SACRAMENTO, CA - This week, Assemblymember Mark González's AB 2541, which will create a specialty license plate honoring lowrider heritage, hit Governor Newsom's Desk, awaiting his signature. The bill passed both houses of the Legislature unanimously, clearing the Assembly 78-0 and the Senate 40-0. Funds generated from the program will be reinvested into lowrider programming and non-profits statewide.
"This license plate is a small piece of metal carrying a big message: that our cultura is beautiful and belongs on every road, parking lot, and cul-de-sac in California, " said Assemblymember Mark González. "For generations, lowriders were treated as a problem to be policed instead of an art form to be celebrated. AB 2541 flips that script; every plate on the road becomes a rolling reminder that Latinx history is California history, and it puts real dollars behind the artists and organizations keeping that legacy alive."
"QUOTE FROM KIMMY"
What is Lowriding
A lowrider is more than a customized car - it's a canvas. Riding low and slow on hydraulics, hand-painted, and detailed down to the upholstery, these vehicles are built to be looked at. The build itself is a craft passed between generations: welding, airbrushing, engraving, and upholstery skills have been taught in driveways and backyards since the 1940's. To roll low and slow is to make a statement; it is to say that patience, artistry, and community are worth putting on display in public, on the very streets that once tried to push that culture out of sight.
From Suppression to Celebration
This display of cultural pride came at a cost. For decades, California law and local ordinances singled out lowriders for punishment through vehicle height restrictions written to target modified cars, and anti-cruising ordinances that treated the act of cruising itself as a public nuisance. The impact fell overwhelmingly on Latino and Chicano communities, for whom lowriding has always been inseparable from identity.
Despite these restrictions, lowriding survived through the resistance, bravery, and pride born in the barrios of Southern California, carrying forward Mexican American and Chicano heritage through car clubs, family builds, and cruises that doubled as community gatherings. To ban the lowrider was, in practice, to police Latinx cultural expression itself.
What AB 2541 Will Do
AB 2541 would establish the Lowrider License Plate Program, directing the Department of Motor Vehicles to work with the California Arts Council to sponsor and issue a specialty "Lowrider" plate. Specifically, the bill would:
- Require the Arts Council to apply to the DMV to sponsor The Lowrider specialized license plate.
- Direct DMV, in consultation with the Arts Council, to design the plate to reflect lowrider culture and heritage.
- Establish the Lowrider License Plate Program once DMV receives at least 7,500 paid applications by January 1, 2032.
- Deposit revenue, after administrative costs, into the newly created Lowrider Arts and Culture Fund to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to fund lowrider arts and cultural preservation efforts statewide.
Assemblymember Mark González is the Assembly Majority Whip. He serves on the Committees on Appropriations, Health, Public Safety, Rules, and Utilities & Energy. He represents the 54th District, composed of the cities of Los Angeles, Commerce, Montebello, and Vernon.
CONTACT: Kyle Johnson; Kyle.Johnson@asm.ca.gov; (925) 549-2030
Nina Suh-Toma; Nina.Suh-Toma@asm.ca.gov
