Sport and Melodrama: The Case of Mexican Professional Wrestling

Author(s): Heather Levi

Source: Social Text, No. 50, The Politics of Sport (Spring, 1997), pp. 57-68
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466814
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Sportand Melodrama
THE CASE OF MEXICAN PROFESSIONAL

When I tellpeople thatI workon professionalwrestlingin Mexico, they

oftenrespond by askingme if it's "totallycorrupttherelike it is here."
Their reactionsimultaneouslyforegroundsand misrecognizessome of
is
thecentralfeaturesof thisgenre.Yes, Mexican luchalibre(freefighting)
a variantof the transnationalentertainment
genreknownin the Anglophone worldas professional,all-in,or all-starwrestling.The basic conventions(whichmay be familiarto manyreaders) are as follows:It is a
contestbetweentwoor morewrestlers
who competenot as themselvesbut
as charactersthatthey (or theirpromoters)invent.The charactersare
morallycoded, so thatnormallyeach matchfeaturesone good guy (or
team of good guys) and one bad guy (or team of bad guys). A wrestler
enactingtheroleof bad guycheats,uses unnecessaryroughness,and disThere are refereesbut,because of corrupplays cowardiceand trickery.
tion and/orincompetence,theyare unwillingor unable to enforcethe
rulesagainstthebad guys.When people ask about corruption,theyrefer
to a widespreadunderstanding
thatthefighting
is stagedand theoutcome
of each contestis decided in advance. To say thatit is corrupt,though,
of thegenre.It is not corrupt.
indicatesa fundamental
misunderstanding
Instead,it is a drama aboutcorruptionand, as such, its relationshipto
othersportsis problematic.
The ambiguousrelationshipof all-starwrestlingto othersportshas
led interestedscholarsin severalnationalsettingsto ask whyfans enjoy
watchinga seeminglyfixedcontest.For themostpartthesescholarscategorizewrestlingeitheras sportor as theater.I argue,however,thatthe
betweenprofessionalwrestlingand, say,soccer is
fundamentaldifference
notthatone is dramaand theothersport,butthatas sportstheyrepresent
different
types of drama. In this reading,professionalwrestlingrepresentssportin themode of melodrama.
The foundationalstatementanalyzingprofessionalwrestlingas a
social phenomenonis Roland Barthes's"The WorldofWrestling"(1972).
In the introductionto Mythologies,
the collectionof essays in which it
Barthes
his
identifies
appears,
agenda as "treating'collectiverepresentathan the
tions' as sign systems[bywhich]one mighthope to go further
pious showof unmaskingthemand accountin detailforthemystification
whichtransforms
cultureintoa universalnature"(9). In
petite-bourgeois
thiscontext,Barthessuggeststhatappreciatingthe genrerequiresrecogSocial Text50, Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 1997. Copyright ? 1997 by Duke University Press.

