Wrestling in Mexico is many things. It is culture and tradition, but not only that. It may be very difficult to reach a universal definition. But this popular sport is also technical, rude, extreme, violent, athletic, virile, masculine and even, within some circles, it can still be macho and misogynist. If they put body to those characteristics, it would be most likely in an imposing rival. However, Saúl Armendáriz, short of stature with its 1.66 meters and often, did not fear to go straight and make a key to adversity. The escape to all his demons with which he grew up and those that would come later, was through wrestling.
With a golden, leafy and spongy hair, while moving the hips of his body in a flirtatious way, he wore a colorful fight and gown mesh, Armendáriz put towards the ring on the Trena Arena Revolution of Mexico City. It was January 28, 1990, an unforgettable date for your memory. With just 22 years, with seductive and fun attitude, to hide the nerves of his make -up face – with glitter In the eyelids, Rímel on the eyelashes and outlines – I was going to dispute the worldwide lightweight championship to anyone but the son of the saint, heir of the most famous silver mask in Mexico and part of the Olympus of the gods of wrestling.
Despite falling defeated that night in front of the son of the immortal idol, he won the respect and admiration of the thousands of people who crowded the place. It was there that this young man's artistic and sports name was forged from El Paso, Texas, and Saúl Armendáriz gave rise to the legend of Cassandro, whose name lends to the homonymous title film, starring Gael García Bernal, about this man and his passage through the rings that made him an icon of the luchistic culture of Mexico and the world.
Roger Ross Williams, director of the film, says that when he met Cassandro he fell in love with him and his story, which he considers inspiring. “You cannot deny that he has a surprising story. It is that of someone who conquers machismo in this world of struggles and does so in his own terms, as an openly gay man. He is inspiring and I like to tell that kind of stories, as well as capture the culture of the border was important to me,” says Ross Williams.
Armendáriz (El Paso, USA, 1970), like many children in Mexico, began to like wrestling through El Santo's films. That curiosity, despite being him on the other side of the border, took him to his 16 years to the Municipal Gymnasium of Ciudad Juárez to practice as a fan. The idea of being professional even passed through his head. His heroes were not Superman and Wonder Woman, “they were flesh and blood.” Remember Zorro and whip, two fighters of the local scene of Juarez. So much involvement led him to pursue a career.
In 1988 he debuted under a mask like Mister Romano, a character with a gladiator theme. However, I did not want to be technical or rude, the difference in wrestling between good and honorable against bad and cheat. He wanted to be exotic. This type of fighters used to have a different characteristic, since they were men, mostly heterosexual dragwith effeminate attitude. They were mainly a reason for mockery and boo, but Armandáriz wanted to change that.
“From five years of age I realized that I had a different sexual identity,” Cassandro says in an interview in the program Experiences with the Son of the Saint. He felt that the mask they put him did not reflect his essence. His first name as an exotic was Rosa wild, in honor of the soap opera of the same name starring Verónica Castro. “Cassandro was a man who did not represent a lady or a man. He was going to be an exotic character who was going to extol Mexican wrestling as a worthy representative of the gay movement and the exotics,” says Armendáriz in the same segment.
From the fight with the son of the saint, Cassandro won the reputation of being an exotic “with a great chair of school and wrestling.” The heir of the silver mask, with whom he faced on two other occasions – one of them inside the Louvre Museum, in Paris – told him about his first encounter: “What caught my attention to your personality is that you are a very serious fighter and a very good fighter. You know how to fight on the canvas and you are not vulgar.”
Preserving this detail was important for production, from the choice of the leading role, which fell into the hands of García Bernal, to whom other Mexican interpreters such as Joaquín Cossio and Pearla de la Rosa, as well as the American actor Raúl Castillo and the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bad Bunny. The director, Oscar winner in 2009 for the short film Music by Prudenceis declared a fan of García Bernal and tells that his performances in films such as Bad education (2004) In addition to And your mom too (2001) were the compass for the choice.
“I never doubted Gael. He prepared and trained hard for months. He really learned how to fight in the ring. He worked with the fighters and took it very seriously. He made most of his action scenes. So when we see Cassandro fight in the ring, it is really he who does it,” says Ross Williams.
The film should not be just a reflection of its achievements, but also of its obstacles along the way. Ross Williams says that not only culture around the struggles was a factor to take into account, but what it represented to be gay in a scene like that of the early nineties. “I had many problems, because wrestling is very macho. My makeup is my mask. I already leave like this because it is part of my character. Before they criticized me a lot, so I fell into addictions, the atmosphere was very heavy, because it is an egos struggle,” says Armendáriz.
The visual part, which worked with a lot of string since preproduction, according to Ross Williams, had to be part of a world full of visual concepts and photography that according to an intimate portrait of Cassandro. “We are inspired by the culture of the border, the murals of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. A great inspiration was Juan Gabriel, a character queer famous. We absorb all that and use it in the movie, ”says the director.
In spite of the four surgeries he had in the knee, eight hospitalizations for brain seizures, stitched throughout the body, a fracture of set and lukewarm, a plaque with eight nails, the cut meniscus and a synthetic bone, Armendáriz has a lot because being grateful. Wrestling was his escape. The one that allowed him to touch the glory, as on November 29, 1992 when he became a lightweight champion of the Universal Wrestling Association – the first exotic to achieve it – and also live hell, when no one wanted to fight with him for the unfounded fear in the nineties to infect HIV only for sexual orientation. “The blessed wrestling has given it all.
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