On October 27, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles opens La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels, a special exhibit celebrating the cultural history of lowrider cars in a city synonymous with car culture. A standout in the exhibit is El Chavez Ravine—a custom-built ice cream truck commissioned by Ry Cooder. Built off the foundation of a '53 Chevy, the truck was painted in painstaking detail by artist Vincent Valdez to tell the story, as Cooder does in his 2005 album Chavez Ravine, of the largely Mexican-American Los Angeles neighborhood destroyed to make way for Dodgers Stadium in the 1950s.
On October 27, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles opens La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels, a special exhibit celebrating the cultural history of lowrider cars in a city synonymous with car culture. A standout in the exhibit is El Chavez Ravine—a custom-built ice cream truck commissioned by Ry Cooder. Built off the foundation of a '53 Chevy, the truck was painted in painstaking detail by artist Vincent Valdez to tell the story, as Cooder does in his 2005 album Chavez Ravine, of the largely Mexican-American Los Angeles neighborhood destroyed to make way for Dodgers Stadium in the 1950s.
Los Angeles Times staff writer Lynell George tells the complete story behind the truck in a recent article. An accompanying slideshow, narrated by Valdez, shows the evolution of the vehicle, from metal parts to finished work of art.