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WRESTLING

Heather Levi

in whichparticinizingits contrivance.In contrastto "a falsewrestling,

pants go to extraordinary
lengthsto make a show of a fairfight"(15),
Barthes celebratedall-in wrestlingas the "true" form.Althoughthe
essay's presence in Mythologies
impliesthatBarthessaw wrestlingas a
formof myth,and thusa mystification,
he actuallytreatsit as a demystifiedculturalform.The (assumed) factof itsstagingis, he says,irrelevant
to itsreceptionbythepublicand necessaryto itsvalueas a systemofgestural signification:"The public is uninterestedin whetheror not it is
riggedbecause it abandons itselfto theprimaryvirtueof the spectaclewhat mattersis not whatone thinks,but what one sees" (15). It differs
fromboxing,forexample,not because thelatteris "real" and theformer
"fake,"but because a boxing match constitutesa narrativethatmoves
each momentis intelligible,
towardan intelligibleoutcome.In wrestling,
and thisintelligibility
is predicatedon the excessiveclarityof everygesture.The roles of the wrestlersare writtenin theirphysique;holds and
pins are used not to elicitconventionalsigns of defeatbut to dramatize
and abasementof the vanquished;rules existto be exploited.
suffering
Each sign in wrestlingmust be absolutelyclear because, accordingto
of things"(25) and
Barthes,wrestlingportrays"an ideal understanding
to
but
to
not
other
Greek
drama.
corresponds
sports
is the developThe centraldramatictension,in Barthes'sestimation,
mentof the characterof the villainin orderto displayvillainyas a pure
In thissystem,the"fairfight"is, whilepossible,
essence,a classicalentity.
not an ideal but a genre,a formof noveltyact. Ratherthan debasing
as a sport,fakeryelevatesit as a genreoftheater.Strippedofthe
wrestling
than more convenconceits of fairnessand order,it is less mystifying
tionalsports.
Most subsequenttreatments
of wrestling
have utilizedBarthes'sparform
or
Some
critics
in
one
another.
have
seen wrestlingas social
adigm
as a collaboration
drama,treatingtheproductionof meaningin wrestling
betweenthe wrestlersand the spectators(e.g., Webley1986; Freedman
1983). Othershave analyzedthe narrativecontentof the matchesthemselves as the relevantunitof study,thatis, as drama withsocial content
and effects(e.g., Lincoln 1989; Migliore1993). IreneWebley(1986), for
instance,arguesthatin Australia,New Zealand, and theUnitedStatesthe
does notlie in thewrestlers'performance
alone butin the
keyto wrestling
the
between
the
wrestlers
and
"crowd."
The
relationship
spectacle as a
whole is constitutedby thisrelationship,
and thewrestling
matchitselfis
onlyits motor.But in a departurefromBarthes,she locates the central
of
dramatictensionnotin theidealizationofvillainybutin theintersection
moral and ethniccoding of the wrestlers.The meaningof the spectacle,
she argues, is produced throughthe crowd's identificationwith the
wrestlercoded mostcloselyto theirethnicself-image.An excitingmatch
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Heather Levi

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"allows the crowd to participatein a ritualizedconfrontation

between
good and evil, a participationmade more intenseby the possibilityof
withthecharactersof thewrestlers"(73). But since "fairand
identifying
whatevertheirroles" (77), and
foulplayare bothavailableto all wrestlers,
in the course of the
moral
identification
can
thus
their
wrestlers
change
match,the subtextof a battlebetweenselfand Otherproblematizesthe
moralvalenceof thecontest.
JimFreedman (1983) also reads wrestlingas a coproductionof the
wrestlersand the working-classaudience. Observing that small-town
Canadian spectatorsacknowledgethatwrestlingis all "phony" (67) but
that they enjoy it nonetheless,he proposes that,for them,wrestling's
appeal lies in theirabilityto read it as a dramaticcritiqueof theideology
of the work ethic under capitalism.The inefficacyand corruptionof
and irrelevanceof fairplay,whichare central
and the futility
authority,
featuresof the genre,portraythe disjunctureexperiencedby the spectatorsbetweentheideologyof liberalcapitalismand itspractice.
For thesetwo critics,as forBarthes,the contrivanceof wrestlingis
intelligibleas a processof semiosisin whichthewrestlersand theiraudience collaborate.Other scholars,however,read wrestlingas a textproduced, witha greateror lesserdegreeof consciousintent,by the authors
of the wrestlingscripts.'Bruce Lincoln (1989) interprets
wrestlingas a
are placed within
ritualof symbolicinversionin whichindividualwrestlers
a classificatory
system,which in turndeterminesthe outcome of each
individualmatch and of the eventas a whole. In line withWebley,he
arguesthatwrestlersare markednot onlyas "heel" and "baby-face,"but
as more or less ethnically"American."In each set of matches,the interAmericanare
and moreAmerican/less
sectingcodes of virtue/wickedness
used to constructa dialecticwhichleads froman initialmatchin which
the less Americanbaby-facewins,througha seriesof matchesin which
theAmericanswin,but are heels,to a resolutionin whichthe more fully
Americanbaby-facetriumphs.Like Freedman,Lincoln reads themiddle
set of matchesas a critiqueof the protestantworkethic,but he understandsit as a liminalphase. The finalmatchvindicatesthe ideologythat
is a
previousmatchescritique.In thisreading,then,thetextof wrestling
formof inversionritualin whichthe dominantorderis ultimately
legitimated.
Sam Migliore(1993) also assertstheexistenceof a consciouslyacted
of existingpowerrelaas a legitimization
wrestling
"script"and interprets
subtextthatFreedman
tions.But whilehe concedes thattheanticapitalist
observesmayexistat liveeventsin smallarenas,he claimsthatit is absent
fromthe televised,mass-mediatedphenomenathatmost spectatorssee.
Their error,he argues,lies in the failureto distinguishbetween"particirituals"(68). As a media-constructed
patoryand media-constructed
ritSportand Melodrama

