California Chicano Cultural Periodical Lowrider Magazine and Firme Magazine: Chicano Life, 7 Issues, 1981-83

Lowrider Magazine Firme Magazine: Chicano Life Chicano/Latino Culture

Periodical

Chicano lowrider and popular culture magazine archive from 1981 to 1983, comprising five issues of Lowrider Magazine and two issues of Firme: Chicano Life during the period when custom car culture provided a publishing framework for Chicano music, fashion, visual art, politics, neighborhood reporting, and regional community life across California and the Southwest. Sonny Madrid conceived Lowrider as a Chicano magazine combining custom automobiles with art, satire, fashion, and politics; its first issue appeared in San Jose in January 1977 after Madrid’s involvement in the Chicano Civil Rights movement, the United Farm Workers, antiwar protest, and local community publishing. The seven issues here show that editorial program operating in the early 1980s through Edward James Olmos and Zoot Suit, Ritchie Valens, Chicano fashion, Tejano and Latin music, regional car clubs, barrio writing, a Coors beer boycott feature, Henry Cisneros, and dozens of individually identified cars, owners, painters, clubs, and community events. Firme, represented by Vol. 1, Nos. 3 and 4, circulated as Firme Magazine: Chicano Life in San Jose during 1981 and 1982 and occupied the same Chicano periodical field as Lowrider.

Lowrider Magazine and Firme Magazine: Chicano Life. San Jose, California: A.T.M. Communications / Aztlan Communications and Mexican American Ventures in Corporate Organizations, Inc., 1981 to 1983. Seven illustrated, stapled magazines with color wrappers.

[1] Lowrider Magazine. May 1981. Vol. 4, No. 7. Edited and published by Sonny Madrid, with Roland Medley as art director and Salvador Casillas, Carlos Chavez, Juan Garza, Robert Rodriguez, and El Larry credited for photography. The cover presents Rudy and the Cruisers and promotes the singles “CRUISING BABY” and “CAR SHOW”; the contents extend from “Nite Owl,” “Monte Fever,” “Midnite Madness,” and “Burque Chev” through “Beto Talent Search,” “Imperial Trike,” “Unity Happening,” “Wheels of Confusion,” “Classic Knights,” “Arizona Caprice,” “Fresno Preview,” and “Randolph Park.”
[2] Lowrider Magazine. September 1981. Vol. 4, No. 11. The cover uses a scene from the Universal film Zoot Suit with Edward James Olmos and advertises “EDDIE OLMOS: The New Anthony Quinn,” “Chicano Fashion: A Trend Setting Passion,” “Ritchie Valens: The First Chicano Rock n Roller,” and the satirical feature “JOHNNY CHINGAS X RATED.” Interior contents include “Low Rider Scope,” “69 El Campiro,” “Heaven & Hell,” “Chicano Fashion Passion,” “Whittier Blvd.,” “El Valle Show,” “Rockwood MECHA,” “Richie Valens,” “My Son El Vato,” “Johnny Chingas,” “Memories,” “Eddie Olmos,” and “Gilroy Happening.”
[3] Firme Magazine: Chicano Life. 1981. Vol. 1, No. 3. Published by Mexican American Ventures in Corporate Organizations, Inc. The cover combines three women posed above the headline “THE TRUE STORY BEHIND COOR’S BEER BOYCOTT,” the Shroud of Jesus Christ, boxer Bobby “GOLDEN BOY” Chacon, and Robert Rocha’s ’65 Chevy.
[4] Firme Magazine: Chicano Life. 1981. Vol. 1, No. 4. The table of contents includes “Publisher’s Statement,” “Rudy Fest,” “Se Habla Espanol,” “La Familia,” “San Joaquin Valley Gig,” “Blues Power,” “Chicano Fashion,” “Love to the Universe (poem),” and “A Veteran Speaks Out.” The publisher’s statement describes the magazine as belonging to the Chicano community and defines its subjects as cultural accomplishments, political leadership, entertainment, sports, theater, social events, youth, and the family.
[5] Lowrider Magazine. January 1983. Edited and published by Sonny Madrid. The cover features singer Patsy Torres and advertises “Brown Sound / Latin Wave,” Los Fabulous Thunderbirds, KRLA 50’s Rock n Roll Day, KUTE 102 Tierra, a Children’s Benefit Car Show, El Paso Supershow, and Aztlanville Times.
[6] Lowrider Magazine. February 1983. Interior contents identify cars including “Sangria,” “Midnite Blue,” “Classic Cruisers,” “Orange Cove Custom,” “Chiques Rides,” “Nite Life,” “Big T,” “Candy Valentine,” “Dark Vision,” “Blues Power,” and “Daddys Choice,” while the music section covers The Flirts and the Tejano Music Awards
[7] Lowrider Magazine. September 1983. The cover places a woman beside a black custom automobile in front of a residential building. An interior credit identifies the featured car as belonging to Julio Ruelas of the Dukes, Southern California, with Carol Ruelas as model, Fernando Ruelas responsible for paint, G and G Tops for the interior, Nickle Plating for chrome, and Johnny Lozoya as photographer.

The magazines date from a period when lowriding had developed from postwar Mexican American custom car practices into a broader public culture organized through cruising, clubs, shows, music, visual art, and print. Light to moderate wrapper wear, rubbing, toning, and occasional creasing and small edge tears; interior pages show age toning but remain generally clean in the portions examined. Overall good condition. A seven issue record of the early 1980s Chicano magazine culture in which the customized automobile became a platform for publishing music, politics, art, fashion, neighborhood identity, and the people whose labor produced the lowrider scene.

Item #23751

Price: $785.00