Hernandez: We come back to Odessa. I was here in ’71, ’72. I stated messing around with my cars. I went to body school learning how to paint the cars and do body work, lower the cars down. I got into that world of cars. That was the mid ‘70s. There were already a lot of low riders here in town. At first, I was the only one, there was no other low riders. I can remember back in the ‘50s there was a ballroom right in front of my house. There was a dirt road and a Young’s ballroom. They had a jukebox and all these ‘50s cars would come in without fenders. Spray painted and big white walls. That’s where they use to hang out, all the kids. My brothers, you know. So, I grew up around all of that, the ‘50s music and listening to the jukebox. The rock and roll and all of that. Pero este. I guess it just stuck with me, all the cars. So when I came back from Cali I went to school and started learning. I guess right about that time is when I started trying to make a change. No just for me but for my friends in the neighborhood, in the barrio, for the well being of chicanos. My actions were different. Things that I was doing was different because even at that school I was always against the instructor. I could see that he was always about making money and working on his cars. He would get the best students to help him and the rest of the students he would ignore. I was one of those. I would say, “Can you come check my body work?” He would say, “That’s good put primer on it.” I would say, “ I know it’s not good cause I could feel it.” But he told me it is good, but I am going to make it right on my own. By the time I went to the second school, the instructor was telling me to paint and I was real rebellious. I would say, “You take it, you show me how to do it.” Don’t tell me, show me. He would not do it, so I figured he did not know how to do it. I was like, I know to paint because I have already been to another school. He is my instructor here and does not know how to paint, so something is wrong. I noticed that the guys came from Austin, the owners of the school, and somehow they opened up the doors and started talking to me. I brought it up, I said, “Hey, this guy does not know what he is doing.” He has guys over here sanding a Corvette. He had students sanding the car, they were sanding all the bumpers, and windows, and everything. Nobody was showing them anything. They messed up that car. Anyway, they told me to find an instructor. So I went back in the barrio and I found this guy from one of the oldest body shops in the barrio. This guy that I knew. I told him, “Do you want to be an instructor?” This guy could not even sign his name. He did not know how to read, but he knew how to paint and craft. Sabía talento so I talked him into doing it. I said, “Man it is easy. We will help you with the paper work and get it done.” I have a GED. No, pero como we got him to come in and sure enough. The plan was you would be an instructor but after a while, I will be the instructor and you can be the director. You can overlook the school and I will run the school and take care of the students. You do all the administration and take care of it. You know, they would allow you so much money for every student. They would give you tools and you would have 200 per student, buy you this, buy you that. So we got a new building and I went over to the south ranchito. Because there is a south ranchito and a noth ranchito those are neighborhoods outside the city limits that is all chicanos. I got all those guys into low riding and got them into building their cars, they would come in with the cars and go over there. It was all a low riding thing. I brought them into the school and got them enrolled. After a while my friend was pocketing the money. He would give us a screwdriver or something, but he would never show up to the class. I was in charge of the class. He was not paying me, he was paying me a student. The students wanted to beat him up. There was chaos at the school, it was all a low rider school.