Lucha Libre

 Judy. On the second day we were in Oaxaca, I saw this poster advertising an evening of Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling):

I quickly took a photo and posted it on Facebook with the caption "Date night?"

Immediately I began to get responses from traveling friends back in the States, saying, "Do NOT miss this!" "Best street theatre I've ever seen!" And this from people I love and respect. So, we talked it over and decided to go. Bill, whom we met on a hike here, warned us to buy the tickets in advance, so we tracked down the address for the tickets, which is a block from our place. In a toy store. You can't make this stuff up.

On the day of the wrestling match, as we headed to the ring, we spotted a young Swedish couple, Jona and Josephine, looking at the poster, and convinced them to come with us. Then we met Patrick, a young man from Nelson, NZ (small world!) while waiting in line. All of us were ready to take on this odd sport, related to US wrestling, but with better costumes.

The audience was filled with a mixture of tourists and locals. Whole families were there--abuela, abuelo, papi, mami, and kids of all ages. Some wore some of the masks many luchadores wear, and some of the luchadores stood by the ring selling their t-shirts,  signing autographs, and posing for photos.

Of course I posed with some of them!

Kids masked up as their favorite luchadores, and sometimes wore t-shirts of others.

Interestingly, my Duolingo Spanish lesson this past week was about this hugely popular sport! I learned about técnicos, who follow the rules (whatever they are), and rudos, who break all the rules. Everyone screamed "rudo" at some point during the night, especially when the good guy pinned the bad guy. 

What I wasn't prepared for was how the referees got involved in the fights! Luchadores and the referees worked the crowd up (as if they needed to), and "yays" and "boos" were screamed from all over. 

Diva del Chocolate wanted to win the belt

But the Diva got tossed out of the ring

Each wrestler made a grand entrance through the audience, some with colored smoke, some masked, all in wildly gaudy costumes. But the best part was that almost all of them brought a child out with them, pulled them into the arena, and held their arms up like champions. Afterwards, they stayed to sign autographs and pose for photos with the kids. To my northern hemisphere eyes, it was bizarre as all get-out, but, honestly, it was rather sweet to watch.

Once in the ring, several jumped on the ropes to pose for photos

Four, or even six wrestled at the same time

The kids next to me helped me to understand who were the good guys or bad guys. A nearby grandpa had his tiny granddaughter, who wore a simple Halloween mask, but shyly nodded when I asked if she was a luchadora (female wrestler, and they have those, too, but not last night).

The dad (in green) and his boys helped me learn

Sweet little luchadora with her abuelo

Fighters were thrown from the ring into the crowd (who were warned first), chairs were thrown, and the wrestling got fiercer and more fun as the night progressed.

Psycho Clown and Abismo Negro, Jr. battle it out outside the ring!

When Psycho Clown made his entrance, he came right by me, and we grabbed hands and did a little dance. It was a hoot!

Psycho Clown struts his stuff

And his partner Tamuz poses

And on the way home we stopped at a street vendor and bought esquites (corn soup), my favorite street food. Who knew, guys? Definitely a night to remember!

My favorite artery-clogging street food