Today I have the honor of writing about the Mexican LEGEND that was known as El Santo. This icon’s real name was Roldolfo Guzmán Huerta and I cannot stress enough how big of a deal he was and still is to Mexican pop culture from the fifties and sixties. To provide scale, I would take peak Hulk Hogan and multiply his popularity by three.
Santo El Enmascarado de Plata 3.er Volùmen ISSUE 83
El Santo’s character has appeared in a 252 issue comic book series, over fifty movies and television shows, and on thousands of pieces of merchandise. How did he reach this level of acclaim you may ask? Well, he was a pioneer for the popularization of wrestling in the country. As one of the first in his field, fans were able to grow alongside him, developing and maintaining the loyalty one does towards a beloved childhood character like Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse.
Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’ve had the pleasure of actually seeing any of his matches considering he was dead two decades before the invention of Youtube and past his prime before the commonality of household televisions. That being said, I can assume those bouts were good based on the statues of him plastered throughout Mexico. One of which being a few meters away from the MUSEUM OF EL SANTO. Yes, this blog entry is just an excuse to fangirl over El Santo.
The El Santo statue erected in 1985 near Tulancingo Mexico’s infamous Tepito market.
But I digress, Roldolfo Guzmán Huerta was dedicated to his wrestling persona and wanted to embody El Santo’s characteristics even in his personal life. The role was that of the perpetual good guy that would do whatever it took to serve justice and protect others. In many ways the man behind the mask was a do-gooder as well. He helped train and uplift Mexican and South American wrestlers and helped the industry realize how to capitalize on wrestling fame and make those characters mobile across multiple forms of media.
Ten days before his death, Huerta did the unthinkable by lifting his mask just high enough to expose his face. This coincidental moment was the only time he did this publicly and in hindsight, it was a perfect goodbye for his fans. The funeral amassed a crowd of over ten thousand lucha libre connoisseurs. He even requested to be buried in the silver mask, wanting to express how intertwined his two identities were all the way to the end. He lives on through his youngest son Jorge who wrestles under the moniker El Hijo del Santo, ten other children, and two wrestling grandsons Axxel and El Nieto del Santo.
A skeletal depiction of El Santo shown in Disney’s “Coco” (2017)
For my next passion blog entry, I’m going to discuss the legacy of another Mexican wrestling family. The father of which, was actually in a tag team with El Santo for a brief period of time as La Pareja Atomica. I’m talking about the renowned Guerrero Family.
I think it so interesting to see the types of characters and pop culture that is popular in different counties. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think Mexican wrestler is Nacho Libre so it was super fun reading this and realizing that this is privacy where they got some inspiration for that atrocious movie. I can tell that you really took your time to research this character and that you are genuinely very interested in this aspect of Mexican culture. I think that this topic is super cool and I totally would have never thought of it cause its so unique.