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59

ual, wrestlingloses the subversiveedge it may have in othercontexts.

narrativesserveas mythicsigns
Moreover,he arguesthatits longer-term
in the Barthesiansense. Looking beyondthe individualmatchand analyzingtheongoingfortunesof thewrestlerSergeantSlaughterduringthe
winterof 1991, Miglioreclaimsthatthescriptof Slaughter'sactions(i.e.,
in and out
statements
takingon an Iraqi manager,makinganti-American
of the ring, and revertingto his originalrole as "heel") produces a
metaphoricassociationbetweenoppositionto the GulfWar and betrayal
of the country.Slaughter'ssubsequentmoral reclamationfollowingthe
of the war's oppowar,he argues,functionedas a symbolicrepatriation
nents.
is to be
These analysessharethebeliefthatthemeaningof wrestling
foundin its falsehood.The stagingmay be understoodto take place at
anynumberof levels,but in each instancetheatricalcontrivanceis taken
as a startingpoint. In contrastto these analyses,Nonini and Teraoka
is notfakedand thattheassumptionoffakery
(1992) insistthatwrestling
is merely an instance of bourgeois misrecognition.As evidence of
wrestling'sveracity,theycite the listof injuriessustainedby wrestlersin
in theirview,to
thering,injuriestoo severeand sustainedtoo frequently,
be reasonablyattributable
to accident.Nonini and Teraokainsistthatthe
excessive,theatricalgestures,whichBarthesand therestsay servea dramaticfunction,
are insteadtacticsused to fakeout an opponentand actual
responsesto physicalpain. Likewise,boththegraduatedcharacterofviolence in a match(in whichharmlessbut loud slaps mayfollowor be followed by apparentlymore-damagingblows) as well as disregardfor or
manipulationof the rules constitutea range of tacticsavailable to the
wrestlerin orderto ultimately
pin theopponent.
Like otherworkersunder capitalism,theyargue,wrestlerssell their
laborpower,put theirbodiesat risk,and tryto do theminimumnecessary
to "get thejob done" (in thiscase pinningtheopponent).Wrestlingrecapitulatesthelaborprocessundercapitalism,and thereinlies its appeal to
audience.As representatives
theworking-class
of thebourgeoisie,scholars
and journalistsalike refuseto recognizewrestlingforwhat it is forthe
same reason theycannot affordto recognizethe labor process in all its
brutality.
There are problemswithNoniniand Teraoka'sargument:theyrelyon
a facilemodelof a homogeneousbourgeoisieand theirparadigmdoes not
accountforthevarioustrappings(costumes,roles,characters)thatmark
wrestlingofffromother,more conventionalsports. Nonetheless,they
raise an interesting
question: do we, as observers,reallyknowwhether
anythinghappens in the ringin additionto those intentionalsignifying
And need thatquespracticestreatedas theateror scriptedperformance?
tionstructureour analyses?
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In assuming the scriptednessof wrestling,criticshave positioned

