This lowrider overheated at Denver's Pride parade. Now it'll be on display at the Denver Art Museum

Here’s the backstory on two lowriders helping kick off the Denver Art Museum’s latest exhibition on lowriding across the Southwest.

Standing by his eggshell white 1962 Chevy Impala that’s parked inside his home garage on a rainy afternoon in Thornton — just north of Denver — Brian Casias and his friend Fabian Abeyta lift open the hood of his wounded lowrider. Somewhere inside of its metal guts is a worn-out cooling system that needs a mechanic’s touch after it overheated during last weekend’s Denver Pride Parade.

“We turned off the car and it just started smoking,” Casias said. “I didn’t know what to do so two [people] jumped in and started helping me.”

Casias had driven about 12 blocks of the parade route before his car broke down as he turned onto Colfax Avenue.

“I’ve hid for 51 years. I’m done hiding my life,” Casias said. “Just seeing people’s reactions like, ‘Wow there’s a lowrider in the [parade].’ I was so upset last weekend because I couldn’t finish the parade. Not finishing broke my heart.”

Now, Casias and Abeyta are working to get the car ready for a car show at the Denver Art Museum this Sunday — another chance at being in the spotlight.

Casias has never been shy about his sexuality, but it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that he came out publicly to his Facebook followers consisting of friends and family. For Casias, being a gay member in the lowrider scene has never been an issue and when he was invited to ride in Denver’s Pride Parade, he was ecstatic at the opportunity to show out for the LGBTQ celebration from within his beloved vehicle.

“Why not be that one brown kid that says, ‘Hey, I struggled my entire life and look where I’m at today. I’m driving a lowrider and I’m okay’,” Casias said.

Denver’s lowrider community has a long deep-rooted history in the city, and for Casias, who was born and raised in Longmont, coming down to the city to take part in car shows is an opportunity he’ll rarely miss.

Following an appearance at this year’s Denver Pride, Casias’ lowrider, named “My Angel,” will be making a stop at Denver Art Museum’s Lowrider Show and Shine, a family-friendly event this Sunday featuring lowriders, local vendors, food and music.

“Sunday’s going to be a big thing for me because it’s going to be my first time in a show this year now that I’ve been out,” Casias said.

The event includes free general admission to the museum all day and will help kick off the opening of the Denver Art Museum’s latest exhibition, Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion, which highlights how Southwestern Latinx and Indigenous artists express identity, pride and a sense of community through lowriders and skateboard culture.

“Anytime I get a chance to put the community in the forefront and highlight them to a wider audience, it’s a privilege for me to tell those stories,” Geneyro said.

He said there are three aspects he focuses on when documenting the lowrider community: the people, the cars and the city.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about the people of the lowrider community,” Geneyro said. “Lowriding is all about these traditions that families pass down through the generations and I think to provide a visual record of the people to help empower and dispel misconceptions and prejudices that people might have.”

In a previous interview with Denverite, Geneyro said he tries to make the people look like “ancient warriors” of Aztec and Incan tribes to present the community as “empowered figures and family men, family women and people that are carriers of traditions, strong and beautiful traditions.”

In an Instagram post explaining his image titled “When Heaven Scrapes the Pavement,” Geneyro explains that it’s an attempt to bridge the gap between lowriding and spirituality, or the metaphorical spiritual connections that people create within the painted lines of a parking lot.

“They’re almost like spaceships,” Geneyro said. “You see one rolling down the street and everybody’s head is turning. How can I capture that feeling through photography?”

In the photograph, sunlight reflects off the roof of a gold bomb and creates an angelic-like glare at the bottom of the image. In the background is Curtis Park Creamery, a 1969 family-owned Mexican restaurant considered a neighborhood staple. Geneyro’s ability to juxtapose lowriders near or in front of Denver monuments is what has made his work stand out for as long as he’s documented the city’s scene.

