2. Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm

CHAPTER 2 DULCE TORMENTA/SWEET STORM

Investigating the objects luchadoras use and inspire in their historical

contexts illuminates the significance of performance environments and how they

affect material culture. From exclusion in performance centers to costumes and gear

created from other performance disciplines, luchadoras have worked to carve out a

place in lucha libre and establish a performance lineage and legacy. Dulce Tormenta/

Sweet Storm’s experiences developing and introducing a new persona in 2021

demonstrate how luchadores use masks, hair, and costume to uphold performance

tradition and personally connected performance legacies while expanding the

parameters for luchadora performance. Tormenta negotiates the history behind

luchadora participation, the legacy of previous El Pasoan luchadores, the formation

of a new familial performance network amid industry gatekeeping, and a desire for

a fresh start after injury and personal struggle. These factors become part of the

objects that create the designed character, disseminated as she expands her reach

in US wrestling networks. While different in some areas, women's participation has

similar beginnings compared to lucha libre as a whole. Tormenta’s history and work

are one of the sequins outlined by Edward and Farrier, where positionality in El Paso

and familiarity with border culture provide the precise light to see and describe.1

This method also helps frame luchadora history, not as a marginal but parallel to

other parts of lucha libre that receive more attention.

The previous chapter showed that performers could consciously enact design

change to shift the related material culture within a style of aesthetic tradition and

disrupt a hierarchy of stereotyped performance to remake the style. On an individual

level, it also showed how studying objects that enable performers to become their

characters also highlights the context in which they live and work. The following

case study shows how a performer may have the autonomy to create a persona

through an ownership role in several levels of the production process and expanding

her performance style into a new market while still facing constraints through

international restrictions and the lineage of gendered performance costume.

Luchadoras, or women wrestlers, have competed in Mexico since the late

1940s but did not receive the same support developing domestic talent as their male

counterparts due to complaints from conservative figures in the Catholic church

and Mexican federal government that women’s participation in wrestling was too

sexually explicit.2 More well-known under her wrestling name Irma González, Irma

Morales Muñoz (1936-) is one of the pioneers of lucha libre alongside figures like El

Santo and Blue Demon. Gonzalez wrestled from the 1950s until her retirement in the

1990s.3 Gonzalez established two types of performance lineage: first as a luchadora

and eventually as part of a tag team (a match where two wrestlers compete against

another team while switching spots inside the ring) with her daughter, Irma Aguilar

1 Mark Edward and others, Drag Histories, Herstories and Hairstories: Drag in a Changing Scene Volume 2 (London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2021), p. 105 <http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rcauk/detail.action?docID=6458981> [accessed 23 June 2021]. 2 Marjolein Van Bavel, ‘Morbo, Lucha Libre, and Television: The Ban of Women Wrestlers from Mexico City in the 1950s’, Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 37.1 (2021), 9–34 <https://doi.org/10.1525/msem.2021.37.1.9>. 3 Van Bavel, p. 25.

(1957-). The latter association proves that even if women do not typically inherit

a persona from their parents or mentors in the same way as male luchadores like

Hijo del Santo and Blue Demon Jr, they can still inherit a performance legacy. It is

somewhat common for incoming luchadores to inherit a parent or mentor’s mask,

going by ‘son of…/hijo de…’ as a signifier. When luchadores inherit a character, the

inheritance includes the name, costumes, and weight of the cultural legacy and

offers an entry point into the industry as well as a boundary around a performer’s

ability to choose their career path. In 1954, the industry was disrupted for luchadoras

when Mexico’s federal office in charge of regulating public entertainment bowed to

pressure from conservative officials and announced that it would rescind Salvador

Lutteroth’s permits within Mexico City as long as Mexican women were part of the

lineup. They were tolerant of foreign women wrestlers but believed that Mexican

women participating in lucha libre were harmful to the national image.4 Lutteroth

complied, and the threat effectively banned Mexican women from performing lucha

libre in Mexico City until 1983, creating a gap for luchadoras in the industry’s capital

location and affecting their perceived legitimacy compared with male wrestlers.

However, many continued to participate outside the city in smaller arenas and grew

the industry in other places.

Amid this background, luchadoras also developed costumes and performance

styles that paralleled their counterparts who presented a display of masculinity

through plain costume and exposed skin. Luchadoras often wore plain, solid-

colored one- or two-piece leotards with boots and were often less exposed than

men. Occasionally, their costumes also included tailoring in the chest and waist

to accentuate hips and breasts, but their costumes were not embellished like the

exóticos. The difference in their costume came from structure rather than detailing.

By 2021, when Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm retired her original persona as Delilah

and sought an alternative as COVID-19 restrictions cut her off from costume makers

in Juarez, the design aesthetic has changed to include significantly more details

4 Van Bavel, p. 10.

but similar structure around the garments. As a luchadora, an El Pasoan/Juarez

resident, and a member of a wrestling family with a stake in the financial aspects

of their wrestling management company, Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm is affected

and influenced by various legacies communicated through visual signifiers. The

following case study deconstructs her current persona, introduced in February

2021, through costume, choice, and the process of design leading up to this point.

BODY

Costume researcher and academic Sofia Pantouvaki describes, ‘The unique

ability of costume to perform, challenge and rethink matters related to human life

through its tangible material and bodily dimensions, as well as through its wide

frame of intellectual engagement, has the potential to promote ethical and inclusive

representations within performance, impacting upon the society as a whole’.5

Like Edward and Farrier’s sequin method, Pantouvaki proposes costume study

as a framework for expanding perspectives and representation in performance.

Constructing Tormenta’s account of acquiring a leotard and undergoing physical

preparation, both when first training to become a luchadora and after injury, is

a more comprehensive account of a live performer’s experience with health and

body care, life in a border city, and working through COVID-19. It also presents a

new entry into the preparation process for debuting an original character through

an established wrestler, from concept to merchandising and, eventually, archival

collecting.

Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm debuted in February 2021 but began preparing

to introduce her new character near the end of 2020, working through several steps

to go from character concept to live performance. Between receiving her finished

costume and preparing to make her debut after injury, Tormenta found that renewed

5 Sofia Pantouvaki, Donatella Barbieri, and Veronica Isaac, ‘Costume as an Agent for Ethical Praxis’, Studies in Costume & Performance, 5.2 (2020), 145–52 (p. 151) <https://doi. org/10.1386/scp_00022_2>.

Fig. 14: Unknown, Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm Initial Costume Promotional Photo, 2021.

training affected her costume fit. Within that time, the U.S.-Mexico border closed

to nonessential travel amid COVID-19 restrictions, making it difficult to return to

Ciudad Juárez for repeated costume adjustments. As an alternative, she purchased

a dance leotard as a temporary replacement for traditional bespoke wrestling gear.