themselvesin terms of who "owns" the meaning of wrestling.Both
Migliore and Lincoln suggestthat the authorialintentionsof whoever
writesthe "scripts"determine(to a greateror lesser extent)wrestling's
meaning.Barthes,Webley,and Freedman,on theotherhand,assertmore
or less stronglythatthe spectacleof wrestlingis a collaborationbetween
the audience and the wrestlers.For Nonini and Teraoka, however,the
wrestlers'gestureshave effectsin the world independentof what they
For themthe "meaning"of wrestling
is transparmay be used to signify.
ent, its appeal the resultof commonsensicaldesires produced by class
relations.Workersliketo watchwrestlingnot because it representscapitalistrelationsbut because it coexistswiththeserelationsyetsimultaneouslyresistscertainof theirterms.The phenomenonto be explainedthen
of thescholars
becomesnotthesport,northeaudience,but theperversity
who see wrestlingonlyas faked.
At base, though,thespectacle'smeaningfulness
is not determinedby
thetruthor falsehoodof theviolence.In Mexico, I have seen matchesthat
featuredslapstickroutinesthatcould onlyhave been choreographed.But
I have been to otherswhereI was seated close enoughto theringto smell
the losingwrestler'sblood. Clearlythe social meaningof the genrecan
stand independentof the wrestlers'experience.This being the case, I
want to move away fromthe question of whetherwrestlingis a contest
(and thereforea sport),a ritual(and therefore
ambiguous),or a theater
piece (and thereforenot a sport) to a paradigmthatis potentiallymore
thesignificance
of luchalibrein Mexico: all
productiveforunderstanding
in
is
but
is
the
melodramatic
mode. As such,
wrestling sport
sport drama,
it is understandablethat the genre has particularrelevancein Mexico
(and elsewherein Latin America),wheremelodramahas been centralto
of urbanpopularculture.
the constitution
of
Ana Lopez (1995) has recentlynotedthatthe historicaltrajectory
in NorthAmericanand Latin Americancontexts.In
melodramadiffered
the former,"the melodramaticwas devalued in favorof realismin the
twentiethcenturythrougha genderingprocess ... [to become] . . . a
'women's' form" (260). In Latin America,however,the devaluatingof
melodramais explicitlyclass-basedratherthanprimarilygendered.Such
diverseand distinguished
intellectualsas Carlos Monsiviis (1976), Jesuis
Martin-Barbero(1995), Michele and ArmandMattelart(1990), and othof the melodramaticmode to the coners have recognizedthe centrality
stitutionof popular audiences in Latin America,whetherto celebrate,
denigrate,or critiqueits role.
The melodramaticmode can be characterizedby threecentralfeaof internalemotions,melodrama
tures.First,throughan externalization
in
which
worldview
"moral struggleis made visible,
a
presents polarized

I wantto move
away fromthe
questionof
whetherwrestling
is a contest(and
therefore
a sport),
a ritual(and thereforeambiguous),
or a theaterpiece
not
(and therefore
a sport)to a
paradigmthatis
more
potentially
for
productive
understanding
thesignificance
of
in
luchafibre
Mexico:allsportis

Sportand Melodrama

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drama,but
is
wrestling
sportinthe
melodramatic
mode.

61

announcingitselfas an indisputableforce"(Joyrich1992, 232). Whereas

in tragedythenarrativeconflictis locatedwithinthemindof a singlesubject,2in melodramait is played out betweenclearlymarkedcharacters,
throughsignswhosemeaningsare excessivelyclear.Second (and, according to Martin-Barbero,of particularsignificanceforLatin Americans),
melodramarelieson "the drama of recognition:son by father,fatherby
son. What moves the plot along is alwaysthe unawarenessof identities,
the struggleagainstbewitchingspellsand falseappearances,tryingto cut
1993, 225). Finally,
throughall thathidesand disguises"(Martin-Barbero
whilethemelodramatictextmayappear semiotically
it is not
transparent,
necessarilyso. As Podalsky(1993) has recentlyarguedforfilm,and I will
show for lucha libre,the seeming transparencyconceals considerable
structuralambiguities.

