Cal Humanities

"The understanding of a culture comes from hearing the language, tasting the food, seeing personal interactions, experiencing the traditions, and so much more in context."

— Elizabeth Laval & Candice Pendergrass, Sikh Youth Public History Project

"The understanding of a culture comes from hearing the language, tasting the food, seeing personal interactions, experiencing the traditions, and so much more when it is in context."

— Elizabeth Laval & Candice Pendergrass, Sikh Youth Public History Project

Film: Everything Comes from the Streets

Cars are always vehicles, but when do they become vehicles for organizing communities, celebrating history, and taking pride in one’s cultural heritage?

Everything Comes From the Streets chronicles the lowrider movement in San Diego from its origins to the present day in order to dispel myths and shed light on the importance of car clubs as extended families that affirm and build communities in the colorful and complex fabric of the borderlands of the American Southwest.

Challenging the belief that lowriding is linked to gangs and violence, Everything Comes From the Streets features men and women from San Diego and Tijuana who shaped and influenced the car customizing movement, a movement defined by imagination, creativity, and ingenuity. The film explores the intersections of self-expression, cultural vitality, and community activism, focusing on the story of the relationship between the community of lowriders and the struggle to create San Diego’s world-famous Chicano Park—home to the country’s largest outdoor collection of murals. Established by means of peaceful protest at the height of the Chicano movement, this is a story of collective action and resilience from which many communities can draw lessons.

Everything Comes From the Streets, directed by Dr. Alberto López Pulido, is a California Humanities-funded project of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of San Diego, San Diego, CA.