Her mask designer then used the dance costumes to create custom wrist covers,

kneepads, and boots, with a plan to commission gear specifically for lucha libre

later when the Juarez-based design and fabrication market became accessible.6

The initial gear, mostly comprised of dance paraphernalia, can be seen during a May

2021 match with Mission Pro Wrestling and promotional photos (Fig. 14).7

At the surface, the costume contains typical hallmarks for lucha libre: wrist

6 Chaos Theory, ‘EPISODE 36 Sweet Storm AKA Dulce Tormenta’, Chaos Theory, 2021 <https://wrestlingwithjohners.com/chaos-theory/EPISODE-36-Sweet-Storm-AKA-DulceTormenta/> [accessed 6 May 2021]. 7 Title Match Wrestling, Jazmin Allure vs Dulce Tormenta (Women’s Wrestling) Mission Pro Wrestling, 2021 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetBWYdlA28> [accessed 18 October 2021].

covers, kneepads, mask, leotard, and tights. The wrist covers are mainly used for

aesthetic quality and, while matches are relatively short, the items most likely to

wear out quickly are the kneepads. One of the first experiences training for lucha

libre is learning to fall, tumble and roll onto the knees. While most training will also

include falling with opponent safety in mind and minimizing the risk of injury, similar

to slapstick comedy, protective gear is still necessary. Each of these items is likely

also made with cotton-LYCRA blends and embroidered with patches that connect

them to the design motifs in the mask. Her dance leotard-turned wrestling singlet is

one piece, black at the bottom with a gradient scheme that transforms to white at

the neck, adorned with multicolored silver spangles and hot pink edges. It includes

a black choker collar connected to the rest of the piece with a mesh cutout over the

neck and shoulders, along with a flared skirt at the back. She also wears light, nude-

colored fishnet stockings that simulate bare legs. While she gathered components

of her wrestling gear from different sources, the detailing and character-specific

additions helped bring uniformity and communicative elements to the look.

From a textile perspective, there are many commonalities between dance and

lucha libre where movement and choreography are fundamental; it is not surprising

that Tormenta turned to this industry for a replacement costume. Cotton-LYCRA is

commonly used within many sports, prized for its ability to hold a structure and use

compression to emphasize the bodily form. While spandex is challenging to dye,

the cotton in the blend is typically a high enough proportion to take the dye, even

through home-dyeing techniques, and cover the LYCRA, allowing for a spectrum of

prints and colors like the black-to-white gradient that stretches over the leotard.8

The choker and mesh fabric also have functional, structural properties, holding up

the main garment’s bodice and securing the front and back pieces in place of straps.

The skirt attached at the back of the waist also provides a small amount of cover.

8 Kunal Singha, ‘Analysis of Spandex/Cotton Elastomeric Properties: Spinning and Applications’, International Journal of Composite Materials, 2.2 (2012), 11–16 (p. 14) <https:// doi.org/10.5923/j.cmaterials.20120202.03>.

However, it is perhaps more effective as an aesthetic addition, invoking the image

of a gladiator or even the most recent film version of Wonder Woman introduced

in 2017. Like their counterparts whose costumes work to project masculinity,

luchadora costumes are not neutral and fit into a more extensive aesthetic history

of superheroes and a dynamic of gender on display that has remained the same

over time.9

Most performers showcasing physical prowess in nineteenth-century

Britain, including dancers, wrestlers, and strongwomen, came from working-

class backgrounds. Edith Hall and Henry Stead speculate that these performers

‘frequently used reference to the classical world to authorise, legitimate and broaden

the appeal of their artform’, especially toward wealthy patrons who paid to see

them, and affected costume because, ‘To convert their physical and often erotic

capital into economic and social capital they draped their performance in the garb

of respectability, […] the lavish suits and dresses of the upper classes, or the fabric

drapings, leather straps and bared flesh which people identified with Greco-Roman

antiquity’.10 While Salvador Lutteroth established the business model around lucha

libre in Mexico, the acrobatic style was developed through Enrique Ugartechea (1881-

1963), a Mexican trainer and bodybuilder who presented exhibitions around the

world during the early twentieth century after seeing performances from European

strongmen as a child.11 In the process, he also adopted the European aesthetic and

the dynamic between costume and exposed skin.

Victorian strongwomen like Madame Julia ‘Victorina’ Veidlere, who reached

the height of her fame in the 1880s, wore minimal costumes and bared a substantial

9Super/Heroes: From Hercules to Superman, ed. by Wendy Haslem, Angela Ndalianis, and C. J. Mackie (Washington, DC: New Academia Pub, 2007). 10 Edith Hall and Henry Stead, A People’s History of Classics: Class and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Britain and Ireland 1689 To 1939 (Milton, UNITED KINGDOM: Taylor & Francis Group, 2020), p. 377 <http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rcauk/detail. action?docID=6124700> [accessed 7 November 2021]. 11 David C. LaFevor, Prizefighting and Civilization: A Cultural History of Boxing, Race, and Masculinity in Mexico and Cuba, 1840-1940 (University of New Mexico Press, 2020), pp. 41–42.

amount of skin to display robust musculature while performing but affirmed her

preference for modest clothing in her personal life through press interviews.12

Like the exóticos affirming their heterosexuality in public, cultural ideas of gender

forced strongwomen to draw a firm line between the character and performer to

mitigate subverted dynamics within the performance. Nevertheless, the costume’s

purpose was to display the body and communicate otherness to audiences or, as

Monks describes, ‘foreground the performer’s work’ by creating a barrier between

the audience and performer.13 Brownie and Graydon outline a similar dynamic

in superhero costumes, writing, ‘The most immediate impression of a person’s

identity is conveyed through his [the superhero’s] appearance, and so a superhero’s

costume cannot express the mundane. The superhero is, after all, “super.” He is

capable of extraordinary feats, and so his costume must be equally extraordinary’.14

Like strongwomen and wrestlers, figures like Wonder Woman and Superman sport

costumes that must remain outside fashion convention to avoid becoming dated

over time while showcasing physical prowess that visually sets them apart from the

audience. This mechanism valuing a bodily display that visually embeds otherness

within the performer still exists within dance and lucha libre, creating a viable

alternative for Tormenta through dance costume.