“I’ve traveled to places to shoot lowriders but when it comes to Denver specifically, what I try to do is capture lowriders in these like quintessentially iconic Denver places,” Geneyro said.

“There’s different ways I approach making art out of something that honestly doesn’t need me,” Generyo said. “The lowrider community doesn’t need me to capture the work that they do, it’s already beautiful on its own. But ultimately I’ve gotten a lot of love from the lowrider community for the photography that I’ve done to represent them. It feels good to be trusted by them to be able to tell these stories.”

Joining Casias on Sunday is Joe O’Connell, who will be showcasing his ’48 Chevy Fleetline, notable for its metallic gold paint job.

In a collaboration between Ranflitas Colorado chapter, Citywide Car Club and Impalas Car Club, a party to celebrate the lowriding community was organized on October 16, 2021. Geneyro’s photo, featuring Casias and O’Connell’s lowriders facing one another, documents one of the first car shows to take place in Curtis Park since O’Connell was a teenager.

“[Casias and I] parked our two cars there so that it would bring attention to everybody coming,” O’Connell explained. “I’m 55 but when I was a teenager the first car shows were always at Curtis Park. They hadn’t had anything since the 80s so we decided to throw an end-of-the-summer barbecue to give back to the lowriding community.”

Born and raised in East Denver, on 30th and Franklin to be exact, O’Connell has been into the lowrider scene his entire life. He bought his gold ’48 Chevy Fleetline seven years ago for $20,000 and in that time he’s invested anywhere between $70,000 to $75,000 on it.

Written on the side of a swamp cooler is the name “Mi Ruca Juanita,” named after O’Connell’s wife. Other details include a metal antenna topper blimp (worth anywhere from $800 to $1,000, according to O’Connell), a Felix the Cat Funko Pop figure inside a decked-out trunk, an umbrella holder in the passenger seat, a custom-made lookalike doll named “Lil Vato” and a clown named “Roger” who sits in the backseat holding an empty bottle of Tequila.

“I put my heart and soul in this car,” O’Connell said. “Right now, I do it for my grandson. I am trying to teach him a culture that is being lost.”

Casias said his lowrider “My Angel” is dedicated to his mother. In the backseat is a white-framed portrait of his parents, Pat and Leonard.

“Mom passed away in 2013 from cancer and my dad passed away two years ago from Covid,” Casias said.

Casias saved up for years before he finally bought his lowrider for $40,000 three years ago from an owner in Massachusetts.

“[Dad] got to see the baby,” Casias said. “I have a picture of him helping me put things on here. It was just a bonding thing. I just wish my mom would have been able to see my dream.”

For each owner, these vehicles represent a creative expression of self, an extension of who they are and a chance to showcase their originality among a parking lot of Chevy Impalas and Fleetlines.

“It’s my vision of an art piece. We can line four or five of them up, they all look alike as far as the body, but it’s the detail and what each guy has done to make it his,” O’Connell said. “With my car I’m all about little details that other people don’t necessarily see.”

With a collective passion for reliving the old days and creative expression, car clubs are opportunities for both Casias and O’Connell to be among the community. Ranflitas Car Club became a nonprofit organization within the last year and O’Connell said part of the joy is giving back to the community.

“We do a lot of car shows to raise money,” O’Connell said. “We’re still kind of small but we pitch in two to three hundred dollars to give away clothes and food to those in need.”

For O’Connell, continuing to dispel the negative perception of the lowrider community, and passing on the culture and traditions to his six-year-old grandson is at the heart of his lowriding passion.

“You see a bunch of Mexicans in lowrider cars with tattoos and the first thing you think about is gangs. You don’t think of a grandfather with their grandson,” O’Connell said. “I have a ’65 that I’m working on now that will be his first car he takes to school. But I want him to learn about fixing things with his hands, being able to think and fix, not just go and buy.”

The Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion exhibition will open July 9 and will be on view through Sept. 24. Entry is included with general admission, which is free for members and for all visitors 18 and under.

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