around the valley: ‘nuestras raices’ to link up lowriders y mas for their annual cinco de mayo car show

written by roman t. flores, freelance journalist
edited by sarina e. guerra
website by justin orsino

Helping me keep gas in the tank for this column is one such car club that hit their slow-roll stride in the fifth year of their main event…

Nuestras Raices
valle imperial
Cinco de Mayo
car show. 

Amid the cool chrome, high hops and showy lights on these slick rides at Firme Friday Cruise Night last month in El Centro, I was able to chat with two of the club’s officers as they talked about their passion, their culture, their families, their wheels and what it all means to them.

WHAT IS IT?
Coming up on half a decade, the annual Nuestras Raices Valle Imperial Cinco de Mayo Car Show is an event which will see a mix of about 180 lowriders, hot rods, and classic cars, as well as bikes, motorcycles, trucks, big rigs and more as raza roll in to Westmorland City Park from as far as Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona.

This free event will see the cars, trucks and bikes on display amid a mix of local vendors with food and wares for sale, raffle prizes, dancers and live music as a way for the Raices car club to do what they love—give back to the community and celebrate their heritage.

HOW DID IT START?
Nuestras Raices, or “our roots” in Spanish, is a car club made up of a quintet of car lovers from around the Imperial Valley (Brawley, El Centro and Heber, respectively) who came together over their shared love of…

 Cars,
Cultura &
Familia. 

Raices club president, George “Cinco” Valenzuela, said the club’s five members have been showing cars locally and at nearby show circuits for decades, but as they became more involved in putting on car shows in their previous clubs, the seed had been planted. This idea eventually took root and grew organically into their very own car club.

As Raices club treasurer Miguel “Worm” Diaz gained experience putting on car shows in Heber, and Valenzuela continued shows in downtown Brawley throughout the years, the expertise necessary was already on deck once Raices decided to branch out and launch their own, family-first event.

A FAMILY FIRST APPROACH
“Some of us have been in other clubs before, but we started Raices as a family-oriented club,” ‘Cinco’ told me in a previous interview. “We have our wives and kids in the club as well,” he said.

Raices’ staple car show came to be on May 5th because the date is also Valenzuela’s birthday, hence his nickname…

‘Cinco.’

“People see ‘lowriders’ and right away they put bad reps on us all, you know,” Diaz said. “(The bad guys) are not really everybody that’s out there. There’s old people, there’s young people–it’s a family.”

“I know there’s a lot of clubs that don’t really put that into perspective…they think that lowriding’s your first thing, but for us as a club, we know that everybody has priorities in life before our cars,” Worm said. “…for us, it’s family first, our health and then our cars. That’s why our plaque is the roots; our Mexican culture.”

Nuestras Raices signature club emblem, emblazoned on shirts and banners, proudly displays the impressive chrome plaques mounted on their respective rides and features tree roots encircling the symbol of Mexico’s national flag jutting from the text that is the name of the club itself.

“My wife actually came up with the name and the design,” Cinco said. “She went behind my back a little and talked to the lady that does our trophies and our plaques and shirts,” he chuckled, “and they did the design on the internet and got it going.”

“I love cars. I’m addicted to cars,” Cinco said. “I got my wife addicted to cars; she’s just as addicted to cars as I am. The two trucks I am building right now I am building for her; in the style and way she wants them. “

“We’ve been married almost 29 years, and she’s been around lowriding almost as long as I have, so she’s just as knowledgeable as I am when it comes to cars,” the proud husband said. “I met her when I was 15 years old. She’s a keeper and I’m not trading her in, just like my cars,” Cinco said.

“They’re going
to Stay with Me
Forever.”

LOWRIDER LOVE
“(A love of cars) is something I saw as I was growing up,” Worm said. “I’ve always been into lowriders because all my cousins had nice cars. “In high school, my older brother left his Regal, and I ended up making it my own without him knowing, you know? So, I’ve been into it since then.”

“Lowriding is in my blood,” Worm said. “I don’t go as deep as others, but it’s there.”

“I’ve been into cars since I was a little kid,” Cinco said. “My dad and my brother have been into cars since I was a little kid. My dad was a mechanic and I grew up working side by side with them as a little kid, being a little metiche right there, figuring out what was going on. He had his share of lowriders too. It’s just part of my culture.”

“Nuestras Raices means ‘our roots’–our roots in Mexican culture–and, well, that says everything,” Cinco said. “Everything that has to do with our Mexican culture, we try to make sure we have that at our show to keep the culture going because that’s all we got!”

THE HEART BEHIND IT
“We do it for the kids,” Worm said of why he continues to put on car shows with Nuestras Raices even after being in other car clubs and putting on shows elsewhere in previous years through other nonprofits. “We do it because we want to show people that we’re not bad people, and it just brings the community together.”

“It also shows people like, man, this is what you could do with just a word of mouth and some flyers,” he said. “It brings in people from all over. We do it for the love.”

“We’ve been doing this for a long time…everyone knows our show is near Cinco de Mayo, so people expect it,” Cinco said. “It’s like a tradition now every year, so we’re trying to keep that tradition alive (and) hopefully our kids will continue on after we’re not here.”

“My son is about to be 2 years old. He likes it,” Worm said as his son watched cars drive by the Rite Aid parking lot. “I got the wife going into it now. Financially even though I don’t have a shitload of money, she always backs me up.

“We have a ’77 LTD that, God willing, we can pass down to him,” he said as his son looked on. “Hopefully we can get him into it and keep the legacy going.”

GIVING BACK
Valenzuela also said they choose one charitable cause to donate the proceeds from the event’s registration and raffle funds to, in support of our community.

In 2025, Raices’ Cinco de Mayo Car Show proceeds went to local boxer and USA Boxing’s Junior National Champion (female, 110-pound category), Calexico’s Nayra “Yaya” Oceguera, to help cover the costs of her boxing competitions.

For 2026, proceeds for the car show will go to the Westmorland Fire Department in order to support youth programs/youth interested in becoming firefighters.

“We’re raising money for a good cause like we do every year,” Cinco said. “Come and enjoy the cars, the food, your culture. Bring your chairs, kids, canopy, kick back and enjoy the food and music,” he said. 

“It’s safe with the streets blocked off and in the park behind the police department,” Diaz added. “Hangout and dance. And we don’t discriminate: all cars, trucks and bikes are welcome.

“If you’re a car fanatic, bring it on by,” Cinco said. “Clean it up, wash it up, buff it out…

& Bring it
to the Show.”

Featured Photo: photo by roman flores, composite image by justin orsino (Photoshop 7.0 and GPT 5.3)