Garments created for dance are also ideal for physical activity and suited

to the performance style in lucha libre. Without customization, dance garments

are also reasonably available to the public inexpensively through companies like

Capezio and Danskin. Until recently, Danskin products were available to purchase

through Walmart, one of the most widespread shopping locations in the United

States.15 Tormenta’s change also points to an accessible route for luchadores unable

12 Conor Heffernan, ‘“A Strong Woman’s Troubles”: Victorina and the Strong Woman in Victorian Britain’, Women’s History Review, 30.3 (2021), 354–74 (pp. 362–64) <https://doi. org/10.1080/09612025.2021.1875606>. 13 Monks, p. 21. 14 Brownie and Graydon, pp. 41–52. 15 Danskin Active Apparel Brand Dropped By Walmart’, 2017 <https://www.pymnts.com/ news/retail/2017/walmart-danskin-apparel-iconix/> [accessed 26 October 2021].

to access the traditional design networks to acquire wrestling gear. The quick

replacement would have likely gone unnoticed if not for Tormenta providing the

information anecdotally when asked about her costume.16 The occurrence shows

that it is possible to use mass-produced costumes as a base and embellish them with

other identifying character-specific elements rather than commissioning bespoke

garments if they are physically or financially unavailable.

Pantouvaki also draws attention to body dimensions in her methodology,

proposing ‘an understanding of human presence through costumed bodies and

critical thinking, beyond an artefact-centred approach’.17 Tormenta gives a reasonably

comprehensive account of her relationship with her body and the changes required

for participation in lucha libre, through beginning the training process, injury, and

even in the form of matching tattoos between her siblings. Tormenta was part of her

school's volleyball team before showing an interest in wrestling and worked through

the changes brought on by different training. ‘When I joined the wrestling team,

of course, different conditioning, different type of strength, so I started to build

muscle. I started to not look like Dulce, the volleyball player; I was muscular and

getting bigger’, she recalls.18 Although lucha libre requires some level of theatrical

ability, it also demands an athleticism that is different from acting or performing an

artifice of athletic ability. For example, when they stand on the ropes and perform

acrobatic flips into the ring, luchadores must be able to perform the trick unaided.

Across different sports or types of performance, even settings where actors

portray athletes, the body undergoes changes and is a form of design in itself. Actors

portraying athletes on stage will usually do so only for the run of the production they

appear in, requiring them to use movement and physicality to create a convincing

and authentic portrayal, the illusion of an athlete, without having had the years of

16 Chaos Theory. 17 Pantouvaki, Barbieri, and Isaac, p. 146. 18 David ‘Panda’ Chen, ‘EP 84 | “Dulce Tormenta” Aka “Sweet Storm” Pro Wrestler’, Pandanomics Podcast <https://lnns.co/FEv9LaWGXzB> [accessed 27 August 2021].

training and preparation most sports require.19 In film, editing and other cinematic

techniques can emphasize an actor’s physicality and athletic ability without

necessarily demanding them to embody the physical ability a sport requires.20

In both settings, the movement typically serves a different type of narrative

concerned with inner conflict and transformation. Lucha libre, while requiring some

characteristics of a good actor, like charisma and emotional communication, still

requires strenuous athletic ability to be truly convincing. Luchadores signal through

costume and environment that they will play the part and provide an exciting show

of physicality. In addition, the skintight leotards and tights or bare legs and arms

create an impression of authenticity, a guarantee that the performer has nothing ‘up

their sleeve’ and is unaided in the physical activity on display.

Lucha libre is also a type of movement that necessitates preparation for

both physicality and visual effect. The materiality that emphasizes bodies, whether

makeup or costume, is a significant component of the design and part of the mise-

en-scene in lucha libre. Returning to lucha libre after a fall from another wrestler’s

excess body oil led to a concussion, along with developing her gear and character,

required months of training to reach competitive levels of fitness. Along with the

designers around performance spaces, this detail hints at the network of medical

professionals that underpin every type of performance and are crucial to its function.

Without the ability to recover from injury or understand how to prepare their bodies

for physical performance demands, the risk of injury is exponentially higher. The

demands this level of fitness places on a performer cannot entirely remove the

barrier between performer and character.

There are also individual marks on the body that identify performers, even

those who compete masked. In an interview in May 2021, Tormenta discusses a family

19 Vanessa Ewan and Debbie Green, Actor Movement: Expression of the Physical Being, Methuen Drama (London New York: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017). 20 Sebastian Byrne, ‘Actors Who Can’t Play in the Sports Film: Exploring the Cinematic Construction of Sports Performance’, Sport in Society, 20.11 (2017), 1565–79 <https://doi.or g/10.1080/17430437.2017.1284806>.

tattoo she and her brothers have, displaying a spot on her ribs with each of their

luchador masks inked and serving as a visual reminder that she is part of her family’s

legacy, especially when the tattoo is displayed while performing.21 A 2012 study found

that women in the US were more dominant in the tattoo industry and were more

likely to obtain a tattoo, usually connected in some way to family or perceptions of

self.22 Tattoos, like makeup, provide a twist in the material culture framework, asking

whether they should be considered a type of intangible object. They are bonded

to the bearer’s skin but cannot be removed like makeup or hair. Tattoos will perish

along with the body they exist on but are still something permanent that is obtained

and usually referred to in the same terms used for objects with tangible qualities.

While Tormenta is far from the only luchadora displaying a tattoo, she carries

a physical marker of her identity, eliminating the ability to hide as long as her tattoo

is displayed, which may also be the reason for applying it to her rib over an arm

or wrist. Conversely, All she must do is display her tattoo to pay tribute to her

family’s legacy as others have done through masks. As Monks argues, nudity is a

form of costume, and the presence of a tattoo is an element that further brands

the performer when skin is exposed.23 In this way, Tormenta uses her tattoo as an

aesthetic object to honor the performance lineage she shares with her brothers and,

subsequently, spread their influence through each appearance.

FACE

Tormenta also competes as a masked wrestler and builds the rest of the

costume from this base. When retiring her Delilah character, she considered retiring

mask usage. However, she decided to continue as a tribute to her roots in lucha

21We Luv Wrestling, Sweet Storm (Dulce Tormenta) : Women On Wednesday <https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=41irEA2Slo8> [accessed 15 July 2021]. 22 Jung Mee Mun, Kristy A. Janigo, and Kim K. P. Johnson, ‘Tattoo and the Self’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 30.2 (2012), 134–48 <https://doi. org/10.1177/0887302X12449200>. 23 Monks, p. 100.

libre while building a career through US-based wrestling networks. Using objects

associated with lucha libre outside of the performance network spreads its influence

but, in the process, can also flatten its significance and change the meaning. As

theatre academic Ric Knowles describes, in the context of touring productions and

their differing venues, ‘whatever the conditions, the work performed within them

is differently shaped and differently received because of the physical environment

it inhabits’.24 In the context of lucha libre, she is Tormenta. Outside of that, she is

a representative of lucha libre as a whole, solely through the associated material

culture.

