| The purpose of this dissertation is to study the meaning of Chicano identity and Chicano culture through the production, practice, and transmission of lowrider culture. Outside of a few scholarly articles that trace the history of lowriding in the Chicano community, there is little research conducted on lowriding as a way of life, what it means to those who engage in its practice, and more importantly, how gender politics affects its everyday practice. Therefore this dissertation includes two avenues of examining lowrider discourse through reading culture as research and reading culture as an everyday practice---since culture is in fact a negotiation between social texts and people. The dissertation engages in an interdisciplinary approach to the ethnographic study of lowrider culture in Los Angeles. I seek to integrate in my dissertation various "lenses" in which to view lowrider culture. First from a historical perspective, as part of Chicano culture and identity with Los Angeles; second, from the "personal as political level", which allows the lowriders to tell their own stories about their involvement in the culture and also how they define lowrider culture; and third, to examine lowrider culture as a media practice, since when an everyday practice is visualized in media, there are transformations that occur as it intersects with market interests which ultimately have the potential to affect Chicano cultural identity. Finally, it is necessary to examine lowrider culture through a feminist perspective, since women and their bodies are an important part of this cultural space, both as a media practice and as a way of life. The conclusions reached in the dissertation include that lowriding today is a commodity to be marketed and sold, and certain class divisions are revealed. Particularly, lowriding is now a middle class sport, moving away from its origins in working class barrio life. Also, sexism is maintained within lowrider culture as women's bodies are exploited both for profit and for male pleasure. Finally, as lowrider culture spreads around the globe, aspects of Chicano cultural identity, such as cultural symbols and language, are both transformed and continued. |
