The World of Lucha Libre is an insider’s account of lucha libre, the popular Mexican form of professional wrestling. Heather Levi spent more than a year immersed in the world of wrestling in Mexico City. Not only did she observe live events and interview wrestlers, referees, officials, promoters, and reporters; she also apprenticed with a retired luchador (wrestler). Drawing on her insider’s perspective, she explores lucha libre as a cultural performance, an occupational subculture, and a set of symbols that circulate through Mexican culture and politics. Levi argues that the broad appeal of lucha libre lies in its capacity to stage contradictions at the heart of Mexican national identity: between the rural and the urban, tradition and modernity, ritual and parody, machismo and feminism, politics and spectacle. Levi considers lucha libre in light of scholarship about sport, modernization, and the formation of the Mexican nation-state, and in connection to professional wrestling in the United States. She examines the role of secrecy in wrestling, the relationship between wrestlers and the characters they embody, and the meanings of the masks worn by luchadors. She discusses male wrestlers who perform masculine roles, those who cross-dress and perform feminine roles, and female wrestlers who wrestle each other. Investigating the relationship between lucha libre and the mass media, she highlights the history of the sport’s engagement with television: it was televised briefly in the early 1950s, but not again until 1991. Finally, Levi traces the circulation of lucha libre symbols in avant-garde artistic movements and its appropriation in left-wing political discourse. The World of Lucha Libre shows how a sport imported from the United States in the 1930s came to be an iconic symbol of Mexican cultural authenticity.

Take one part Mexi-Monster cinema, one part Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, throw in a little Zoro, the WWF and the knit-costume-wearing performance art collective Forcefield, and you come up with the raw, vivid, and psychologically unhinged world of "Lucha Libre" the sports-entertainment phenomenon that first swept Mexico and now the world. Photographer Lourdes Grobet's penentrating study of Mexican professional wrestling culture features more than 500 photographs of "luchadores" like Blue Demon, Santo, The Witch, Adorable Rub', El Solitario and Hurricane Ramirez, as well as pictures of their families, friends and fans--onstage, backstage and even at home. "Lucha Libre" also includes photographs of stickers, flyers, postcards, stills from "Mexi-lucha-cinema," interviews with the wrestlers, essays and much, much more! In this comprehensive 20-year study, Grobet has put together "the" definitive look at Mexico's masked superstars.

The fights still rage on in the third installation of Max's Lucha Libre Adventures series. Max seems like any other nerdy kid until he's asked to join the Lucha Libre Club. The super-secret club admits only the offspring of wrestling royalty. And Max is a prince, descended through his mother from royal blood, his uncle the very king of lucha libre: The Guardian Angel. Trouble is, the club is so secret that Max can't tell his best friend or girlfriend what he is up to. Just that vexing girl, Paloma. Xavier Garza lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Margarito acts like any other eleven-year-old aficionado of lucha libre. He worships all the players. But in the summer just before sixth grade, he tumbles over the railing at a match in San Antonio and makes a connection to the world of Mexican wrestling that will ultimately connect him—maybe by blood!—to the greatest hero of all time: the Guardian Angel. A 2012 Pura Belpré Author Honor Award winner! Xavier Garza was born in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. An enthusiastic author, artist, teacher, and storyteller, his work is a lively documentation of the dreams, superstitions, and heroes in the bigger-than-life world of south Texas.

From the ring to the kitchen, celebrate lucha libre with popular Mexican dishes offering a modern twist from iconic athletes, legends, and superstars in this one-of-a-kind cookbook for wrestling fans and aspiring chefs alike. Lucha libre—or, professional Mexican wrestling—is the most popular sport in Mexico after soccer and has become an international pop culture phenomenon all over the world. This officially licensed cookbook with the Legends of Lucha Libre includes more than 50 favorite Mexican dishes with a modern-day twist from the sport's most celebrated luchadores and luchadoras including Solar, Super Astro, Penta Zero M, Lady Maravilla, and more. Also included are fun stories and facts on championship details and family legacies, dozens of photos of wrestlers in the ring and in the kitchen, and illustrations of delicious food. Written by Mexico's leading female lucha libre journalist, Mónica "Centellita" Ochoa has interviewed some of the most well-known wrestlers in lucha libre, costume designers, and restaurant owners from around the globe to compile this must-have collection of recipes fit for hungry luchadores and their families. Recipes include: Super Astro's six-pound Gladiator Torta Taya Valkyrie's sweet and savory Carne Asada Penta Zero M's zero fear Chicken Fajitas with Bell Peppers Tinieblas Jr.'s twist on Surf and Turf luchador-style WWE Hall of Famer Amy Dumas's vegan Tlacoyo de Nopal and more!

One of the quickest, most exciting and popular forms of professional wrestling is lucha libre from Mexico. Find out the history of the sport, what's in store for the future, what the rules of the game are, and more in this book.

Lourdes Grobet has documented the spectacle of Mexican professional wrestling, known as lucha libre (free fighting), for more than 25 years. The only woman to have worked in such proximity to the sport, Grobet has photographed the masked luchadores in many contexts--and always in their signature disguises, which practitioners have worn since 1942, when a wrestler named El Santo stepped into a Mexico City ring wearing a silver mask, literally changing the face of the game forever. The mask, always a symbolically rich object in Mexican culture, serves both as a retreat (into anonymity) and as an attack, as a weapon with which to disconcert and terrorize the opponent. Its visual appeal, especially when set in scenarios outside the ring, was quickly apparent to Grobet, who describes El Santo as "one of the teachers that most influenced me early on." In Lucha Libre: The Family Portraits, Grobet shows the wrestlers with their mothers, wives and girlfriends, sitting for what would almost be a generic family portrait, but for the fantastic costumes of the luchadores themselves. By this simple recontextualizing gesture, we are brought to the threshold of their identities--and held there. The ungainly, monstrous and splendidly defiant stance they convey with this final preservation of anonymity is of course what gives Grobet's pictures their edge. One of Mexico's leading contemporary photographers, Lourdes Grobet was a student of artists Mathias Goeritz, Gilberto Aceves Navarro and Katy Horna, among others. For the past 20 years, she has surveyed Mexican popular culture, from female wrestling, northern emigration and neo-Mayan architecture to Cuban immigration. Her influence on younger generations of Mexican artists, including Gabriel Orozco and Rubén Ortiz Torres, has been considerable.

Lucha Libre champion Niño has no trouble fending off monstrous opponents, but when his little sisters awaken from their naps, he is in for a no-holds-barred wrestling match that will truly test his skills.

LA MANO DEL DESTINO tells the tale of a once-champion Luchador who, after being betrayed by his friends and unmasked in the ring, agrees to a Faustian bargain with a mysterious promoter. He gains a new power and the identity of La Mano del Destino in order to exact revenge upon his betrayers. Set in a swanky, 1960s Mexico where Lucha Libre is intrinsically woven into all aspects of society, this tale winds its way through the machinations and motivations of all types who inhabit this unique setting. Can La Mano del Destino get his revenge while remaining the champion he knows himself to be? Mesoamerican myth, Silver-Age storytelling, and high-flying Lucha Libre action converge to tell this epic story of vengeance and destiny! Collects LA MANO DEL DESTINO #1-6