Along with Cassandro’s gowns, the El Paso Museum of History’s exhibition

also included items from the EP Heroes archive, including Delilah’s first mask (Fig.

15) and boots side-by-side with her first mask as Tormenta.25 The Tormenta mask is

newer, with the design and production occurring sometime in late 2020 or 2021. The

Delilah mask is a few years older, from at least 2015 though the items are undated,

with more signs of wear. It also becomes clear when seeing the masks together that

they are similar but carry distinctive parts of their different characters within the

design. Both mask designs have more physical allowances than most of the masks in

the display belonging to male wrestlers. Though the material makeup has changed

from the original leather, many luchador masks utilize a foundational base mostly

unchanged from the design that Antonio H. Martinez, a Mexico City shoemaker,

created in 1934.

Martinez initially created wrestling boots for early luchadores but was

commissioned to create a mask for Cyclone Mackey/La Maravilla Enmascarada

(Corbin James Massey, 1903-1979), who was familiar with masked U.S. wrestlers and

24 Richard Paul Knowles, Reading the Material Theatre, Theatre and Performance Theory (Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 66. 25 Hartell.

wanted to use the technique to build intrigue around his performance in Mexico.26

Martinez’s original masks used and created in the 1930s were made from pieces

of suede leather. However, spandex would later offer a more suitable alternative

even with structural refinements, customized fitting, and softer fabric (suede is

made from kid leather and is usually more accessible to dye and shape).27 This

base design is typically made from four pieces of cotton-LYCRA or other elastic

fabric blends sewn together to cover the entire head with adjustable laces down

the back of the hood that ties at the nape. Usually known as spandex or LYCRA,

polyurethane is an artificial fiber created in 1959 and known for its elastic properties.

Before its introduction, most clothing and textiles utilized heavier rubber thread for

elasticity. Cotton-LYCRA blended textiles are relatively low-maintenance, boasting

breathable, stretchy fabrics that do not require specialized washing techniques.28

The distinguishing features are color, prints, sheen/matte appearance, embroidered

details around the eyes, nose, and mouth, or a combination of these elements.

Tormenta and Delilah’s masks stray from the foundational design, covering most

of the face but exposing the chin, mouth, and ears. In addition, Tormenta’s mask

utilizes two straps at the back of the head, around the base and middle of the skull.

The bottom strap at the nape of the neck fastens with two snaps while the upper

strap stretches out wider to fit onto the head but contains the seam that holds two

symmetrical pieces together. The top strap stays in place through tension but may

also include a plastic insert that sticks to hair without adhesive to reinforce security.

More common among luchadoras, the open design is also a feature that allows hair

to spill up and over the mask, creating gendered visual variation.

Tormenta's mask (Fig. 15) uses a black cotton-LYCRA blended base fabric with

26 Nicholas Sammond and others, Steel Chair to the Head: The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling (Durham, UNITED STATES: Duke University Press, 2005), pp. 99–100 <http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rcauk/detail.action?docID=1168442> [accessed 13 May 2021]. 27 Valerie Steele, Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion (New York : Scribner/Thomson, 2004) <http://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofcl03stee> [accessed 23 March 2021]; Levi, Joseph, and Rosenberg, p. 110. 28 Singha, p. 15.

diamond-patterned glossy elements, almost like simulated snakeskin. The outside

edges use more hot pink cotton-LYCRA piping double-stitched on the edges of

the straps, creating a pink halo-like effect at the top of the head and an additional

circular piece at the back, though her hair would cover this part when worn. The

two black snaps attach through a reinforced detail at the back of the neck, blending

in with the rest of the piece (Fig. 16). As Tormenta, the mask incorporates visual

components from her name into the design. Tormenta uses pinks and purples in

these specific masks, traditionally more associated with women, but design in lucha

libre does not seem to subscribe to the same color meanings. As long as their

characters do not incorporate specific colors, most luchadores vary masks through

color and maintain identifiability through base design and embellishments. Mexican

writer Alberto Ruy-Sánchez writes, ‘No one living in Mexico, especially graphic

designers, can remain indifferent to the carnival of colors and forms in the country's

traditional arts. Whether or not we are conscious of it, they leave their mark on our

world’.29 It is possible that this embrace of the color in lucha libre costume across

the gender spectrum is a result of the Mexican culture that developed it.

When creating her name, Tormenta worked with a designer to develop the

visual elements in her costume. The initial brief was minimal, as she describes, ‘I

have no idea how to have a mask, but I’m thinking like a candy as a cloud and

thunder under it. I don’t know! […] This is why I come to you; I have no idea what

my mask should be’, ultimately leaving the design to her costumer.30 The finished

mask is part of the museum exhibition display, where it becomes clear that her mask

details use two layers of leather or imitation leather stitched onto the black cotton-

LYCRA base. The bottom layer is made from more hot pink patent leather, outlining

the jagged edges of the mask’s edges. The inner edges of the detail use a softer,

pearlescent silver-lilac flat grain leather that shimmers under light and movement.

29 Alberto Ruy-Sánchez, ‘Traditional Arts and Artes De México’, Print, 51.1 (1997), 116–21 <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=9702093555&authtyp e=shib&site=ehost-live&authtype=ip,shib&custid=ns010826> [accessed 26 October 2021]. 30 Chaos Theory.

The main details at the center of the mask are a heart with jagged outlines over a

lightning bolt. These stretch when worn from the edge of the nose to the top of

the forehead. The lighter leather outlines the eye area, with smaller lightning bolt

features stretching up and over the temples, stiff enough to poke up over the ears.

One of the bolts on the right cheek pays tribute to the mask’s designer, whose first

name is Nick.31 All edges of the leather pieces use a jagged design, resembling the

zigzagged pattern from the lightning bolt, especially compared to the softer edges

on the Delilah mask, which utilized a spade motif (Fig. 17).

Brownie and Graydon write, ‘The observer knows that the mask is only surface

decoration; superficial, and not representative of a complete identity. This inevitably

creates the impression that there is more to be discovered, and encourages the urge

to solve that mystery’.32 Though she wears a mask, Tormenta also applies makeup,

pulling the human elements underneath forward. Visible through the openings in

her mask, Tormenta wears false eyelashes, dark eyeliner, and lipstick. In more recent

press photos (Fig. 18), the eyelashes are perhaps the most essential part of the

makeup routine, helping bring out the eyes underneath shadows created by the top

of the mask. During the performance, this element matters less but is valuable for

masked luchadores who wear their masks at all times. However, mask fit also affects

the ability to use false eyelashes. If the mask is tighter around the wrestler’s eyes,

it will push the eyelashes down and impair sight. As an alternative, eyeliner helps

create a visual effect that opens up the eyes under a mask.

