'One of the pillars of lowriding': Phoenix car club hosts final cruise for founding member

Early one Saturday morning, multiple lowriders found themselves in El Reposo Park, at the corner of Southern Avenue and Seventh Street, to honor the memory of Manuel "J.R." Garcia, an instrumental figure in the local lowriding culture for half a century. Garcia was 67 when he passed in mid-June.

Fellow members of the Sophisticated Few Car Club and Garcia's loved ones gathered in south Phoenix early on July 6 to drive one of his cars, a 1973 Cadillac Coupe De Ville, around the city as a way to send him off. This was his final cruise, club members said.

Garcia helped found the club when he was still a teenager after having relocated from his native Flagstaff to south Phoenix.

A crimson Cadillac with a license plate that read "BAJALO," a Ford Model A from the 1920s that looked as new as the day it came out of the factory and a Chevy Bel Air with custom decals were just some of the dozen cars in attendance.

They gathered just after 8 a.m. to take part in the final cruise. Proud car owners displayed detailed paint jobs, custom interiors, lowered bodies — a staple of a lowrider vehicle — and plaques that read "Sophisticated Few" to show their connection to the club.

Founded in 1974, Sophisticated Few was a car club started in south Phoenix by eight members, including Garcia. At the time, it was exclusively a lowrider club, and Garcia helped put not only Sophisticated Few on the map but the Arizona lowrider scene at large.

“To the lowrider community in Arizona, (his death is) a big loss because he was one of the pillars of lowriding,” Michael Moreno, Garcia's nephew, told The Arizona Republic. Sophisticated Few helped bring a community of car enthusiasts together, but Garcia was committed to using the club to give back to his southside community, he said.

A man of action, love for community

At the event, friends and family recalled memories of Garcia, a man of few words whose actions more than made up for that fact.

“He would show you he loved you by what he did for you rather than what he said to you,” said Michael Garcia, his nephew and adopted son after his mother’s passing.

Members of the Sophisticated Few remembered him as being a stern man whose actions were rooted in honesty, and whose true character showed when he was the first to lend a helping hand.

“He's not the person that is going to be with rose-colored glasses, but he's the person that (if) he’s around you and cares for you, he’ll have your back 110%,” said Jose Escarzega, a member of Sophisticated Few.

According to members, Garcia always used the "Sophisticated Few" name to help others, even if it was as simple as attending another community event to give it a boost and get more community members to attend.

He helped advise Sophisticated Few when they partnered with Chicanos Por La Causa and Roman Home LLC, and encouraged members to participate in what they coined as the Sophisticated Few’s Christmas Angels, where boys in the foster program were offered a Christmas picnic, presents and clothing. The club held its seventh picnic in December of 2023.

With his passing, members lost someone who could mentor their club and provide years of car knowledge that can't be replaced, members said.

"He was always pushing for us to do better. Not just in the shows, but in our community," said Rick Ruiz, vice president of Sophisticated Few.

J.R. Garcia's lasting legacy

Inside J.R.’s 1973 Cadillac was Rick Ruiz, leading the caravan of low-riders and other Sophisticated Few cars before ending the cruise at Creighton Academy. Along the way, people stopped to admire the colorful custom cars, recording and honking at the passing vehicles. The friends and family who had initially gathered in El Reposo Park met once more as food was served, music was played and conversations reminiscing about Garcia were shared.

“When you were around him, you knew that he cared for you. You had that care, like family. And that's what I'm always going to miss,” Escarzega said.

Throughout the years, he helped many members of Sophisticated Few and Arizona's car culture get recognition nationwide and changed the perspective of what it meant to be a lowrider club. His contributions helped change the stigma associated with lowriders and gang violence.

“A lot of us are firefighters. We're general contractors, we're superintendents, teachers. We're all out there in the community,” Ruiz said. “And that's what we're trying to show, that there’s good people in all of this and try the best that we can do for our community.”

Garcia was able to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary before his passing in June. But it was only after his passing that members found out just how much of an effort Garcia made to keep the club alive for those five decades.

He had worked to get sponsors for events the Sophisticated Few would host or help host, and trademarked the name "Sophisticated Few" to protect their legacy.

“If it wasn't for him, I don't think the car club would have been in existence now,” Escarzega said.

Reach La Voz reporter Erick Treviño at erick.trevino@gannett.com.