LUCHA LIBRA

I have a confession to make. As a child I was a huge fan of wrestling. Every Saturday I would religiously watch the WWF. I was captivated by the intense action and drama. Then one fateful day around the age of 10 the news was broke to me by my older brother that the wrestling was not real rather it was all a choreographed act. I refused to accept this! It couldn’t be…The experience was like when young children who believe in Santa Claus find out he is not real….the deception!!! Alas we all need something to believe in.

Fast forwarding to the present day in Mexico City I have been asking people about things to see in la ciudad. Lucha Libre (translated as “free fight” aka wrestling) has constantly come up as something to check out. Apparently it is a Mexican pastime. I was excited to have the experience, especially since I had been a fan of wrestling in my childhood. Mexican wrestling is very similar to what I grew up watching but it is a wee-bit more exaggerated and there are more humorous characters,my favorite is a “little person” dressed up as a monkey . Most “luchadores” wear masks, which adds a twist (see below) and allows fans to buy masks and wear them in support of their favorite wrestlers. Any visitor to Mexico City should not miss the Lucha Libre experience.

Masks (mascaras) have been used dating back to the beginnings of lucha libre in the early part of the 20th century and have a historical significance to Mexico in general dating to the days of the Aztecs.^[9] Early masks were very simple with basic colors to distinguish the wrestler. In modern lucha libre, masks are colorfully designed to evoke the images of animals, gods, ancient heroes, and other archetypes, whose identity the luchador takes on during a performance. Virtually all wrestlers in Mexico will start their careers wearing masks, but over the span of their careers a large number of them will be unmasked. Sometimes, a wrestler slated for retirement will be unmasked in his final bout or at the beginning of a final tour, signifying loss of identity as that character. Sometimes, losing the mask signifies the end of a gimmick with the wrestler moving on to a new gimmick and mask. The mask is considered "sacred" to a degree, so much so that fully removing an opponent's mask during a match is grounds for disqualification.^[10]