31 Chaos Theory. 32 Brownie and Graydon, pp. 27–40.

Fig. 15: Dulce Tormenta First Mask, 2021. El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of History.

Fig. 16: Dulce Tormenta First Mask Side View, 2021. El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of History.

Fig. 17: First Delilah Mask, 2015. El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of History.

Fig. 18: Alex Briseño, Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm, 2021. El Paso, Texas.

Tormenta’s headshots show a look with mink or faux-mink polyester eyelashes

in recent press photos (Fig.18). While typically more expensive, this style carries

a softer, feather-light effect at the edges than some of the wispy or typical strip

lashes while using a dense concentration of fibers at the lash line. However, the

products are widely available rather than through specialized stores. Increasingly

over the past decade, drugstores and makeup-specific stores carry a variety of

products aimed to enhance eyelashes.33 With the mouth and chin exposed, she uses

33 ‘False Eyelashes Market Size | Global Industry Analysis Report, 2025’ <https://www. grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/false-eyelashes-market> [accessed 25 October 2021].

lipstick to add color and highlight parts of the face not covered by a mask. While

not essential to the character design, makeup, like hair, accentuates the performer’s

appearance. When receiving the invitation to make her debut with All Elite Wrestling

(AEW) and enduring a night-and-day journey with no food or sleep, she describes,

‘With the adrenaline, I run to the restroom to get ready. I didn’t even do my makeup,

I just put on my lashes, I did my lips, I put on my gear, and they said, “Get ready

for pictures. We need your promo pics.” It happened so fast.’34 This was a pivotal

instant, especially making her debut with a league broadcast online and on cable

television, considered a competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE ),

and acting as a representative of lucha libre to a new market.35

When making her debut at the San Antonio, Texas venue, Tormenta describes

hearing audience members immediately cheer her on, referring to her mask and

showing support because of the connection to lucha libre without having seen

her perform.36 San Antonio, a city where sixty-four percent of the population is of

Hispanic descent, has its own lucha libre supporters and a readymade fanbase, with

a connection instantly made through material culture. In terms of the initial research

question, it also demonstrates a moment when she uses costume to alter the

expectation within the performance space. The mask’s design, associated explicitly

with lucha libre outside of a lucha libre ring, introduces an ‘identical thing they [the

audience] have encountered before, although now in a somewhat different context’,

or what Marvin Carlson terms ghosting.37 The audience members recognize the

mask, even if they are not familiar with Tormenta. Even though parts of her costume

carry elements of the mask design, the mask is essential to creating this connection.

34 Chen 35AEW DARK Elevation Episode 19 19-07-21, 2021 <http://archive.org/details/aew-darkelevation-episode-19-19-07-21> [accessed 28 August 2021]. 36 Chen. 37 Carlson, p. 7.

HAIR

While Tormenta does not participate in hair betting matches or luchas de

apuesta, it is still essential to frame hair as an object used in performance with

signifiers that work in tandem with costume. Many luchadoras wear their hair

down when performing. When debuting as Tormenta, she sported dark red hair,

sometimes in curls reaching down to about the bottom ends of her shoulder blades.

Archival photos from previous matches as Delilah also show long, dark hair with

waves, indicating that she has naturally wavy hair and potentially straightens it

before matches. While this may seem a minor consideration, it makes a difference to

a performer in completing added steps for their preparation routine. In addition, the

concealment and subsequent ways that women’s hair is displayed can have cultural

significance in other media.

In Mexican and Mexican-American culture, light hair and eyes are often

idealized, a remnant of colonial occupation and Eurocentric beauty standards.

Light skin and hair are also associated with higher socioeconomic status, embodied

through the contemporary ‘fresa’ figure, or privileged woman, descended from

French and Spanish colonists.38 Many of these ideals are also reinforced through

characters on telenovelas popular in Mexico but circulated throughout the US as

well.39 However, long, dark hair also carries an alternative history in a Mexican or

Mexican-American context dating back to the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).40 As

academic B. Christine Arce describes, actual women fighters, or soldaderas, who

participated in the Mexican Revolution have become synonymous with the Adelita,

the titular character in a popular ballad.41 Images of actual soldaderas (Fig. 19) show

38 McCRACKEN, p. 200. 39 Layla P. Suleiman Gonzalez, ‘Mirada de Mujer: Negotiating Latina Identities and the Telenovela’, Counterpoints, 169 (2002), 84–96 (p. 84) <https://www.jstor.org/ stable/42977475> [accessed 3 November 2021]. 40 Van Bavel, p. 31. 41 B. Christine Arce, México’s Nobodies: The Cultural Legacy of the Soldadera and AfroMexican Women (Albany, UNITED STATES: State University of New York Press, 2017), p. 91 <http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rcauk/detail.action?docID=4774210> [accessed 26 October 2021].

Fig. 19: Agustín Víctor Casasola, Las Soldaderas, 1910s. Archivo Casasola

women with long skirts and blouses, rifles strapped to their backs, and intersecting

cartridges of bullets across their chests. They wear large hats or keep their hair under

hats or tied up and away from their faces. This image, primarily through wartime

songs circulated by male soldiers, became more sexualized over time, describing

fearless women fighters wearing low-cut blouses and brandishing long, dark flowing

hair. These descriptions continue to persist, most visibly as tropes and stereotypes

like the ‘fiery Latina’ and, in lucha libre, point to a sexualized version of womanhood

created by and for misogynistic consumption that calls for performers to wear hair

loose instead of away from the face for protection in an athletic environment.42

This key detail indicates a stark difference between athletic competition and

more traditional performance or theatrical spaces. While sport certainly falls within

the overarching umbrella of performance studies, this material difference points to

different modes of action.43 In a more specific sporting event, long hair is typically

secured in some way to prevent it from obstructing eyesight or interfering with

42 Condé Nast, ‘Meet the Women Revolutionaries Who Shaped Mexican History’, Teen Vogue, 2019 <https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-real-history-of-las-soldaderas> [accessed 26 October 2021]. 43 Schechner and Lucie.

athletic performance. In a combat setting, it also risks becoming an easy target

to an opponent for pulling. In lucha libre, especially matches between luchadoras,

hair pulling may feature in the fight, but it also means trusting an opponent not to

commit any permanent damage. Incidentally, this also points to a paradox within

lucha libre. A performer must be able to convincingly commit violence against an

opponent while trusting their opponent to handle their body and, in this instance,

hair with gentleness and care. Pulled hair can quickly become excruciatingly painful

with enough force. Though, even in fictional performance settings, hair can become

a point of controversy over the lack of consideration for its physicality.

