Kathryn Sears
After presenting its blend of fashion, art and Chicano culture in Los Angeles, on the East Coast and in Mexico City, Chicano Elegance is bringing its signature gala to a place organizers say carries particular meaning: San Bernardino.
The Chicano Elegance Gala will take over Sole Alley in downtown San Bernardino on Sept. 26, bringing together a runway fashion show, visual art, live music, Indigenous cultural elements, food and intricately customized lowriders displayed as works of art.
For Chicano Elegance Foundation board members Sus and Freddy Calderon, both San Bernardino natives, bringing the event to their hometown is about more than selecting another stop for the traveling cultural showcase.
“Los Angeles has seen it. All these other places have seen it. San Bernardino has not,” Sus said. “So I think it’s time to do that.”
Organizers say each Chicano Elegance event is intentionally shaped by the community hosting it rather than replicated city to city. In San Bernardino, that means incorporating local artists, musicians, dancers, businesses and organizations while drawing from the city’s distinct history and culture.
Calderon said San Bernardino’s combination of urban and agricultural roots, Route 66 history, lowrider culture and its own artistic traditions distinguish it from nearby Los Angeles.
“I don’t think it’s shown. It’s not popular, but it should be,” Calderon said of the city’s creative community. “And that’s the whole point of this, giving them a platform, incorporating as many local artists as possible, local musicians, local dancers.”
The gala will unfold in and around Sole Alley, the public art and gathering space on West Fourth Street between D and E streets. The downtown space reopened in 2025 following improvements that brought murals, decorative paving, lighting, landscaping and other features to an area previously used largely as an alleyway.
Its selection as the gala site also places the event within a broader effort among local artists, businesses and organizers to bring more activity into downtown San Bernardino.
Realicore Real Estate Group owner David Friedman, whose company is supporting the event through donated space, said that community use was part of the original vision behind Sole Alley.
“What I like to do in San Bernardino is build something for the community and then give it to them and then let them do with it as they may,” Friedman said.
Friedman said he views events that draw people downtown and add cultural activity as an important use of the space.
For Calderon, who has been involved in local arts organizing, the larger goal is to build momentum that continues after the gala ends.
“Seeing life. Seeing life right there downtown again at least for a night,” Calderon said. “It’s that momentum of we got to keep it going. We have to keep pouring into it if we want these areas to change.”
He pointed to the Downtown San Bernardino Art Walk as an example of how cultural programming can translate into activity for surrounding businesses. Calderon said businesses told organizers that Art Walk nights were among their busiest.
“I hope it’s like rolling a ball down a hill,” Calderon said of the gala. “So once everybody sees that, they’re like, ‘OK, what’s next?’”
That emphasis on San Bernardino is deliberate.
Calderon said organizers often hear events in the region broadly described as taking place in the Inland Empire while San Bernardino itself receives less recognition.
“Bring business back to San Bernardino,” Calderon said. “You have to start talking about San Bernardino too.”
Sus said the foundation has heard interest from people who want to produce events in the region but do not always know where to begin or whom to contact. He hopes relationships formed through Chicano Elegance can make those connections easier.
“Let’s change the narrative,” Sus said. “This is San Bernardino, and this is what we’re doing here.”
The gala also aims to expand perceptions of Chicano culture without distancing itself from traditions commonly associated with it.
Sus said lowriders, tattoos and street culture are authentic parts of Chicano identity, but they represent only part of a much broader culture that includes entrepreneurs, professors, designers, artists, filmmakers and other professionals.
“We don’t shy away from none of that because that’s part of our culture,” Sus said. “But we just show them, too, much more.”
Fashion will be one of the evening’s central elements, with Chicano designers and models participating in a full runway production. Organizers also plan visual art, Indigenous performances, live entertainment and several highly customized lowriders presented as art exhibits.
Rather than staging a traditional large-scale car show, Sus said organizers selected only a handful of vehicles notable for their detailed craftsmanship, including engraving and extensive customization.
The event is capped at about 300 guests, a choice organizers say is meant in part to encourage interaction among attendees, artists, entrepreneurs and people working in entertainment and other creative industries.
There will be no separate VIP section, Sus said.
“Everybody that’s here is VIP,” he said. “If you have any aspirations to become an entrepreneur, some sort of actor or whatever, walk up to them. Let’s make the introduction. You make the connection.”
Organizers said attendees and participants are expected from outside the Inland Empire, including Los Angeles, the East Coast, Mexico and parts of the Midwest.
For Calderon, bringing those visitors downtown while centering people already creating and organizing in San Bernardino is key.
“Everybody that’s doing the work here needs to be included,” he said, “instead of trying to reinvent that wheel.”
Tickets remain available through Chicano Elegance. General admission is listed at $125, with tables for 10 available for $1,000. The gala will be held Sept. 26 at Sole Alley, 479 W. Fourth St. in downtown San Bernardino.
Editor’s note: Inland Empire Community News is a media partner of the 2026 Chicano Elegance Gala.
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