Lowriders, lucha and local fun make UMANI Festival a success

MOSES LAKE — Third Avenue in Moses Lake was a colorful place to be Saturday, with brightly-clad dancers, lowrider cars gleaming in the September sun and wrestlers in gaudy masks body-slamming each other in a ring. 

“It was amazing,” said Columbia Basin Allied Arts Director Shawn Cardwell, one of the organizers of the event. “Best year ever.” 

The third annual UMANI Festival, a celebration of Hispanic heritage in Moses Lake, was the best-attended so far, Cardwell said. There were performances by the CeAtl Tonalli traditional Aztec dance troupe and the world-renowned La Muchacha from Colombia, as well as other entertainers from closer to home. There were games and crafts for the whole family provided by the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center and workshops in music, dance and art at The Obra Project. But much of the energy came from the lowrider car show and the lucha libre wrestling. 

“I think moving the lowriders all along Third Avenue really made it a dynamic event,” Cardwell said. “The folks who brought the lowriders were really able to interact with the rest of the festival.” 

The lowrider show and the wrestling came through the efforts of Paul Carney II, owner of EDUBS C/S in Moses Lake.  

“I started promoting (this show) eight months ago,” Carney said. “The 18 weeks before the festival, every weekend I would drive 400 miles to a lowrider show. I went as far as Idaho and Spokane on the east side and Seattle, Bellingham and Bellevue on the west side … So as of yesterday, I had (spent) 812 hours promoting and 4,382 miles driven to promote the show.” 

The Malditos car club of Moses Lake and LowriderStyles Car Club of Wenatchee helped bring the show together as well, Carney said. Altogether there were 77 paid entries and 21 unpaid entries that just showed up, he said. Awards were custom-painted by Eddy Velez of Dirty Kustomz in Othello. 

Carney, who was born in San Diego and grew up in Las Vegas, opened his custom auto detailing and clothing shop EDUBS C/S in 2022. The shop’s grand opening also featured a lowrider show and lucha libre wrestling, two passions of Carney’s, and this year he was able to integrate them into the UMANI festival. 

Lowriders have a way of bringing people together, Carney said, which is one of the goals of the UMANI Festival. 

“I wanted people to see that lowriders … come from all walks of life,” Carney said. “A lot of us guys, we got into trouble when we were younger and now that we’re older we’re just trying to give back to the community … I wanted to show these kids that even though you’ve got former gang members, you’ve got former inmates, you’ve got people from the nicest walks of life, that we all come together for the community. Lowriders and lowrider shows have a horrible stigma, and I wanted to prove it could be done.” 

Carney kept the show family-friendly by shutting down at 9:30 p.m. and making sure the hip-hop and rap music the DJs played was clean. He added that the police officers he talked with said that his show was remarkably free of troublemakers. 

And then there was the wrestling. Lucha libre, which translates to “free fight,” is similar to the professional wrestling popular in the U.S. but involves more agility and acrobatics. The sport is marked by highly stylized masks worn by the wrestlers, called luchadores. 

The section of Division Street between Third and Fourth avenues was blocked off for the event, and it was the only part of the UMANI festival that carried an admission charge, although it could be seen from a distance outside the paid area. Pro wrestler and instructor J.D. Mason, owner of North West Pro Wrestling in Gig Harbor, brought a portable ring and an announcer. Mason himself took a turn in the ring and brought some of the wrestlers. Others were local talent or came from out of state, he said. 

“(The show is) being put on by North West Pro, and then some luchadores from California came up to join us today,” Mason said between bouts.  

As in U.S. professional wrestling, the moves may be choreographed, but the flips, leaps and body slams require some serious athleticism, Mason said. 

“You know, ‘fake wrestling’ is the number one thing that people say, but it’s pretty brutal,” he said.  

“It’s not just wrestling moves, it’s a lot of acrobatics,” Carney said. “The only time I flip like that is when I slip in the kitchen.” 

Lucha wrestling was a part of his life from an early age, Carney said. 

“In San Diego, I lived really close to the border,” he said. “And in the ’70s, if you wanted to go play in Tijuana for the day, you just pulled the fence back and ran. We would sneak in and run around Tijuana, watch wrestling matches and get into some trouble and run home.” 

The combination of lowriders, lucha and local community made for a successful festival, Cardwell said. 

“People like to see the street full,” she said. “That’s what makes it feel like a festival, when everywhere you look, there’s something that isn’t usually there. And I think we really achieved that this year, to make it something special and kind of transport you somewhere really cool.” 

    This year's UMANI festival filled the streets and sidewalks of downtown Moses Lake with vibrant colors.
  

    The lowrider car show at the UMANI Festival Saturday brought in vehicles from as far away as California and Canada.
  

    Lumber Zack makes his opponent Ryuki very well acquainted with the rope as Christian Wylde creeps around the outside of the ring at the UMANI Festival Saturday.
  

    The UMANI Festival Saturday included lots of games and activities for the younger set.