For the 2020 film Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn, screenwriter Christina Hodgson

received praise for including a scene where one character offers another a hair tie

during a fight scene. Hodgson explained, ‘My sister and I always joke about the fact

that women in superhero movies — or action movies generally — are always going

into battle or doing this big, crazy, epic thing with beautiful flowing hair perfectly

quaffed [sic], when both of us wouldn’t even consider eating a sandwich with our

hair untied. So yeah, it had to go in there.’44 The decision for most luchadoras to

leave hair loose and flowing demonstrates an awareness of the audience as a viewer

and the way hair moves that places dramatic value over practicality or comfort. It

also points to an affirmation of femininity, as long hair is associated with women in

this cultural context, and the press discussion from strongwomen and exóticos after

destabilizing gender expectations through performance.

However, loose hair can also aid in concealing parts of theatrical convention.

In a May 2021 match against Jazmin Allure, Tormenta creates the illusion of pulling

her opponent by the hair. In actuality, her partner assists the move by holding onto

Tormenta’s arms to release the tension on her hair. Loose hair helps conceal the

44 Brian Davids and Brian Davids, ‘How “Birds of Prey” Writer Christina Hodson Crafted That Hair Tie Moment’, The Hollywood Reporter, 2020 <https://www.hollywoodreporter. com/movies/movie-features/how-birds-prey-writer-christina-hodson-crafted-hair-tiemoment-1278778/> [accessed 15 October 2021].

maneuver to a live audience.45 For example, using specific techniques to fall slaps

the boards, maximizing sound in the ring, and creating more convincing falls and

hits for a spectator. Without doubting the athletic ability lucha libre requires or

raising the debate around authenticity, it is possible to acknowledge that performers

exaggerate movement and reaction for theatricality, including the use of long hair

as a tool for performance. It also means working with opponents who understand

how to navigate added safety considerations and risks that loose hair presents

while wrestling. While not as vital to Tormenta’s recognizability, it reflects an image

of Mexican women fighters embedded into cultural awareness and hair as an object

and product of material culture.

Each costume element culminates into the first appearance with Tormenta’s

ring entry routine, where she blows kisses to the crowd and walks around the ring

without removing a cape or gown. However, before running into the ring, she uses a

pre-match routine, a ritual that dates back to her high school days. She elaborates:

‘When I’m outside, pre-match, I already have everything on, the first thing that I do is I pray. No matter what happens in the ring, tomorrow is never promised. I pray, I stretch, and I do my routine. When I was in high school wrestling, I had this little routine, this little shaky shaky thing that I used to do before my matches […] I do a little shaky shaking, I pray, I close my eyes, I take a deep breath, and then I’m ready to be Sweet Storm’.46

Once again, as Schechner describes, the liminal space between the preparation ritual

and the performance is a process that helps reinforce the performer’s transition into

the character. However, she also discusses the space and time after a match, where

wrestlers must leave action inside the ring.

With experience comes control over body, strength, and movement, but also

over emotion when competing with fellow wrestlers and traveling with them later.

She explains, ‘I hit pretty hard during my matches. As soon as it’s over, one two

45 Title Match Wrestling. 46 We Luv Wrestling.

three, we’re coming down, I’m back to my sweet side. I have no problem, I know

how it works’.47 Where the space to create a character, the liminal space between

removing personal identity and embodying a new one is allowed time, the process

of coming back can change in moments. It also means understanding and working

with fellow performers in the same spaces after competing and immediately using

the backstage area to dissect performances.48 Often, the time after a match is spent

with fans, helping sell merchandise and build a reputation. This time is crucial given

the number of luchadores who entered the sport after meeting their heroes after a

match. It also helps reinforce the character created inside the ring.

Marvin Carlson describes the curtain call as, ‘…a site where memory is

particularly celebrated, primarily the short-term memory of the production just

witnessed and now being recalled and acknowledged, but also, in many cases, the

longer-term memory of past enjoyment of these actors or this company’.49 Viewed

through Carlson’s framework, the merchandise table also acts as a curtain call for

luchadores, especially when staying in character to greet fans. It also relies on this

memory to sell products. Building the character, training, performing, and making

an impression essentially all lead to this point. With success, a luchador will have

made a significant enough impact to convince a consumer to spend more, providing

the performer with enough financial support to repeat the process. As a controlling

member of the family company that trains and stages lucha libre performances

around El Paso, she has a higher degree of control in the process and a stake in the

financial outcome of sales around the event.

Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm originally debuted in El Paso through New

Era Wrestling/EP Heroes, the wrestling promotion her family established as a way

of subverting closed performance networks. She is also one of few intergender

competitors and the sole woman in a lucha libre family that includes older brothers

47 Chen. 48 Chen. 49 Carlson, p. 90.

Tirano, Rey Lagarto, Triton, and younger brother Dastan, the same brothers whose

masks are featured in her tattoo. Lucha libre is also one of several performance

industries that utilize family or mentorship lineages as a mechanism for replication,

like circus and drag. For example, Edward and Farrier describe drag mothering/

mentoring as part of the essential makeup of drag that works to transfer skills

between performers.50 Lucha libre works in a similar way. While some luchadores

are related to their trainers, they can still inherit the ‘Hijo del…’ title without being

related by blood. The association with a retired luchador also gives the performer

legitimacy and access to the industry’s entry points. However, the lack of attachment

to influential trainers can hinder admittance, presenting an unknown entity compared

to a name with a fanbase and history attached.

LAUNCHING A 'NEW ERA'

According to Tormenta, the family moved to Juarez from El Paso for economic

reasons, attending school in the United States throughout the week. Participating

in high school sports also meant waking at three each morning to prepare for the

border crossing and attend practices every day of the week. Early on, her father,

Jose Ontiveros, also met the retired luchador Fishman (José Ángel Nájera Sánchez,

1951-2017) as a coworker while working as a taxi driver.51 Fishman, whose sons are

also luchadores, offered to connect the family to a lucha libre trainer as a way to

keep them focused on sports and away from the violence that has plagued Juarez

over the last few decades. While homicide rates have fluctuated since the 1980s,

Juarez remains one of the deadliest cities in the world as a result of international

trade policy and upheaval as rival drug cartels battle for control of the city.52

The political tension within the city created the conditions of production

50 Edward and others, p. 7. 51 Chen. 52 SCITEL’ <https://www.inegi.org.mx/app/scitel/Default?ev=9> [accessed 14 October 2021]; Seguridad Paz Justicia y, ‘Boletín Ranking 2019 de las 50 ciudades más violentas del mundo’, Seguridad, Justicia y Paz <http://www.seguridadjusticiaypaz.org.mx/salade-prensa/1590-boletin-ranking-2019-de-las-50-ciudades-mas-violentas-del-mundo> [accessed 14 October 2021].

that led to the family deciding to become involved with lucha libre, as well as the

economic environment and personal financial circumstances bringing Fishman and

Tormenta’s father together. While Juarez is not the capital for lucha libre, it continued

to exist as a center and entry point into the industry through retired luchadores,

many of whom also become trainers, and the availability of competition spaces

like the Plaza de Toros Alberto Balderas.53 Drawing from his established network,

Fishman brought the family into contact with the luchador, Punisher, who became

their trainer in Juarez.

