Whitman alumni Yahir Tzec-Carrasco ‘25 and Oliver Dickson ‘25 traveled across the Pacific Northwest this summer to document the Washington State Lowriders. The resulting 12-minute short film, “Roll Modelz,” premiered Oct. 11 at the Milton-Freewater Drive-in, featuring Mexican folkloric dancers, b-boys and car clubs across the state, ranging from Yakima to the Tri-Cities. 

Cousins Jason Pastor-O’Neel and Cris Avila founded the Washington State Lowriders Association, which has a large presence in Walla Walla. 

“We started the club in memory of my niece who passed away,” Pastor-O’Neel said.

His niece, Mya Avila, passed away in a car accident in 2023. Since then, the club has competed in car shows and embedded itself within the community – all in her memory. 

“Everything they do is to honor her and to memorialize her,” Tzec-Carrasco said.

The car club teaches local youth how to customize bikes and cars into lowriders, and they have hosted a “Trunk or Treat” with over a dozen local sponsors for the last two Halloweens.

A “lowrider” is a car modified using hydraulics to cruise at different heights. A symbol of Chicano pride and often passed down within families, lowriders are vibrantly decorated and showcased in competitions during the summer months – car show season.

Chino Ortega Cruz is a lowrider in the Traditionz car club based out of Quincy, Washington. Cruz won the “Driving Show 2025 Award” at the short film premiere. His ’91 Cadillac Brougham belonged to his close friend Mario Pelayo Olivares. 

“Big Mario, he passed away a couple years ago. This was his car. What he wanted to finish, I am finishing for him,” Cruz said.

The Cadillac features a photo in sticker form of Mario and his son walking towards the car.

“Still riding with us. Mario Pelayo Olivares 1/12/80-12/30/23,” the sticker says. 

The documentary “Roll Modelz” explores how lowriding can be a medium for grief. 

“One aspect of the story is that [the WA State Lowriders Association] is bringing together these small towns across Eastern Washington for one cause,” Dickson said. “The film is about how they’ve turned this tragedy into something very positive and productive for their community.” 

Over a year ago, Tzec-Carrasco met the WA State Lowriders at a local car show. He knew Dickson through Whitman’s Film Studies department and reached out when he decided to make the documentary.

“First and foremost, it was because he was Mexican,” Tzec-Carrasco told The Wire, “and then second, it was because of how talented he was.” 

The two soon realized that the project would extend past their time at Whitman. They made their post-graduate plans, traveling to small towns across Washington and Oregon to film and fundraise. 

Fundraising conversations this summer grew tenuous, they said, as the Trump administration started increasing ICE presence in cities across the nation, and built immigration detention facilities, including “Alligator Alcatraz.” 

Tzec-Carrasco said he and Dickson received pushback from businesses in town when their description of the film mentioned the Trump administration.

The day before the premiere, the two filmmakers received a grant through Whitman’s DEI department, helping them hire security for the event and pay for their film festival submissions. 

“Throughout the summer, as the No Kings protest was happening and things started to get worse, there was this mental shift I felt where [the film] went from being personal to me and Yahir to something more than that,” Dickson said. 

He mentioned his father, who was fighting the Washington Wildfires this September.

“He was working on one that was 20 minutes from my house, and he called me because ICE raided it,” Dickson said. 

As the political situation for Mexican Americans worsened throughout the documentary’s production, the project developed another layer of significance – asserting the existence and vitality of a community under siege across the country. 

Daniel Brito-Martinez, the president of the Washington State Lowriders’ Bike Club, is a lowrider originally from Chicago. He expressed that Walla Walla has a “white-washed” atmosphere. 

“People get intimidated, you know, but we don’t. We ride with our cars and we ride with our Mexican flags and we don’t care,” Brito-Martinez said. 

“Chicanos and Lowriders have always been politicized since they first started in the ’40s. To me, it’s always been frustrating because Walla Walla portrays itself as being a very wine-White-centric, middle-aged town. I knew this story could change that perception,” Tzec-Carrasco said. 

Dickson said the end of the film’s premiere was “magical.” Rows of cars and lowriders began honking in lieu of applause. 

“I was crying the entire time,” Tzec-Carrasco said about the premiere. “I felt so happy that they got to see themselves on screen.” 

“Lowrider cultura is coming back,” Cruz said, “and I’m really happy about it. It was dying. The lowrider, it was dying. Now look at everybody.” 

Going forward, Tzec-Carrasco and Dickson plan to enter “Roll Modelz” in film festivals across the country and then internationally, mentioning Chicano-inspired subcultures in Japan. Afterward, they hope to license the film with a distributor and eventually move on to new projects.