Custom-car culture has long been part of Los Angeles, but women have often been left out of the picture. On Sunday August 3, Hey Love Avenue, a low-rider cruising event down 14th Avenue in Downtown LA, put women front and center. Everyone from the car owners to the vendors and all of the DJs featured were women or women-led.
“We just wanted to shed some light on women in low riding from all aspects of the game, ”said Sonny, who said he only wanted to go by his first name and also goes by the DJ moniker Heart Laboe, the event’s organizer and founder.
“Women are here and not going anywhere.”
Though lowriders were first crafted in barrios across the Southwest and southern California as unique symbols of personalized creativity and Latino cultural identity, today’s women are expanding that legacy worldwide. Sandy Avila, president of Lady Lowriders Car Club said she grew up around lowriding and hopes to help bring a new generation into the scene. She founded her all-women club in 2021 with the support of her husband, who helps her work on her car, “Simply Beautiful” a white-and-gold-trimmed ‘84 Impala Cutlass…