[Chicana, chola, pachuca]

New Lowrider News Bulletin, No. 14 [May-Sept. 1978]

San Jose, CA: 5 Star Productions, 1978. Saddle-stapled in wraps. 8 ½ x 11 in. 20 pp. Near fine. Item #10542

A single issue of the early and exceedingly rare lowrider magazine, edited, designed, and illustrated by Biney Ruiz, a Chicana woman, publisher, and historian from San Jose.

Heavily illustrated with illustrations and photographs of the Chicano community and lowriders, the magazine also includes writings on the history of pachucos, cholos, lowriders, and alternative Mexican-American communities in the 20th century from Biney Ruiz and others. The Lowrider News Bulletin was a news publication featuring submitted lowrider happenings, social events, personal submissions, and reporting on lowrider car shows. The magazine was primarily mailed directly to car clubs to spread the news about upcoming events, and was meant to be a place for self-representation of the multifaceted Chicanx culture.

New Lowrider News Bulletin is also notable for including the first appearances in print of the artwork of David Gonzales, cartoonist and creator of the “Homies” toy line. After New Lowrider News Bulletin, Gonzales was hired by Lowrider Magazine, illustrating “The Adventures of Hollywood” comic strip for them for many years, before launching “Homies” in 1998. Some historians and community members have said that New Lowrider News Bulletin predated the much wider distribution and well-known Lowrider Magazine by a few months; given the scarcity of this magazine, and particularly the earliest issues, we have so far been unable to substantiate this claim. Nonetheless, it is an exceedingly rare and important magazine and a launching pad and template for other artists and publishers; Teen Angels, for example, illustrated the cover of a record for 5 Star Productions in 1979, a year before he launched the eponymous and now celebrated Chicano zine.

“What are our goals? To provide the people with an alternate viewpoint than the existing media based on facts from lowriders themselves.”

“Over 80% of the crowd at these lowrider activities are Brown people and its beautiful to see our people uniting, coming together, learning from one another. We, the brown people have to care, and help out one another.” – Biney Ruiz

OCLC locates no examples of any issues as of September 2025. 

Price: $500.00