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Lucha libre school keeping traditions alive in Phoenix

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we explore Lucha Libre, or Mexican wrestling, and how this cultural sport is staying alive in Phoenix.

PHOENIX — One of Mexico’s most popular sports is lucha libre, or Mexican wresting, and its cultural roots are staying alive in Phoenix as enthusiasts roll out a lucha libre school.

Unlike American wrestling, lucha libre, which means “free fight," is better equated to “freestyle wrestling,"  and has fast-paced matches.

Traditionally Mexican wrestlers, known as luchadores, don’t just jump onto the ring and do whatever they please, they train and must earn their right to battle in one, said Manuel Caballero, owner and creator of Independent Promotions AWA and the lucha libre school.

“Mexican lucha libre is unique, it’s special, it’s culture and we wanted to create a company that could present luchadores with the basics and techniques of how it’s traditionally done,” he said.

The focus is to not lose that traditional style of wrestling.

“In our teachings, you first train outside of the ring and do physical conditioning and then later you are allowed onto the ring and slowly learn the moves that advanced wrestlers do,” he added.

Lucha libre’s origins date back to 1863, but the format we know today was created by Enrique Ugartechea after he derived a free-style format from Greco-Roman tradition, combining it with Olympic wrestling that he practiced.

It wasn’t until 1933 that luchadores were able to compete nationally when Salvador Lutteroth founded The Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, or The World Wrestling Council as it’s known today. Before then competitions happened regionally.

That same year El Ciclón McKey came up with the mask idea. He hired Don Antonio Martinez to make him the mask for a fight. It was an instant hit and now an emblematic symbol of the sport.

Masks are typically colorful and hold special significance for wrestlers, who go to great lengths to conceal their true identities.

Wearing a mask is a cultural focal point of lucha libre. Some matches are sometimes contested in which the loser must permanently remove his mask, but can win it back.

“The mask, this is our life, this is what we live for,” said Rompe Cabezas a 27-year-old luchador based in Phoenix that’s been living and breathing the sport for eight years, half of that professionally.

Rompe Cabezas -- which in English means “jigsaw” but in Spanish literal translation of both words means “breaks heads”—is part of Caballero’s school.

Wrestling was not part of his plans growing up, he was a football player and wanted to go to college, but when that didn’t pan out, he said he resorted to the Mexican sport.

“I like wresting, but knowing that my dad did it also, it just made that fire [in me] much bigger,” Rompe Cabezas said. “Back when I was younger, me and my grandma never missed a [match] on TV, never.”

His father was a luchador in Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua, Mexico, a glorious ground for the sport. Rompe Cabezas said he thought he might have had to travel there to learn the traditional teachings of lucha libre when he found an underground world of teachers in Phoenix.

Independent Promotions AWA is one of the few lucha libre companies established in the Valley today, Caballero said.

On Sunday, he held the “Clash of Trains” match in Mesa, bringing in luchadores from across the southwest region.

One of those, and the winner of the first match—eliminating round of three—was Ezekiel Alvarado, better know as Cochino Suave from Casa Grande.

His mask-less persona and long curly hair make him a rudo in the sport, or heel, typically categorized as the villans. For him wearing no mask is part of the show.

“It shows a lot more expression, trying to [connect] with the crowd and getting them [on your side],” Alvarado said. “They can see your face and feel what you are feeling, all the emotions they get.”

No matter young or old, that feeling is carried out across spectators that typically surround the ring during a match.

Some attendees, including children, wear their colorful masks and root for their favorite luchador, others even take bells or matracas, known as rattles, to the matches as part of the experience.

The rise of lucha libre in Mexico is largely accredited to two things—the beginning of television and El Santo.

For nearly five decades Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, better known as El Santo, or “The Saint” in English, enamored and won the hearts of men and women alike. He took on a superhero status in Mexico.

El Santo wore his trade-mark silver mask and did not publicly show his face until a week before he died in 1984 at 66 years old. The rare moment happened during an episode of the Mexican TV talk show Contrapunto, when the wrester aimlessly pulled up his mask and glanced at the camera.

He wrestled 15,000 matches and was a part of 53 movies throughout his career. He died of a heart attack and was buried with his mask on.

In July of 2018, Mexico City declared that lucha libre was intangible cultural heritage, recognizing the knowledge, beliefs, practices, techniques, and representations of the sport.

Nearly 160 years after Ugartechea invented lucha libre, the sport has and will remain an essential part of the Mexican heritage.

Lucha libre is a way of life, no matter where we go, we have it in our blood,” Caballero said.

Hispanic Heritage Month

We're telling the stories and sharing the experiences of Hispanics and Latinos from across the Valley. 

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