For the first time ever, a Lowrider Parade in San Francisco will be televised on Saturday.
Car clubs from across the country — including Arizona — will take to the streets of Calle 24 Latino Cultural District in more than 300 souped-up custom cars. In addition to the parade, there will also be a “King of the Streets” hopping competition with a $10,000 prize.
Roberto Hernández founded the San Francisco Lowrider Council in 1981. He says they put on the parade every year to celebrate the National Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month, but also to celebrate a civil rights victory.
"We would get citations every weekend. I got arrested 113 times for cruising. I got beat up three times and actually that's why I formed the San Francisco Low Rider Council back in the late '70s, early '80s, to organize all the low riders, to stand up for our rights because what they were doing was racial profiling, it was discrimination," said Hernández. "We took them to federal court. We put the city on trial."
Hernández and his fellow lowriders won a settlement at the time, but statewide bans on lowrider cruising in California weren’t lifted until 2023.
Arizona legislators blocked a bill last year that would have prevented local bans on cruising.
Hernández says this year’s event will take on a different emotional tone.
“ In this moment, right now, more than ever before, we are dedicating this parade to our immigrant brothers and sisters. We’re inviting them to be a part of it in different ways because you should not hide. What is going on is criminal and … we’re standing up against that. And we’re saying ‘¡Basta ya!’ that’s not right," Hernández said.
The Lowrider Parade and hopping competition will be live at 1pm on CBS this Saturday.
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