Mexican Lucha libre is the most spectacular of sports and the most sporty of spectacles…and was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage in Mexico City in 2018. Based on Greco-Roman wrestling, it is a mixture of sport and theatre (dance and performance in the ring). The Lucha Libre wrestlers are well-known and among the most popular performers in the country and have played an important role in Mexican culture since the 1950s. Most of them wear a mask, and the mask, a cultural object of desire and also a fetish, has become an icon to the extreme. You can see people wearing it at parades and making it their own, buying it as a souvenir, or for the children, meaning tradition and veneration to be continued.
The design of each mask incorporates family traditions, beliefs, and fears, and hides the identity of the bearer, but it may be at risk during each wrestling encounter, mask against mask or mask against scalp.
Lucha libre wrestlers are well known all around the world and have been immortalized in movies and TV shows. As well as Mariachi, they are Mexican cultural ambassadors. The influence of Mexican Lucha Libre wrestlers and their imagination goes beyond expectations and it is said that the Spider-Man outfit has been inspired by a Mexican wrestler.
Cassandro is the first feature film directed by documentarian and Academy Award Winner Roger Ross Williams, and it is based on the true story of a pioneer of the gay community in Lucha Libre. It shows fragments of the life of Saúl Armendáriz, an American professional wrestler, and ex-world champion of NWA welterweight and UWA lightweight. Saul was known as The Mole and afterward as Cassandro the Exotic. During a performance, the fans and public shouteed loud and clear that the Mole “bites the pillow” referring to his sexual preferences. Exotic translates into wrestlers dressed in drag.
Saúl was born in El Paso, Texas, steps away from Juárez City, he went and came from one place to the other and started fighting-performing in Mexico approx. when he was 18 years old. Son of single mother Yocasta (Perla De la Rosa), their intimate bond is well presented and resolved in the movie, their relationship nourishes each other and allows Saul to be himself; deep concern for each other shows when the son helps the mother to earn a living and while he searches into her armoire some clothes to adapt and wear in his performances, comes to mind the leopard outfit (to wear with red lips). The father is an absent one, a kind of shadow in the boy’s life.
The well-achieved melancholic atmosphere of the film, unfortunately, does not match the storytelling. Storylines don’t provide depth for characters such as Lady Anarquía (Roberta Colindrez), Cassandro´s love interest El Comandante (Raúl Castillo), and bar owner and manager Lorenzo (Joaquín Cosio). Neither Cassandro is presented in the wide range he could have had in its so-called “legendary” international stardom. There is one moving scene (while in a TV show), where a fan remarks Cassandro´s leading role model in the lives of others.
Gael García Bernal , playing yet another queer role, is comfortable in Cassandro´s skin providing credibility and humanity to the character.
Songs by Celia Cruz and La Lupe are a plus.
The movie will be released in select movie theaters on 9/15 and then will stream on Amazon Prime on September 22, 2023.
Review by José Mayorga , Guatemala, Central America lawyer and notary public, visual artist, and editor of El Azar Cultural, lives and works in Guatemala City. Cinema lover, curious about the possibilities life brings and eager to live the experience.
Labels: 2023, Cassandro, Gael García Bernal, José Mayorga, lucho libre, review, Roger Ross Williams
