At Xicha Fest, lowrider culture takes the spotlight

With the flip of a switch, Juan Leon made his 1996 Lincoln Town Car with decorative blue side striping lurch from side to side and hop up and down. It appeared as if the vehicle had suddenly come to life. Juan and his brother Jesus Leon from Woodburn, came to Xicha Fest on Saturday at Xicha Brewing’s taproom in north Salem to give a crowd of dozens a taste of the lowrider community and culture. 

As people holding beers whipped out their smartphones and started to encircle his vehicle, Leon explained that a highly specialized and sophisticated hydraulics system installed in his car made this unique phenomenon possible. 

“If you got love for a piece of art, and this is how I see it, for me personally, my car is a piece of artwork…If somebody likes the vehicle, ‘Hey bro, you got a badass car.’  Cool, that makes you feel good inside. Knowing that I’ve got something somebody else is appreciating,” Leon said. “It makes me feel good. It makes me feel happy that I’ve got something to show. It keeps me out of trouble. It keeps my mind set positive.”

Leon and his brother are part of a car club called Classified Oregon and came to Xicha Fest to spread a little bit of their culture and love of lowriding with the community. 

This is the second year in a row Leon has brought his car to what has now become an annual lowrider car show. Last year Leon’s car didn’t have hydraulics, and he said it’ll probably be another three years before he’s finished modifying his Lincoln. 

The car show is part of the broader Xicha Fest event which began in 2018, put on by the Salem brewery of the same name. The event is a two-day, family-oriented gathering open to all but tailored for the area’s vibrant and growing Hispanic and Latino community. 

While Leon dazzled guests with his hopping Lincoln, Xicha chef and co-owner Ricardo Antunez was busy pouring beers from the brewery’s new mobile beer bus aptly named, La Xingona, which is Mexican slang for badass.  

“We try to make a place that is inclusive to everybody but also represents, and has somewhere safe, for people with some Hispanic descent to feel comfortable and let loose a little bit,” Antunez said. “Also so they don’t feel like they are being neglected in a way. The food items are focused for them. Everything is kind of on purpose, right?” 

Antunez said family is a core value in Hispanic culture, and that is reflected at Xicha, which is family-owned, he said.

The business has grown significantly in recent years from its original West Salem brewery, opening a larger north location at the 45th Parallel Building and a location in Eugene. The north location now hosts regular dance nights with salsa, cumbia and bachata music.

“The plan is to keep it family-focused, family-oriented. Community-based. And that is what we always try to represent,” Antunez said. “Obviously we don’t get to do as many of these as we want a year, but as we get our feet wet we see that we can do more. And our range can be bigger.” 

Xicha Fest included a live DJ playing a diverse variety of Latin music genres as well as hip-hop, reggae and others. The front of the brewery was set up with a number of stalls featuring goods from local Salem businesses. On the brewery’s back patio, Xicha staff fired up the grill, offering meats and elotes.

Antunez said the brewery brought in the lowriders to showcase something that isn’t regularly accessible to many people year round. 

Leon said he and his fellow lowrider enthusiasts sometimes cruise their vehicles up and down Northeast Lancaster Drive and sometimes State Street, typically in the warmer months. Leon said when he cruises the Lincoln, pedestrians, often youths, try to get him to hop his vehicle, yelling, “hit the switch!” 

He said there are only specific times he can hop the Lincoln to avoid damaging the car. 

“Don’t get me wrong, it gets a lot of attention. Because a lot of people aren’t used to seeing that,” Leon said. “You can do it at a stop light. You can do it when you park. Or when you are pulling in, like I do here. When you are pulling in, I hit the switch.” 

Leon said lowriding is also a form of cultural expression that can unify people from other backgrounds around the love of lowriding. 

“It is not just Mexican culture, because lowriding is anybody. Anybody can do lowriding,” Leon said. “It just all depends on how you have the love for the culture and for what is called the lowriding community. Lowriding community can be anybody, you can be Black, white, Mexican, Asian.” 

A few feet away, Angel Muñoz was admiring the lowriders. Originally from Los Angeles, Muñoz said he used to have a lowrider of his own and seeing the cars reminds him of home. He said lowriding is a form of expression for Chicanos. 

“It’s a Chicano culture. It’s a form of expressing yourself through the car community. A lot of people choose different things. Chicanos, they choose their cars,” Muñoz said. 

Alongside the lowriders, some Xicha Fest attendees came in with their motorcycles. 

Eddie Martinez came to Salem from Portland to enjoy some community and culture at Xicha Fest. 

Martinez came in with his 2011 Honda Shadow which he painted with a colorful Aztec motif. He said he is originally from Mexico City, the ancient capital of the Aztec empire once called Tenochtitlán. The paint job is an expression of his culture, Martinez said. 

“I’ve always been proud of our roots. Being Mexican…All of that was embedded in me since I was a child over there in Mexíco. It’s always stayed here,” Martinez said pointing to his chest. “It never left.”

Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.

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