Lucha Libre: Sport in the MelodramaticMode

Professionalwrestlingwas broughtto Mexico fromthe United Statesin
the early 1930s, but once it arrivedit was enthusiastically
adopted by a
Mexican public3and its iconographyadapted in waysthatMexicanized
the genre.The xenophobicthemesthatstructurethe Americanversion4
wereplayeddown,and new elementsof dramaturgy,
movementvocabuit intoa characteristically
Mexlary,and dresswereadded, transforming
ican entertainment.
In Mexico, as elsewhere,typicalwrestlingeventspit a team of bad
guysagainsta team of good guys,overseenby a corruptor incompetent
referee.As in othergenresof melodramaticperformance,
luchadepends
on gesturalhyperboleforitseffect.Observersof Mexican luchalibrehave
tended to account forits appeal to the audience in termsof straightforwardcatharsis(Monsivais 1995; Blanco 1990; Coe 1992) wherethespectacle of abjectionis redeemedthroughthe triumphof good. Certainly
luchadoes offera dose of catharsisto itsfans,butthatin itselfcan explain
neitherthe pleasure fans derivefromit nor the particularfeaturesthat
lucha has takenon in Mexico. The problemwiththis interpretation
is
that it assumes thatthe fans identifywiththe good guys,who usually
win. This assumptionis problematicfortwo reasons.First,ifthe good
guyswinmoreoftenthantheylose, it'snot by much.Of thematchesI've
seen in Mexico City,the bad guyswin a littlemore oftenthanthe good
guys. Second, the good guys are not universallyadmired,nor are the
bad guysuniversally
thebad guysalwayshave
despised.On thecontrary,
theirown cheeringsectionsand theirown fan clubs. AlthoughFreedman's analysisof wrestlingmayhelp to accountforthis,it does not fully
explainit. He, and to some extentBarthes,arguesthatthepleasureforthe
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Heather Levi

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of their
audience lies notin thetriumphof good but in therepresentation
the
of
worldview.In Mexico, however, appeal luchalibrealso comes from
the symbolicplay of moraland politicalambiguity.
The drama of wrestling,as we have seen, is constitutedthroughthe
distinctionbetweenthe bad guys and good guys,in Mexico knownas
rudos(bad guys) and tMcnicos
or cientificos5(good guys). The main connotationof rudois crudeness.In a culturethatvaluesformality
as a central
tenetof honor (especiallymasculinehonor), a rudo does not act like a
proper"macho."6The rudo(and the ruda) displaysqualitiescommonto
bad guysaroundtheworld:sadism,underhandedness,
cowardice.He uses
illegal techniques,smugglesin weapons, and triesto leave the ring to
avoid injury.Rudosin Mexico also displaytacticsthatI haven'tseen used
in the United States: appealingto officialauthorityin the person of the
refereeand attempting
to subornmembersoftheopposingteam.The tecnico,on theotherhand,uses skillto win.Whiledisplayingan appropriate
indifference
to the referee,he/sheconformsto a higherauthority,and
uses
only
illegaltacticswhen unreasonablyprovoked.There is, however,
an ambivalencein thetworoles,whichleads to a positionof "gutturaland
visceralpassion forthe rudosand dubious admirationforthe cientificos"
formanyMexican fans (Monsivais 1995, 126).
One of the differences
betweenMexican and NorthAmericanstyles
of wrestlingis that the wrestlers'moral coding is made much more
explicit.In NorthAmerica,audiencesknowthe "heel" or "baby-face"by
conductand demeanorin theringand in thepre-and post-match
his/her
In Mexico, competitorsare officially
interviews.
introducedas rudosor as
enter
the
Whereas
North
Americancommentators
when
they
ring.
ticnicos
on televisionwill expresshorrorover the tacticsof the "heel," Mexican
willdebatethe advantagesand disadvantagesof the ticnico
commentators
mode and the rudomode. Rudos,theysay,bringsabor (gusto) to lucha
libre.They are said to fightfrompassion. In the words of the ruda "La
"
Briosa," [t]he ticnicotrainsmore, spends more timeat the gym.Rudos
are morefree,we letourselvesbe drivenmorebytemperament"
(Pacheco
1990, 319; mytranslation).
While the underhandedcrudeness of the rudo can be alternatively
read as passion,the technicalcapabilitiesof the ticnicomay also be read
themselvesare
againstthe graininsofaras the termsticnicoand cientifico
farfromneutralin Mexican politicaldiscourse.The termt&cnico,
whenit's
is theusual termforpartisansofthetechnocratic
not appliedto wrestlers,
wingof the rulingPartidoRevolucionarioInstitucional(PRI). Cientifico,
on the otherhand, conventionally
refersto the late-nineteenth-century
villains(at least
associatedwithPorfirioDiaz, theantinationalist
positivists
until recently)of standardMexican historytexts.Thus the ostensible
alignedwithforcesof xenophiliactechnocracy.
good guysare linguistically
Sportand Melodrama

