Lucha Libre

= AMAZING!



For those of you who don’t know, Lucha Libre is Mexico’s version of the WWE but WAY more entertaining. It’s full of ridiculous costumes and characters and some horrible stage fighting that gets slightly better as the night goes on. There’s lots of shouting and drinking and just general hilarity. I highly recommend it for those who can handle the macho shenanigans of the men in the crowd. Unfortunatley, cameras aren’t allowed so I didn’t get any pictures of this glorious night (the photo above is from the web).

I met Linda at Centro Magno last night around 7 and we had dinner at Subway before catching a taxi to the arena. There was some famous Puerto Rican singer named Cheyane (sp?) at the music store in Centro Magno and there were tons of screaming teenage girls crowded around the store’s windows. Right when Linda and I were leaving, he came up to the front windows of the store and all the girls pushed up against them and screamed even more. Then he started walking around the perimeter of the store for maximum exposure which meant all the screaming girls were rushing outside at the same moment we were just trying to leave. We got swept up in the current of the crowd and threw in a few high pitched screams, because we could.

We met Cassandra, Elan, Nikiya, Nikiya’s friend Denis, and a friend of Cassandra’s out in front of the arena. When we got inside we realized that we had front row seats! The wrestlers were literally less than ten feet away from us, sometimes on top of us. They liked to throw each other into the seats, especially our seats since we were a group of mostly gringas. I knew it was going to happen so I was ready to move if they got close, but Linda wasn’t ready, so the first time they did it she basically got a wrestler thrown on her. After that she tensed up anytime they got close to our side.

The best part about Lucha Libre is the cheering. More like jeering, really. Before the fight, Cassandra gave us a heads up and a crash course in Mexican swear words and insults. They turned out to be very useful. Most of the time the insults were directed at the wrestlers who would come to the edge of the ring and deal it right back. A lot of times the crowd picked one wrestler or team that they liked better and just mocked the other team mercilessly. The guy behind us was very creative with his insults and absolutely hilarious. Cassandra and her friend collapsed into hysterics at one point. One of the wrestlers in the last group was a gay guy, or at least his character was gay (Maximilion?), so the crowd had fun with that. The whole night if two wrestlers were in compromising positions the crowd would start chanting “Dale un beso!” (Give him a kiss!), but when the gay wrestler came out it became the principle cheer.

There was also a rivalry between different sections of the crowd. The seats where we were and all the others on the main floor are more expensive and the seats up in the balcony are cheaper, so all the insults thrown back and forth are class charged. Our section would start chanting something like, “You’re gonna miss your bus!” (because it’s assumed that since they are poorer they came to the arena by bus). Then the pobres would chant back, “Your mother brought you here!” and we would reply “Tu mama es mi chacha” (your mother is my maid). We would also just randomly start chanting “Pobres, pobres, chinga a su madre!” It never got old.

Another thing that never seemed to get old for the guys in the crowd was picking out any girl and targeting her. A lot of times it would be girls coming and going from the arena (to the bathroom or whatever), and as the girl walked in front of the audience their attention would turn to her and they would all start chanting “Vuelta! Vuelta!” (Turn around! Turn around!). Nothing really happened if the girl ignored them. Maybe the odd man would yell out some insult, but if you did turn for them they would all cheer. This happened to us a lot. Everytime we got up to get out of the way of the wrestlers who were being bashed into our seats, the guys sitting behind us would start the chant. Linda got caught three times (one time a wrestler took her hand and spun her), and after the third time a radio announcer came over and tried to interview her. She couldn’t understand anything he was saying (and neither could I) so he went away pretty fast, but it was still cool. Linda was on the radio!

The whole time, Linda and I were so into it. We picked out our favorites based on their costumes. There was a pretty funny guy dressed like un indio that we couldn’t help rooting for. I think all the women at Lucha Libre treat it kind of like a strip club, and take this as the time to let the machista come out in them too. It was so much fun!! I have to go back before I leave!