Lucha belated (thank the lords for TV)

Those of you who follow the Lucha schedule must have been shocked to learn that we were out of town on January 19.

It was a difficult decision, particularly after a guy that works in the parking lot on the way to Mikko’s school – yelled after us one day, “Are you going to Lucha on Saturday?” He must have recognized us from a past match. (This is also an indicator of my Spanish – I am so used to tuning voices on the street out – but the words drifted into my head and I turned around and saw he was talking to us.)

I think I offended him when I said there were no stars fighting – he let me know it was all stars – but also that it was a particularly big one that would be televised soon after.

Last week he let me know the time and station and we went over to some friends’ house to watch it yesterday.

Saw some cute dog action on the way.

And I have to say… Lucha just doesn’t translate on TV. Maybe it was the venue and being for TV but it was just brutal and violent. There was a lot less comedy, and less acrobatics and less love. Maybe it was this particular match, but Mikko and I agreed that if this match had been our first experience with Lucha, we wouldn’t have tried again.

The highlights were the minis – we liked Octagoncito. (Not pictured)

And a new element: Lucha drag queens – of sorts.

This is Yuriko, she was quite a brutal rudo who ended up using a big metal pan on her opponents.

Pimpanela and Casandro were quite the acrobats, they were also the victims of the afore mentioned metal pans, later on. So uncool.
I’m glad we saw it. And I’m really glad we didn’t stay in town for the match. And I still look forward to the next more low key match that comes to town.

Some more cute dog action on the way home.

The latest in Lucha

Mikko reports on an exciting six on six match with some known names and some that are from his imagination.  Notice his excellent accent.

the Minis and Merch on 12-12

A kind of lame attempt at editing, but here are some shots of the minis’ match.

And some of the ubiquitous merch that can be had.

12-12 night of lucha libre

Monday was our second night of Lucha in good ol’ Guanajuato. It was fabulous as was expected. Even better than the last time actually. We were right up front!! Look, this is the legendary Blue Demon Jr. overpowering the legendary Hijo de El Santo. They were so close I could have touched them, I didn’t though because I was taking the picture.

OK – I am sensing that some people need a little background on Lucha Libre. LUCHA means FIGHT. LIBRE means FREE. So literally it means Free Fight. It is a combination of wrestling, boxing, martial arts (basically, all fighting techniques,) including lots of acrobatics. For me it is mostly a spectacle, full of humor, drama and action and sprinkled with a lot of love.

Mexican wrestlers started wearing masks and adopting personas to match in the 1930s. (It was actually a wrestler from the US wearing a mask that inspired a Mexican promoter to promote mask wearing in Mexico.) El Santo is probably the most famous luchadore. He was biggest during the 50s and 60s. He was not only a luchadore in the ring, he also starred in movies and was the star of a comic book series, always with his mask and cape. People loved him. He was a super hero that you could see in real life. Even though he has been dead for 20 years he is still the best known and best loved luchadore.

On Monday we saw El Santo’s son, Hijo de El Santo, fight against the sons of two of his contemporaries, Blue Demon, and Dr. Wagner Sr. who were also big and starred in movies, but not as big as El Santo. Hijo deEl Santo’s partner was Gronda XXX who I had never heard of. He was a giant, who seemed pumped by steroids and dressed as the devil. I wasn’t so crazy about him.

That match was a little confusing for me, because I’m used to rooting for the technicos, who are typically the “good guys” who play by the rules but in this match Blue Demon Jr. and Dr. Wagner were the rudos, who are supposed to be the “bad boys,” and they were beautiful together. Talk about love. You can see some of it in this video that Matthew took. Unfortunately the big galoot is in the way when they do their twinkle finger love thing.

And let me just say – Lucha Libre is nothing like WWF. (I have never really watched WWF, but I have seen the commercials and I find it all quite disturbing.) There is real love and humor in the ring with Lucha.  It doesn’t have the soap opera/Jerry Springer type vibe that WWF has.

I suppose you are wondering where I find the love. I have been wondering that myself, ever since I wrote it. The love I see is in the crowd. People are laughing and taunting and teasing, but it is the way you tease your siblings or your best friends, it isn’t mean spirited or angry. There is also that love between the luchadores, they tease and taunt, and pummel eachother just like siblings. And so many of the moves are so well choreographed that you feel that they are all working together to create a good experience for everyone involved.

And then of course you can bring that love home.

Lucha lucha and more lucha

Our friend Sandro just sent us some pictures that he took with some friends. I find them particularly beautiful.