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63

of
The second importantcomponentof melodrama-the centrality
and revelation-isalso an evidentpreoccupation
narrativesof recognition
of luchalibre,and one thatechoes concernsimportantto theproblematic
of Mexican nationalidentity.One of the mostimportantfeaturesdifferentiatingluchalibrefromitsAnglophonecousinsis theuse of masks,not
onlyas an elementof thewrestler'scostumebut as a crucialdramaticelement.While maskshave been importantto traditionalpopular religious
and quasi-religious
ritualin Mexico,thesymbolismof masksand masking
has also figuredin the literatureof Mexican nationalidentitysince the
Mexican culmiddleof thiscentury.In OctavioPaz's classicformulation,
constituteda maskused to hide a
turalconcernwithformsand formality
deep sense of alienation.The Mexican,he wrote,"whetheryoungor old,
criollo or mestizo,general or laborer or lawyer, seems .

. .

to be a person

who shutshimselfawayto protecthimself.His faceis a maskand so is his

smile" (Paz 1985, 30). The mask,forPaz, was used by "the Mexican" to
hide his "true"self,to dissimulate.But othershave suggestedthatPaz did
not go farenoughin his evocationof the mask as a potentsymbolof lo
mexicano. Lomnitz-Adler (1992, 242-43) has proposed that the
metaphoricmasksof "forms"shouldinsteadbe understoodto have functionsanalogousto thoseof actual masksused in ritual;thatis, theyallow
the wearerto embody a role. This capacity to embody a role itselfis
of personhood.
importantto Mexican constructions
In lucha libre,the use of actual, physicalmasks dates fromthe late
of the sportin Mexico. Originally
1930s, not long afterthe introduction
used as a novelty,masksbecame part of the standardwrestlingcostume
the success of masked
withina fewyears.AndrewCoe (1992) attributes
withthesymbolof the
less to a consciousnationalidentification
wrestling
mask than to a crossoverbetweenwrestlingand the comics. The introductionof wrestlingmasksin Mexico coincidedwitha craze forcomics
maskedheroes.One was the"Phantom,"whosechiefcharacterfeaturing
isticwas thathe neverremovedhis mask,not evenat home. Accordingto
Coe, "he usuallyappearedunmaskedas a disguisewhenhe was tryingto
some enemyhideoutand not tip themoffthathe was thePhaninfiltrate
tom" (160). Anotherwas the hero of the comic book treatmentof
Dumas's Man in theIronMask, whichalso featureda characterforwhom
themaskwas not removable.
The firstluchalibremaskwas introducedas a noveltyin 1934, butby
worethem.One ofthese,
the 1940s manyof themostsuccessfulwrestlers
Rodolfo Guzmin Huerta,knownas "El Santo," wenton to become the
bestknown,mostlovedwrestlerof all timeand starof dozens ofwrestling
movies.' Guzmin startedhis careeras a rudo,and tookup themaskat the
Jesis Lomelin.His firstmaskedfightswereas
suggestionof his promotor,
El Murci6lago
an
homageto an earlierwrestler,
Murciblago(the bat) II,
Enmascarado.When theoriginalMurciblagoobjected,Guzmin renamed
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himselfEl Santo, el enmascaradode plata (the saint,the man in the silver

