Opinion: A drive-through graduation ceremony in 2020 solidified my love for lowriders

Hoffman retired from full-time teaching last year and is now a substitute teacher at Helix High School. She lives in Rolando.

I have been following with interest the opposition to the ban on lowrider cruising in National City and was happy to see that this decades-old ban (from 1992) was finally repealed. It might surprise some that I, a middle-aged White woman born and raised in San Diego, would have any opinion regarding lowriding vehicles, especially if you know me.

In general, I don’t even really like cars. Recently, when it was time for my husband and I to buy a new car, my only requirement was that it got decent gas mileage, visors that stayed in place and had heated seats. The make and model I had no interest in. Although it helped that, ultimately, the car we bought was red.

So maybe that is why I am interested in lowrider vehicles. They come in such beautiful colors and are meticulously clean and shiny. Just saying candy apple red brings up an image I simultaneously want to stroke and then eat. Sparkles in the paint, even better. But my interest in the subject is deeper than that.

Thirty years ago, I was nominally aware of this lowrider ban. However, I do remember believing that the word lowrider represented some sort of dangerous element — a hidden secret society that was up to no good. Yes, I believed this rubbish without ever considering what I was believing. The power of misinformation is astounding and it makes me rethink many subconscious beliefs I might have.

But moreover, it was just a few years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, that I got my first real experience with lowriders and what cruising was about. It was June 2020 and all high school graduations were shut down due to COVID-19. High school teachers like me were all saddened for our seniors who just had all of their senior activities ripped out from under them.

We scrambled to put together some sort of graduation via Zoom when someone suggested a car parade through the student parking lot. Other high schools had tried it, why couldn’t we? Thus, Helix Charter High School’s 2020 graduation promotion ceremony-by-car was conceived. Students were given an approximate time to line up with their vehicles, driven mostly by parents, and then slowly they cruised through the parking lot up and down each row, waving to the staff. The staff, all masked up, had parked their cars in student stalls and set themselves up like one big tailgate party, with everyone staying 6 feet apart from one another.

Graduation began with the slow procession of cars, students standing up in their convertibles, through their sunroofs or standing in truck beds, waving to the staff and other students as they cruised by. Every beautiful, well-maintained make and model of vehicle, freshly washed, went through that day. It was a car show as much as it was a graduation. The highlight of the show were the lowriders, and, to my chagrin, I had forgotten that they still existed. Many students proudly sat in their family lowrider cars as these cars did their fun tricks; the front rising so high, you would think it was taking off into the air, or lifting up on one wheel, tilting the car at an impossible angle, or bouncing the car, like it was on a trampoline. It created “Oohs” and “Ahhs” from the crowd. To top it all off, the fun horns that sounded off periodically added to the festive environment. It was four hours of cheering, laughter and tears as we watched our seniors make their way through the procession to get their diplomas. It was the best graduation I had ever attended.

I think about that graduation now, at this time of year when graduations are happening all around us. It was the only time we did that type of graduation at our school. I thought it should have become a tradition, but it didn’t, however, it does make Helix’s 2020 graduation memorable. And the best part of all were the lowriders that came through. You could see the care that had been put into each vehicle and you could feel the family pride that beamed out of each student’s eyes. It’s all I could talk about for days to anyone that wanted to hear about our graduation.

Now, I read “No Need For Cruise Control” and I smile at the cruising ban that has been lifted. I hope that at some point, I will be able to watch a lowrider cruising event now permitted or better yet, be invited to ride along in someone’s lowrider, hopefully candy apple red.

Cruising is not a crime; it never has been. Lowrider ownership is a hobby, a culture and an art unto itself. And, let’s face it, it’s just so cool.