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 Entertainment | March 2006 
Viviendo en México - Lucha Libre
 Korah Winn - PVNN
| | In "Las Momias de Guanajuato," famous luchadors like Santo and Blue Demon, fight against gruesome mummies. |
Well, I finally made it to Lucha Libre (Free Fight.) The background of this story is that I am renting a room from a Señora who is originally from the Distrito Federal, which is also known as México City.
She rents the third room in her apartment to Jorge Jimenez, who is from the estado (state) of Aguas Calientes. I am very lucky, or unlucky in some regards, because Jorge speaks fantastic English. He was an exchange student in Canada for a year and he puts me to shame with how well he can speak my idioma (language) and how poorly I muddle along in his.
There are benefits and detriments to having a housemate who can speak my idioma. Some of the benefits are that when my family calls me, there is not awkward silence because they can leave a message in English instead of struggling to say some words in Spanish.
Another benefit is that I can ask Jorge to help me when there is a word or cultural connotation that I do not understand. The downside to all of this is that it is so tempting to give up speaking Spanish to him when I come to parts I cannot yet translate. I am unbelievably weak sometimes.
I know I am living in México to learn to speak Spanish, but the urge to communicate effectively oftentimes wins outs. I can get my point across in English better than in Spanish, so it is a constant battle of wills on whether or not to use Inglés o Español with Jorge.
With all that said, Jorge knows exactly what it feels like to be living in a different country, so he has been kind enough to invite me to hang out with him and his friends so that I can practice more Español and meet Mexicanos my own age.
One of the things we got to do was go to Lucha Libre. They pumped me up about how hilarious it was and how it is somewhat of a cultural thing in México. Back in the sixties, there were some Mexican directors who produced movies about fantastic luchadors (wrestlers) who would fight against enemies anywhere in the range of aliens to mummies. One of the most well known of these movies is called "Las Momias de Guanajuato." In it, famous luchadors like Santo and Blue Demon, fight against gruesome mummies.
We all drove to a cool hang-out called F. Bolko where they also have a wrestling ring. The waitress asked us if we wanted to sit close to the ring or away from it. Jorge, Esteban and I were all for being closer to the action, but the others were a little more reluctant so we sat farther back.
We sat and read the names of the luchadors while we waited for the wrestling to begin. The names were hilarious along with the masks that many of them wore. Many of the names, when translated, sounded like metal bands from the 80's. There was Metal Blanco, Asesino Negro, Infierno, Egipcio, Tóxico and many more. They even had two women luchadoras named Silueta and Mariby Libier.
The crowd really got into things. Everyone knew the fighting was fake but it was still fun to grimace and then groan out loud when a luchador got slammed on the mat. Various people would yell at the wrestlers. I asked Jorge about some of the phrases but often times he would just smile, shake his head at me and say, "You don't wanna know." The night was absolutely ridiculous at times but very memorable to say the least. |
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