mask-after Simon Templar,hero of a series of detectivenovels and
movies), and switchedto the ticnicomode. As El Santo, he set the stanforprotectionofthemask'scharisma,neverallowinghis
dard forwrestlers
in
face to be seen public untilshortlybeforehis deathin 1984. Even in
death, however,he remained the masked hero, as he was waked and
buriedin his fullwrestlingcostume.
The mask symbolizesnot onlythe persona of the individualwrestler
but the mystiqueof lucha libreitself.It functionsin the arena as a concentratedpoint of dramatictension.First,and most obviously,it allows
the wrestlerto subsumehis own personalityand assume a persona more
easilyand unambiguouslythancostumingand make-upwould allow.But,
the mask can be removedand the personal,everyday
more importantly,
of thewrestlerrevealed.To upholdthemask'scharisma,wrestlers
identity
neverto be seen unmasked.But thecharisma
makea seriouscommitment
is fragileand can be destroyed.Thus part of the pleasurein a wrestling
of themoment
deferment
eventdepends on thepossibilityand indefinite
of revelation.
Removal of the mask by an opponent constitutes,in the words of
JoseJoaquinBlanco, an attemptto "despoil the most cared forand covon earth"(Blanco 1990, 31; mytranslation).A maskcan be
etedvirginity
removedin thearenain one of twoways.First,it can be removedforcibly
and illegally(usuallyby a rudo,sometimesby a ticnicoprovokedto righteous anger).If thisoccursin thecourseof a match,theexpectedbehavior
is to hide his faceand to beginan elaboratepanof theunmaskedwrestler
tomimeof shame and outrageuntilthe mask is returned.While it disqualifiesthe unmasker,it humiliatesthe unmasked. Second, it can be
riskedas a bet on the outcomeof a match.For the wrestler
deliberately
who loses, themaskis lostforgood. His face exposed,thewrestlermight
retainhis charisma,or his careermightcollapse.
These ritualsof wrestlingare not confinedto the arena. On the contrary,theyrepresentsocial codes thathave become recognizableto most
Mexicans, as evidenced by two recent sets of phenomena: the rise of
"social" wrestlersand the recent career trajectoryof Subcomandante
Marcos and theEZLN. Two yearsaftertheearthquakeof 1985, and three
yearsafterthe death of El Santo, the Asamblea de Barriospresentedas
named "Superbarrio."While
theirspokesmana man dressedas a wrestler,
as
a
officials
him
once
or
twice
intended
to
use
novelty,government
they
witha maskedman
seemed so disconcertedat theprospectof negotiating
that the Asamblea leadershipdecided to keep him as theirpermanent
haveenteredthe
Since thenseveralmore"social wrestlers"
spokeswrestler.
of
and
children.
on
behalf
arena
animals,
women,
Superecology,
public
barriohimselfappeared at the side of CuahtemocCgrdenas,the opposition candidate,in severalralliesbeforethe most recentelection;he was

The masksymbolizesnotonlythe
personaofthe
individual
wrestler
butthe mystique
ofluchalibre
itself.
Itfunctions
inthearenaas a
concentrated
pointofdramatic
tension.... To
upholdthemask's
charisma,
wrestlers
makea
serious
commitment
neverto be seen

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unmasked.

65

also recentlyelectedpresidentof Mexico in a mockelectionheldin Mexico City.