However, a lack of connection to specific performance lineages with local

power created an obstacle in competing in El Paso. Tormenta laments, ‘Unfortunately,

because me and my family don’t have any background history–you know, my father

wasn’t a pro wrestler, my grandpa wasn’t a pro wrestler–we had to start from the

very bottom. My oldest brother had a huge, huge hard time getting booked at

pro wrestling events’.54 Where licensing bodies and official promotions exist, this

also points to unofficial power structures articulating boundaries around who is

allowed to participate. Historian and curator Simon Sladen describes, in the context

of pantomime performance, formal and informal training routes that also apply to

lucha libre. Where few institutional training routes exist, an alternative, and the most

common route, occurs through knowledge transfer between retired performers

and new students entering the industry in workshops or one-to-one training.55 For

some, this also means inheriting the parent or trainer’s designed persona and gear,

along with a built-in introduction into the local network. Sladen quotes comedian

Oliver Double, who describes, ‘a standard way of starting out...is to fill your act with

tributes to the big names of the day’.56 Similarly, wrestlers like Hijo del Santo and Blue

Demon Jr. would have started with some of the most influential legacies, including

53 Hammond and Markiewicz. 54 Chen. 55 Simon Sladen, ‘From Mother Goose to Master: Training Networks and Knowledge Transfer in Contemporary British Pantomime’, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 8.2 (2017), 206–24 (pp. 208–11) <https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2017.1316306>. 56 Sladen, ‘From Mother Goose to Master’, p. 218.

the pressure to uphold the reputations behind their masks. Lack of connection to

an existing heritage can hinder access but leave the performer somewhat free to

design their character.

Frustrated at the lack of opportunities available to the elder boys, her father

circumvented the existing network. After raising funds for raw material through

shoeshine work, her father, an ironworker, built a ring for the family to use in their

backyard, pointing to an additional area of production work and skills required

to stage live events. Meanwhile, the elder brothers launched a lucha libre school,

using a local park as a training ground until the ring was built, taking on about ten

students at a time and generating revenue without the need to rent a space.57 This

also marks the beginning of a vertical integration model, where a firm owns and

manages several stages of production, holding greater ownership in the process.58

Over time, once the ring was complete and venues booked, these students became

the luchadores who headlined the wrestling cards for New Era Wrestling, the family’s

new wrestling promotion. As a result, the family built a reputation within the local

lucha libre community, drawing larger audiences and moving slowly to larger venues

– from a small hall with a fifty-person capacity to a ballroom that could fit 300 and

finally a warehouse in 2017 that was available exclusively for their company, serving

other aspiring luchadores without existing connections in the industry.59

The new venue also added the advantage of permanently housing their

equipment, training facilities, and practice spaces. Ontiveros describes, ‘We had to

set up the ring and tear it down every time we did it, so it was kind of hard. We had

the shows outdoors, so rain, snow, or shine, we never canceled a show.’60 Ownership

57 Chen. 58 Michele Trimarchi, ‘Regulation, Integration and Sustainability in the Cultural Sector’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 10.5 (2004), 401–15 (p. 412) <https://doi.org/10.10 80/1352725042000299027>. 59 Adrian Broaddus, ‘A “New Era” of Lucha Libre Dawns in El Paso’, The Prospector <https:// www.theprospectordaily.com/2017/03/21/a-new-era-of-lucha-libre-dawns-in-el-paso/> [accessed 12 May 2021]. 60 Broaddus.

of the performance venue provided a massive advantage by creating the conditions

that allowed for a consistent rehearsal and performance space, in addition to

establishing a new informal training route combining workshop, apprenticeship, and

workplace training.61 It also implies, in this contentious atmosphere where familial

legacies and hierarchical structures are coming undone, a claim to permanence

within the performance network. It was within this context that Tormenta made

her debut in 2015 as Delilah at fifteen years old. In February 2021, four years after

dedicating the warehouse as a training ground and venue for lucha libre, with her

elder brothers having retired from wrestling, and eight months after suffering a

concussion, she re-entered lucha libre as Dulce Tormenta/Sweet Storm and renewed

personal stakes in the performance level of production.

The vertical integration model uncovers another connection between more

traditional theatre forms and lucha libre: the role of the actor-manager. With notable

actor-managers (and the term) rising to prominence from seventeenth-century

London with the Globe Theatre, the actor-manager was a performer that leased or

owned the performance space and acted as a figurehead within its ownership and

management.62 While the practice has fallen out of favor over time, the Ontiveros

family, decades and an ocean away from the actor-manager’s exemplary sites,

show signs that performance management is still consequential to agency. Because

of her role within the promotional company and ownership in multiple stages of

production, Tormenta’s design choices are primarily her own, even if shaped by the

constraints of gendered convention in the performance tradition.

OWNERSHIP AND MERCHANDISING

Taking ownership over time of each production stage foregrounds the

Ontiveros family’s most recent expansion into another level of manufacturing: fan

merchandising. Many items intended for fan sales often include character design,

61 Sladen, ‘From Mother Goose to Master’, pp. 208–10. 62 Lucie Sutherland, George Alexander and the Work of the Actor-Manager (Cham, SWITZERLAND: Springer International Publishing AG, 2020), pp. 3–7 <http://ebookcentral. proquest.com/lib/rcauk/detail.action?docID=6270535> [accessed 17 October 2021].

pared-down and repackaged, primarily identifiable through costume. However,

mask usage, particularly in markets that do not typically encounter lucha libre,

offers a unique product beyond more common types of fan merchandise. For

example, during an interview with Tormenta, a host describes, ‘My youngest son,

my two-year-old, will not stop wearing it [her mask]. He loves that thing. It’s so

cool because it’s a slip-on mask, it’s got the Velcro in the back, it’s easy to put on

and take off. That, as a marketing idea, is genius’.63 At this particular event, which

primarily featured US-style professional wrestling, Tormenta was the only luchadora

participating. Subsequently, she distinguished herself at the merchandise table as

the only wrestler with masks for sale.

