Decades ago, lowriding was often criminalized in San Francisco and across California. Equipped with custom hydraulics, chrome wheels and elaborate paint job, cars that rode low and slow were targeted by police as a way to surveil and profile working-class Latino communities. While the culture has since gained broader recognition, lowriders have long fought for that visibility on their own terms.

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This month, that history received national recognition. The United States Postal Service released its first-ever lowrider-themed Forever stamp collection on March 13, celebrating a cultural tradition rooted in Chicano communities across the American Southwest. The stamps are sold in sheets of 15 for $11.70 at USPS locations and online.

The collection was designed by USPS art director Antonio Alcalá, drawing on photographs by the late Philip Gordon and Central Valley photographer Humberto “Beto” Mendoza. San Diego artist Danny Alvarado contributed the pinstriping featured in the designs.

The stamps showcase five iconic lowrider cars:

  • 1958 Chevrolet Impala, “Eight Figures”
  • 1964 Chevrolet Impala, “The Golden Rose”
  • 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, “Pocket Change”
  • 1946 Chevrolet Fleetline, “Let the Good Times Roll / Soy Como Soy”
  • 1963 Chevrolet Impala, “El Rey”
Jame Tuoto, a San Francisco Mission District resident, wears a purple suit with tinted shades and a green collared shirt while posing in front of a lowrider.

To mark the release, USPS partnered with the San Francisco Lowrider Council to host a March 14 celebration outside its processing and distribution center on Evans Avenue. Hundreds attended, with two parking lots filled with lowriders while vendors, food trucks and collectors lined the street. People traveled from across California for the event.

San Francisco resident Alejandro Nunez brought his toddler daughter, Olivia, and said he was proud to raise her within the lowrider community. He also praised the San Francisco Lowrider Council for creating family-friendly spaces. “This is a historic event. It has never been done before, and it’s a big deal,” Nunez said.

Erlinda and Mario Renovato, a couple from Fresno, have been “riding low and slow” together for 31 years. They drove to the event in Erlinda’s light pink 1966 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport.

“It’s so cool to finally have the lowrider stamps coming out,” Erlinda Renovato said. The couple met at a friend’s house when Erlinda was in her late 20s and Mario in his mid-30s. “It was love at first sight,” Mario said with a smile. “It was love at first sight for him,” Erlinda added playfully. “But it took a while to convince me.”

Erlinda said lowriding has helped keep their bond strong over the decades. “It’s because we both have something in common: our cars,” she said. “We love to cruise, and we love to be part of the lowriding culture.”

Born and raised in San Francisco, Jame Tuoto, who was dressed in a purple suit with tinted shades and a green collared shirt, reflected on the culture’s earlier days in the Mission District.

“We were lowriding back in the old days. It was rolling art for us,” Tuoto said. “A lot of the guys didn’t do well in school, but we did good with art, so we rolled our cars. We got stopped for everything. Everything was wrong.”

Attendees said the stamp collection represents long-overdue recognition of a culture that has endured decades of policing and stigma.

“Now everybody all over the world wants to be like us,” Tuoto said. “Isn’t that funny?”

Erlinda Renovato and her husband, Mario, of Fresno, Calif., have been together for 31 years. The couple poses in Erlinda’s light pink 1966 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport. Photo: Emma Garcia