John Geredia nodded at his 11-year-old son, Carlos, as festival-goers celebrating Cinco de Mayo passed a line of lowrider autos and trucks gleaming in the warm sunshine Sunday.
“He helped put that rear bumper on,” Geredia said, pointing at a tricked-out 1964 Buick Riviera with the trunk open to expose a pair of gleaming hydraulic pumps that can change the height of the car at the flip of a switch.
The annual festival in Denver is a celebration of family and Hispanic culture, said Fidel “Pops” Felan, 54, a member of the Showoff Car Club, who was displaying a 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a removable roof and glass floor that cost $40,000 to convert.
The lowrider is an important part of his culture, he said.
“It is a day to show our culture and our cars and have the kids learn what it is like to be part of the Mexican community,” Felan said.
Felan’s 32-year-old son, Andrew, was right beside him, showing off his own 1954 Chevrolet Bel-Air. “We have been into lowriders, our parents were into lowriders, and our kids are into lowriders,” said Fidel Felan.
Andrew joined his father in working on the cars after someone stole the lowrider bike that his father built for him when he was 13.
“From that day on he has been helping me,” Fidel Felan said.
And Fidel Felan helped his son turn the decrepit Bel-Air into a deep-green and cream colored machine with a mural on the roof and a bounce in its ride.
Tomas Aguilar, 32, president of the club, said he grew up watching his uncles and other family members fix up cars.
“I got into it as a way of learning a different art form,” Aguilar said. “I had always seen my uncles and the family fixing up cars. That is what invited me into it.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
