RSVP : Blessing Cars? You Can’t Be Too Careful
It was a gathering dedicated to no smaller a purpose than ministering to the very soul of Southern California. The second annual Blessing of the Cars, which took place Saturday at Verdugo Park in Glendale, drew more than 500 pre-1968 Chevys, Studebakers, Mercs and other customized American hot-rods, lead sleds, coupes and sedans, not to mention hundreds more of their admirers. Their owners had paid a $10-$15 registration fee and $3 general admission to show them off, trade some tips, and, yes, get them blessed.
“In Mexico and some other countries, when someone buys a car, they get it decorated and take it to the priest and get it blessed,” explains Gabriel Baltierra, who, with his wife, Stephanie, promoted the event. “A lot of these guys work on their cars for years and every little thing helps.”
The Baltierras pressed this tradition into service as a convention of sorts for the burgeoning Kustom Kulture movement of younger artists, musicians and scenesters who are creating a kind of retro ‘50s car culture. Jazz, surf and rockabilly bands played for the thousand or so people who gathered over the afternoon and an art gallery (in a tent made of checkered flags) showed works of contemporary Kustom Kulture artists.
“This is one of the biggest shows for the underground scene,” says Rich Wilder, a Hollywood graphic artist. “It’s a gathering of it all--the fashion, the culture, the music, the style all in one spot.”
Wilder came to the event with 10 or so other members of the Blacktop Bombers, a twentysomething car club he belongs to. Like many in the crowd, Wilder sported the de rigueur slicked back DA hairstyle, Wayfarer shades and a T-shirt advertising the name of his club. The old Ford he brought to be blessed last year “ran pretty good after that,” he says. This year, he is attempting to secure God’s favor for a 1960 Oldsmobile Super 88 he recently purchased from “a little old lady in Pasadena.”
The blessing began around 1 p.m., when Father Charles Lueras, a priest from the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Silver Lake, arrived in his modest Chevy Spectrum. He stepped on stage dressed in a white clerical stole decorated with orange flames (handmade by Baltierra’s mother) and intoned: “Oh, God, listen favorably to our prayers and with your grace and presence, bless these vehicles.”
Lueras then walked among his four-wheeled flock, shaking holy water from his aspergillum explaining that “the purpose is to ask God’s grace to protect the driver and passengers from any injury.”
Although this is a yearly event, one blessing, said the priest, is good for the life of the car. Which, if you stop and think about it, is better than most warranties.
