Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

/ARTS WEEKLY/MEXICO: Wrestling Superhero El Santo Takes on the World

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Nov 23 2004 (IPS) - After decades of cult status in his homeland, Mexican wrestler/superhero El Santo (The Saint) is now being introduced to the rest of the world through a new animated series.

The late wrestler, who fought in hundreds of matches and appeared in more than 50 movies over the course of four decades, is the star of the newly launched series on the Latin American affiliate of the U.S.-based Cartoon Network. In the meantime, there are rumours that he could soon be brought back to the big screen by U.S. film producers.

"I think it’s great that they’ve made a new show for kids about El Santo,because he’s the greatest Mexican wrestler of all times," said René Herrera,a devout fan of the sport who spends every weekend at the city’s numerous wrestling rings, like many other Mexicans, young and old.

For the masked wrestling stars of today, like the Blue Demon, Aztec Angel, Virus and Doctor X, to name just a few, El Santo is a veritable legend. For the Mexican public at large, he is one of the best-loved movie stars of all times.

El Santo died of a heart attack in 1984 after a career that spanned more than 40 years. For most of that time, his identity was kept hidden behind a silver mask and cape. His real name was Rodolfo Guzmán.

Every year on the anniversary of his death, memorial events are held throughout Mexico. There are monuments, movie theatres and even squares named after him.

His son, Rodolfo Guzmán Jr., who is also a well-known wrestler – he fights under the name El Hijo del Santo, the Son of El Santo – says that he has been approached by various Hollywood producers who want to make a movie about his father, and an announcement will likely be made soon.

The new series produced by the Cartoon Network, "El Santo Vs. The Clones",is made up of five episodes of two and a half minutes each. They are set in the Mexico City of the future, where the hero does battle with Dr. Clone, an evil German scientist.

Dr. Clone revives the Wolfman, female vampires, mummies and Frankenstein, then sets them loose on El Santo in order to trap and clone him, and create an army of El Santos to take over the world. But El Santo, a champion of justice and good, wins out every time.

In the new cartoon series, El Santo fights evil with the help of both the "Santomobile" and an amphibious vehicle called the Manta Ray I, along with flying boots and a digital laser watch.

The producers have indicated that if the series is a success, they will make new and longer episodes featuring "the man in the silver mask".

"We hope that the cartoon series will be followed by other productions. We want El Santo to be kept alive and fighting, the way we remember him, always ready to combat evil," said Antonio Camacho, a 65- year-old who regularly attends wrestling matches in Mexico City with his grandchildren.

It was in the wrestling rings of the Mexican capital that Rodolfo Guzmán began his career in 1935. He fought under various names and personas during the first few years, including Rudy, the Man in Red, and the Bat, but none of them caught on. In 1942, he donned the silver mask to become El Santo, and the rest is wrestling – and pop culture – history.

Over the next four decades, he stepped into the ring on hundreds of occasions to take on the fiercest rivals, while starring in dozens of low-budget movies, fighting a vast array of enemies, including wolfmen, aliens, cardboard mummies and prodigiously big-busted vampiresses.

He was also featured in a wildly successful series of "fotonovelas" – low-priced illustrated paperback novels, published on newsprint – with print runs of up to a million copies a month.

"As the patron saint of kitsch, El Santo dealt traditional aesthetics a drop-kick and succeeded in transforming the truly awful into something classic," according to Mexican writer Juan Villoro.

"El Santo was a collective accident, created by a long chain of writers, directors and producers, and by the public who filled the wrestling arenas, screaming for blood," he added.

For his part, writer Carlos Monsivaís observed, "When you watch El Santo movies, you do it with the idea of enjoying yourself, knowing full well that this isn’t filmmaking, knowing that it hasn’t even met the most basic standards of artistic decorum, but rather the most immediate demands of production.

"El Santo movies don’t make any pretences, they don’t have a message, they don’t try to be cinema, but they allow you to immerse yourself in the world of childhood, a world without danger," he added.

Many Mexican intellectuals maintain that El Santo and the mystery that surrounded his masked identity have given Mexicans their very own autochthonous and indestructible superhero, like Superman or Batman, able to overcome any evil with his intelligence, strength and skill.