and a sexy street presence in Gabriela Campos’ photographs of lowriders in New Mexico.
Dagger fingernails and polished glass, swirls of blue ink wrapping muscled torsos, tough-guy biceps cradling newborn babes — the images capture quintessential New Mexican culture, one that boldly proclaims its stature among lowrider communities in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tokyo.
Her lens cruises like the cars, a magic carpet ride with a kick-ass orgullo.Jay Sanchez wipes the raindrops off his 1999 Lincoln Town Car, which goes by the name “Hustler’s Ambition,” as it sits on three wheels on Albuquerque’s Central Avenue, June 2024 (top). James Valdez and his family drive their Impala toward the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, March 2017 (left). Laura Peralta looks out the window of Joseph “Star” Vigil’s 1985 Cutlass Supreme while cruising on three wheels through downtown Albuquerque, April 2023 (right). Gabriela Campos/High Country News
Campos rode in the New Mexico scene for years, getting to know the unabashedly proud drivers whose vehicles are a personal expression of life in the streetlight glare in New Mexican towns like Burque, Spaña and Chimayó. Her long familiarity with the culture enables her to capture the celebratory atmosphere and shared love of pageantry. She illuminates the badass drivers, tattooed chicas strutting alongside Impalas and Regals and Caddies alive with dizzying lines and Chicano-themed murals. Dancing cheek-to-cheek down Burque’s streets and scattering light from radiant metallic spokes, lowriders speak to a cultural identity that cannot be subverted or stereotyped or captured by any meme.
A young man navigates his lowrider out of a parking spot after a cruise in the Barelas neighborhood following the Albuquerque Lowrider Super Show, June 2023 (top left). Matthew Cordova holds his newborn daughter, Ava, during a Sunday evening cruise in the Barelas neighborhood of Albuquerque, July 2022 (top right). A group of women pose for a photo while cruising their lowrider in downtown Albuquerque, May 2021 (bottom left). Paula Jaramillo lifts the bed of her custom mini-truck while cruising down Central Avenue with Steve-O Garcia, August 2021 (bottom middle). Lillyana Martinez leans on George and Amor Bustamante’s 1959 El Camino while hanging out in the Barelas neighborhood, April 2023 (bottom right). Gabriela Campos/High Country News
Her lens cruises like the cars, a magic carpet ride with a kick-ass orgullo.
A view looking out of Amor Bustamante’s 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass at a Chevrolet Fleetmaster, November 2023. Credit:Gabriela Campos/High Country News
In her eyes, lowriders are poetry in motion, statements in style that shout in bold double-underlined letters, “I’ll show you who I am! Stand back, heads up, look at me!”
The don’t-mess-with-me attitude of the drivers is accompanied by a warm invitation to join them for a ride beneath the vast New Mexico clouds. Campos shows that lowriders are so much more than colorful cars and rebellious tough guys; she shows hometown heroes, a cadre of spirited vatos and everyday fathers and mothers and children, all empowered by cruising the streets in their artfully crafted and lovingly cared-for behemoths.
A lowrider hops during an informal competition while spectators look on in an Albuquerque parking lot, August 2021 (top left). A young woman looks out from a lowrider during a Sunday evening cruise in downtown Albuquerque, January 2023 (top right). Anthony Miramontes stands atop his 1980 Buick Regal and lifts a plaque for the Superior Car Club after an impromptu hopping competition on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, February 2023 (bottom left). Guillermo and Alicia Jimenez park their 1964 Impala at Albuquerque’s iconic Dog House Drive In on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, September 2023 (bottom right). Gabriela Campos/High Country NewsLou Varela hops his 1984 Cutlass Supreme down Central Avenue as a storm rolls into Albuquerque, New Mexico, in June 2024. Credit:Gabriela Campos/High Country News
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An intimate look at New Mexico’s lowrider culture
by Gabriela Campos and Don J. Usner, High Country News May 1, 2025
Gabriela Campos, born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a photojournalist who documents the people and traditions of the Southwest. She’s on staff at the Santa Fe New Mexican, and her work is held in several collections and has been published widely.
Don J. Usner is an author and photographer who documents the culture he inherited and his upbringing in the northern New Mexico communities of Embudo, Los Alamos and Chimayó.
