{"id":794441,"date":"2026-05-13T22:42:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/794441\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:42:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:42:30","slug":"lucha-libre-has-these-l-a-artists-in-a-chokehold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/794441\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucha libre has these L.A. artists in a chokehold"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a recent Sunday afternoon, hundreds gathered at a warehouse in South-Central Los Angeles to celebrate one of Mexico’s greatest cultural exports.<\/p>\n

Curated by Mano Pesada Productions, the Lucha Libre Art Show highlighted 38 works \u2014\u00a0photographs, sculptures and paintings \u2014 inspired by the vibrant sport. The event also featured live DJ sets from a booth set atop a wrestling ring, which was used later in the evening for two matches organized by local promotion MFN Lucha.<\/p>\n

Lucha libre has long been popular in Los Angeles and Southern California. The now defunct Grand Olympic Auditorium began hosting matches in the 1950s, and Angelenos can find countless events popping up at venues like warehouses and pool halls to local institutions like Don Quixote and the Ukrainian Culture Center. Over the decades, the acrobatic form of wrestling and its colorful masks have become among the most visible totems of Mexican and Mexican American identity in the region.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sculpture in the art gallery at the Lucha Libre Art Show on Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Curiously enough, the first person to wear a mask inside the ring in Mexico was actually Corbin James Massey, an Irish American wrestler who fought under the moniker La Maravilla Enmascarada (the “Masked Wonder”) in 1934 for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, the oldest wrestling promotion in the world that now goes by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).<\/p>\n

“I wanted to focus the nostalgia lucha libre brings for me and other Latinos,” Manny Martinez, the show’s curator, said, adding that he thought the sport was “a hot topic right now too because with what is politically happening, with the ICE raids. People see [it] as a symbol of hope.”<\/p>\n

Indeed, a yearning for the past was a recurring motif found in several of the pieces exhibited, while others employed the striking aesthetics and the good-versus-evil narrative of lucha libre matches to deliver political messages. In graphic artist Pepe Te Adoro’s “Con Mascaras Y Sin Papeles,” <\/a> a masked luchador has a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in a back-bending hold as his hands grip over the agent\u2019s eyes as his mouth twists in agony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something freeing about lucha,” photographer Daniel Velazquez said. His displayed work was a photo of a drag queen wrestler baring her chest as her opponent looks on. “It\u2019s storytelling and connection, and because they\u2019re behind masks, they represent more to us. They could be fighting for whatever we can imagine.”<\/p>\n

“I titled mine \u2018A return to an organic shape,\u2019 which to me represented [human’s] natural urge to connect,\u201d exhibiting artist Jackie Sanchez said of her oil painting depicting a luchador mid-grapple. “As a kid watching luchadores on TV, it was an experience that I could share with my family, and to feel closer to them.”<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People visit the art gallery at the Lucha Experience<\/p>\n

One of the most imposing pieces was a painting titled “The Fight,” a large canvas depicting two figures in a tense embrace. Although inspired by Italian Baroque and Renaissance art, the artist veered away from Jesus and the Madonna, instead making his subjects the iconic Mexican luchadores El Santo and Blue Demon, recognizable by their respective silver and blue masks. Their covered heads lean together in pain and excitement as El Santo clasps his opponent’s neck.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany kids\u2019 childhood heroes were superheroes. Ours were the luchadores,\u201d said artist Isaac Pelayo. \u201cIt inspired me, the way the mask and the show let us escape reality for a few moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelayo compared lucha libre to a Mexican version of ballet, one whose participants \u201cjust happen to be wearing masks, tights, boots and a cape on occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That marriage of theatricality and athletic grace was on full display hours after the event commenced. The house lights dimmed as attendees filed out of the gallery space to witness the first match of the evening between Adrian Quest and Skalibur, a heel who wore a monster-inspired mask. The main event was even campier \u2014 a Michael Jackson impersonator by the name of Santana Jackson jumped to his toes, snapped and ‘Hee-hee’-d as he leaped from the ropes onto his beefy Italian opponent, Vino Fratelli.<\/p>\n

\"Fans<\/p>\n

Adrian Quest, left, prepares to attack Skalibur in a match organized by MFN Lucha on Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\"Santana<\/p>\n

Santana Jackson enters the ring to wrestle Vito Fratelli in a match organized by MFN Lucha on Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

After watching “Mexican MJ” fly through a door before eventually emerging victorious, Iris Marlene Lupercio Lupian returned to the gallery to check in on her screen-printed design, which brandishes the luchador around the words: \u201cLuchando por los trabajadores (Fighting for the workers).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUUP [United Union Professionals] is my union, which I was very involved in before being fired by my employer in retaliation,\u201d Lupercio Lupian said. \u201cThe luchador to me represents fighting to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mexican-born artist Jacobo Ramirez, lucha libre is for everyone, noting how the sport is revered in places like Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen lucha libre reach so many people since I was a kid in Mexico. I know people in Japan love it and it\u2019s now trendy here\u2026 I think it\u2019s because it crosses borders,\u201d Mexican-born Ramirez said. His illustration “Sacred Masks” depicts a luchador wearing a kabuto, a traditional samurai warrior helmet.<\/p>\n

\u201cLucha libre is a reflection of our journey as immigrants,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cIt\u2019s like when I entered this country, masked, but fighting to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n