Tonight is the night 12 of us will be going to see our second lucha match in GTO! At this point I am just counting down the minutes.

A number of people have commented or emailed me with their puzzlement at my enchantment and enthusiasm for this sport/art/spectacle. Particularly when looking at these pictures, I am equally puzzled at anyone’s lack of enchantment.

It might be a little like now, at times when someone is speaking Spanish to us and what they are saying seems so clear to me, I am surprised when whoever I am with doesn’t understand. (I hope that doesn’t sound like boasting – there are many times that I don’t understand either.)

skipping school

I have a bit of a case of senioritis. My last week of school is next week and therefore I COULD NOT make myself go today. I’ve had a lovely day, being slightly touristy and doing errands at the same time.

xmas is coming up. Hard to believe with these 70+ degree days and cloudless skies we’ve been having.

AND GUESS WHAT??

Yes!! Lucha is coming back already the Monday after next!! And it is Hijo del Santo, Blue Demon Jr. and Dr. Wagner Jr. Only the offspring of the three biggest legends of Lucha, ever!!

We have vowed to get front row tickets this time.

The moment we have been waiting for for so long has come and gone.

On Monday the 12th we went to see Lucha Libre. It doesn’t come to GTO very often so we were very excited to get a chance to go so early in our stay.

It was a spectacular night complete minis (little people lucha wrestlers,) luchadoras (the women lucha wrestlers,) a bunch of goofball wresters and the superstars. The crowd was big and very lively. And of course there were plenty of snacks and merch to buy as well.

We were so excited about Lucha coming to Guanajuato and have been trying to stir up the excitement with the people we regularly see, (mostly baristas and my teachers.) I was beginning to think that no Mexicans were into Lucha. Everyone we tried to impress with our excitement would just shake their head and say, “A mi no me gusta.” One of my teachers actually forbade me from talking about it anymore in my conversation class.

The match was in the baseball stadium and started at 8:30. We sat in the stands. We weren’t super close, but we could see well enough. The wind was blowing hard and by the end, 11pm or so we were quite cold. The wind blew dust storms and a slight aroma of sewage our way, but the excitement and spectacle of each match was enough that we all had a fabulous time.

My poor friend, Satako had to wear her own mask to protect her eyes from the dust.

I have to say there were no big surprises. Mikko and I have done fairly extensive research, which has consisted mainly of watching bootleg DVDs of matches and buying Lucha Libre magazines. We have learned that there are two types of luchadors in each match. There are the RUDOS who are the bad boys, (or girls,) who don’t fight fair and are generally a pretty testy lot. Then there are the TECNICOS, they supposedly follow the rules and try to be the crowd pleasers. We have noticed that almost without fail, the rudos win the first round, of three, and the tecnicos win the next two. The pattern continued on Monday. Some matches were longer, some shorter, some rudos got into arguments with audience members. There was slapstick and impressive acrobatics as well as a lot of rope jumping and bodyslamming. The rudos won each first round and the tecnicos won every match. It is good to have some predictability in life, I suppose.

Los Brazos were the goof balls. They provided the comic relief in the intense night of lucha. (I’m not sure why the picture isn’t there, but play the video, it’s well worth it:

Las mujeres fueron muy buenas y divertidas tambien:

The one disappointment was that the final match, with Misticooooooooo, only lasted about 15 minutes. I was happy to get to see him though, and at that point it was getting so late and cold, I was OK with it.

This is the superstar Mistico. He is wearing a tee shirt because I guess he got a little chilly:

mistico mistico MISTICO

So we went to the Lucha Libre match last night and it was almost everything we had hoped it would be.

Unfortunately I don’t have it together to give a full report yet, but I wanted to post something, so here is the poster that was all around town, titillating us all week.

Lucha Libre

This was the only Lucha match we have found in Guanajuato so far. (Though, we did get “El Santo vs the Mummies of Guanajuato” an excellent film!!)

Lord of the World of death

La Ultima Wipe

Lord of the World of Death vs. La Ultima Wipe

We have some big news!!! Mistico, the biggest (not in size but in modern day fame,) luchador is coming for a match here in Guanajuato in two weeks!!! Lucha doesn’t happen here very often. I am super excited. I am not sure why my pacifist self is so entranced by this crazy, bloodthirsty, spectacle. But I am – so I will go with it.

Click here to see Mistico “The Prince of silver and Gold” he is on the left. Hijo del Santo is on the right. He too is lengendary.