In the 1970s, the intricately detailed cars with sleek paint jobs and lowered bodies cruised up and down Story and King in the heart of East San Jose. The largely Mexican-American neighborhood had become an epicenter of lowrider culture, building off what had begun on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles 30 years prior.
Robert Diaz remembers gathering with his friends as a young teen on Friday and Saturday nights, sitting at the bus stop or the old Shakey’s Pizza on Story Road, watching the cars cruise by and imagining the day he’d buy his own lowrider. When he finally turned 16, he made the purchase: a 1977 root beer-brown Cutlass Supreme Brougham with a tan vinyl top.
Years later Diaz, who is the vice president of the United Lowrider Council of San Jose, “continues to live the lowrider lifestyle.” He drives a 1964 red Chevy Impala Super Sport, and his wife, Yvonne, drives a 1962 gold Chevy Impala convertible.
