Amidst the sparkle of chrome and the roar of lowrider engines, Skyline students found a unique fusion of culture and career exploration at Skyline College’s third annual RIDE Conference.

Dionicio Garcia, creator of the RIDE Conference, said that this conference meant a lot to him.

“This event is the lowriders studies conference to support the youth and help them figure out what their true potentials are, and ultimately how to navigate college,” Garcia said.

Garcia said that RIDE stands for “Realize your true potential, Identify your goals, Develop a plan, and Explore.” He said the name of the conference was the basis for students to smoothly transition from their highschool to college life.

“Within that transition [from highschool to college]…  in order for them to know where they want to go, they have to figure out where they come from and the RIDE Conference does provide context of history… they may have not known,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the Conference’s staff is a resource because of the knowledge and experience they shared with students.

“When we think about communities of color oftentimes, particularly in the K~12 systems, they’re often invisibilized, silenced, they don’t get to hear their stories and it doesn’t represent them,” Nate Nevado, RIDE Conference volunteer, said. “So when you have something like a RIDE Conference at a college setting, it allows permission for students to be their authentic selves…”

Nevado said it’s important to have educational leadership and events that speak to specific cultures available to students.

“We know what it’s like to be in college for the first time…” Nevado said. “It feels like you’re alone and you have nowhere to seek help, but me as a counselor, I feel like it’s important for me to connect, to collaborate, to ensure that they [students] have a sense of place of belonging, and I feel like that’s what my role is.”

Gabriel Perez Cano, RIDE Conference attendee, said that the conference was important to him because not many people learn about this type of culture, especially with the stigma within their own communities.

“What this means to me is just how proud I am, and how we display our own art, our own culture, the cars, the murals, through everything and not many people see that kind of side,” Cano said. “Always, like in the media, in the politics, it always throws us [Mexican Americans] as the negative, bad people.”

Cano said that this conference is a display that the lowrider community aren’t bad people, that they are like everyone else: a human.

“I was really excited,” Cano said. “As a Mexican American… we need these kinds of conferences for our people… to reinforce our youth to push to be better for ourselves.”

Cano said that he will bring his friends and [fellow] students next year to spread the word that “we are here” and “we belong here.”