It is reasonableto wonderwhy this seeminglyfrivolousgestureso
quicklyfound a legitimateplace in Mexican public discourse.I would
venturetwo relatedexplanations.First,Superbarrioand otherssuccessfullyappropriatedtherole of heroleftvacantbythe late Santo. But more
it has been suggestedthatin the presentmomentin Mexico
importantly,
is
anonymity consideredthe only possible refugefromco-optation.By
donninga mask (and perhapsonlyby donninga mask),Superbarrioand
his spinoffsare able to representabstractfairnessto a demoralizedpublic.
SubcomandanteMarcos and theEZLN are theothermaskedprotagoniststo have appeared in recentMexican politics.Whetherby an intentionalreferenceto wrestlingor not,the EZLN distinguished
themselves
sartoriallyfromotherLatin Americanguerrillasby donningski masks
ratherthan the more commonplacebandannas. In so doing, theyhave
alluded to a set of social codes thatweresubsequentlyplayedout during
the government
offensivein early1995. On 9 Februaryof thatyear,the
attorneygeneral's officereleased a photographof a man they claim
or wrongly)to be Marcos himself.They revealedhimto be Rafael
(rightly
professorand son ofa Tampico furSebastiainGuillenVicente,university
nituredealer.The photograph'scirculationin and of itselfwas claimedas
an importantgovernment
victory.The nextday's New YorkTimesquoted
an unnamedofficialinsistingthat"The momentthatMarcos was identifiedand his photowas shownand everyonesaw who he was, muchof his
importanceas a symbolvanished.Whetherhe is capturedor not is incidental" (qtd. in Golden 1995, 1).
On the face of it this statementmakes verylittlesense. Although
Guillenwas clearlynotindigenous(a factthatofficials
used to undermine
the EZLN's claim to representthe indigenousMaya of Chiapas), there
had neverbeen any pretenseto thecontrary.
His identitywas revealedto
be what everyonemore or less expected.Alma Guillermoprieto(1995)
observes that it did, perhaps, temporarilylessen his sex appeal. As a
politico-military
gesture,however,it onlymade sense ifseen as a familiar
from
lucha
libre.Marcos respondedin kind,echoinga previousincitrope
dentinvolvingthewrestlerHijo del Santo (the son of El Santo and inheritorof his role).
In the middle of theirdivorce,Hijo del Santo's soon-to-be-ex-wife
sentphotographsof whatshe claimedto be his unmaskedfaceto several
newspapers.His responsewas to denythatthephotographswereof him.
Since he refusedto unmaskhimself,therewas no way to tell who was
tellingthe truth.That was preciselyMarcos's reactionto the same rudo
ploy.Withindayshe relayeda messageto theMexico Citypresswhichhe
finishedwithhis familiarepistolarystyle:
66

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PS. thatrapidlyapplaudsthisnew "success"ofthegovernment

police:I heard
they'vefoundanother"Marcos," and thathe's fromTampico.That's nice ...
[signed] The Sup, rearranginghis ski mask with macabre flirtatiousness.
(qtd. in Guillermoprieto1995, 44)
Like El Santo's son, he was able, through simple denial, to reestablish his

credentials,his imperiledsex appeal, and most important,

revolutionary
the charisma of the mask.

Notes
1. Althoughseveral criticsof wrestlingassert that the eventsare choreographed and scriptedinto medium- and long-termstorylines,none attributes
such planningto any specificagent. If it's just a dramaticperformance,it is
unclearwho is writingthe script.
2. Witness,forexample,the ongoingsaga of theperenniallylosingPeruvian
nationalsoccerteam.For Peruvians,thecentraldramatictensionof each game is:
how will victorybe torn fromour grasp this time? (personal communication,
Eduardo Bryce,September1995).
3. Accordingto theMuseo de CulturasPopularesin Mexico City,70 million
ticketsare sold by Mexico's 187 arenas everyyear.
4. Mondak (1989) arguesthatconservativexenophobiahas alwaysbeen the
centralthemeof pro wrestlingin the United States,and thatits popularityhas
alwayspeaked duringperiods of strongisolationistsentiment,regardlessof its
to mass mediation.This also appears to be trueforJapan,whereprorelationship
fessionalwrestlingwas introducedin the early1950s as a televisedgenre.There
the favoritedramas of postwarpro wrestlingpittedfinallytriumphant
Japanese
vanquished"Americans"(Thompson 1986).
againstultimately
5. A thirdterm,limpios(clean ones), is also used, but farless frequently.
6. Althoughmostwrestlersin Mexico are male, it is importantto note that
thereare approximately80 to 100 femalewrestlersin Mexico, as well as male
wrestlerswho wrestlein drag. Their relationshipto the codes of machismodisplayedin luchalibreis a complicatedone not in the scope of thisessay.
7. El Santo was recruitedto thefilmindustryin 1958 and continuedto star
in at least one filma yearuntil 1983. Althoughlucha librewas a popular entertainmentbeforeEl Santo and otherscrossed over into film,the cinema contributedto its everwideraudience. And whilethemoviesappropriatedthefigure
of thewrestler,livewrestlingin turnappropriatedthemystiqueof the cinema.

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Heather Levi

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