In addition to the support Tormenta received from fans solely for her mask

use while performing, the anecdote indicates an opening in the market for products

associated with lucha libre, primarily geared towards young fans. It also shows a

fundamental difference in the mask materiality, specifically between secure, snapped

fasteners that stay securely around the neck on a professional mask and the Velcro

fasteners that are safer for children to use. Aside from disseminating wrestlers’

images and building their reputations, toys and apparel can also be lucrative for

companies. The WWE, which licenses through Mattel, Inc., generated $86.1 million

or 9% of revenue through consumer products, including video games, toys, apparel,

and books.64 In turn, Mattel, Inc. saw a 7% increase in WWE-related action figures

and building sets in the third quarter of 2021.65 The WWE is notoriously defensive

of intellectual property, obliging luchadores like Cinta de Oro (formerly Sin Cara)

63 Chaos Theory. 64 Vincent K. McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. 2020 Annual Report (World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., April 2021) <https://materials.proxyvote.com/ Approved/98156Q/20200330/AR_464505/?page=12> [accessed 7 November 2021]. 65 Mattel, Inc., SEC Filing | Mattel, Inc. (Washington, D.C. 20549: UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, 19 October 2021) <https://investors.mattel. com/node/33376/html> [accessed 7 November 2021].

to release any ownership of their character once leaving the company.66 While the

Ontiveros’ company is much smaller than the WWE, ownership over their characters

would also allow for new streams of revenue.

In October 2020, Samuel and Andres Ontiveros, Tormenta’s older brothers,

launched Plain Salty, a clothing and apparel company registered with the intent

of selling ‘t-shirts, hoodies, shorts, underwear, long sleeve shirts, socks, crop tops,

baseball caps, and hats’.67 By November 2021, their website offered cotton-polyester

blend t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, bags, adhesive stickers, and baseball caps with

graphics related to their company or Tormenta and luchador Dastan. The catalog

suggests that, though they may have retired from lucha libre, the eldest brothers still

hold a stake in the company and are in the process of developing ownership in the

merchandising sector of their industry. The Plain Salty website states that t-shirts

include ‘blank product sourced from Honduras, Dominican Republic, El Salvador,

Nicaragua, Haiti, or Mexico’, indicating that they likely procure the base material

from Gildan Brands, a wholesale apparel company, and print images themselves

or use a third party to transfer the images onto blank t-shirts.68 The complexity in

images and range of colors in each graphic also points to a significant amount of

labor in the printing process. As a reflection, the shirt with the most photorealistic

image is sold for $34.99, while others sell for $29.99.

The shirt graphics are also unique to Tormenta and include visual iconography

that refer to Mexican culture, the city of El Paso, and her own costuming. One shirt

(Fig. 20), presumably the oldest given that it shows her first costume, features

66 Republic World, ‘Sin Cara Reveals His New Name after His WWE Release, Posts a Picture with a New Mask’, Republic World <https://www.republicworld.com/sports-news/wwenews/sin-cara-new-name-cinta-de-oro-wwe-release-aaa.html> [accessed 2 September 2021]. 67 Andres Ontiveros, TEAS Plus New Application for Plainsalty (El Paso, Texas: United States Patent and Trademark Office, 14 October 2020) <https://uspto.report/TM/90255353/ FTK20201017105825/> [accessed 5 November 2021]. 68 ‘“Dulce Tormenta” Ft. Plainsalty Short Sleeve T-Shirt’, Plainsalty <https://plainsalty. com/products/dulce-tormenta-ft-plainsalty-short-sleeve-t-shirt> [accessed 7 November 2021]; Gildan Brands, ‘1301 Adult Tee_en_US’, Gildan Activewear S.R.L. <https://www. gildanbrands.com/en-us/alstyle-1301> [accessed 7 November 2021].

an illustrated version of her face and first mask, the black version with pink and

pearlescent silver details. The second shirt (Fig. 21) features an image of a playing

card in the style of Lotería, a game popular in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking

communities. An illustrated version of her wears the first costume made from dance

gear over a pink background with a number seven and the words ‘La Mas Dulce’,

or the sweetest. Finally, the most recent design (Fig. 22) shows a new variation on

Tormenta’s costume and mask featuring press photos from the latter part of the year.

The photo shows Tormenta over a red circle with blue, yellow, and magenta lightning

bolts behind El Paso’s signature mountain peaks, in themselves recognizable for the

illuminated star that sits on one side near the downtown part of the city, with ‘Dulce

Tormenta’ spelled out in white lettering. Each of these items shows a connection

to the materiality of her costume and a design choice connecting it to something

external, whether that is a softened, illustrated image, a Lotería card, or hometown

mountain peaks.

Fig. 20: Dulce Tormenta Illustrated T-Shirt, 2021. El Paso, Texas, Plain Salty

Fig. 21: Dulce Tormenta Lotería T-Shirt, 2021. El Paso, Texas, Plain Salty

Fig. 22: Dulce Tormenta Photorealistic T-Shirt, 2021. El Paso, Texas, Plain Salty

PERFORMER MANAGER

Tormenta’s story shows the convergence of several themes: the material

reality of life as a performer through COVID-19, expanding culturally specific

work into new areas, costume tradition in gendered performance, and ownership

over design choices as a relatively new performer. As a performer-manager, the

relationship with commercial aspects of her design choices is symbiotic and, as a

result, reliant on her success. While this choice carries responsibility, it also affords

the opportunity to wrestle independently and hold ownership in intellectual property

without friction from a hierarchical management structure or friction between an

inherited performance style and conflicting ideas of ownership. It also means that

design elements carry personal weight and connection to private life. However, they

still occur within a cultural and social context. For example, designs are available

within the construct of acceptable and common garment structures for luchadoras,

namely form-fitting one- or two-piece spandex suits over tights. Mask usage also

automatically associates performance style with lucha libre to audiences who are

not familiar with it. Alternatively, it also produces interest and personal identification

among fans who feel culturally invested in seeing lucha libre in a new setting.

Finally, it shows the connection lucha libre has to other athletic and

performance disciplines, from training to costume aesthetics and materials. When

placed under pressure, it is possible to recreate and gather materials needed for

lucha libre performance through items created for other disciplines, showing the

availability of resources for new performers. While access to performance networks

is an essential part of working in lucha libre, this case study shows that it is possible

to enter the industry without connection to a previous family legacy and build a

performance reputation through identifiable material culture and consistency within

a geographic location. For performance tradition to reproduce, it must also allow

for new entrants into the field. In many ways, this reach harkens back to Lutteroth’s