1. Constructing Cassandro

CHAPTER 1: CONSTRUCTING CASSANDRO

Fig. 2: Roger Ross Williams, Cassandro, 2016. The New Yorker.

With hair and makeup finished, after applying spray-on oil and ointments to

his knees, Cassandro pulls on a gown, the final piece of his costume, flaring the train

behind him. The announcer calls his name, and Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 disco classic,

‘I Will Survive’ blares over the venue’s sound system, his cue to enter the ring. He

takes a light jog, ducking under the ropes and ensuring the train of his gown billows

behind every few steps. He then poses a few times before removing the gown to

reveal a bright spandex leotard, dropping it outside the ring for safekeeping until

after the show. The gown and leotard evoke majesty, ceremony, and acrobatics,

prefacing later parts of the match where he will climb to the top of the post to

perform his signature back-flip onto his opponent, the Cassandro Bomb. By the

time Cassandro enters the performance space (Fig. 2), he has completed the ritual

process that helps him transition from the private Saúl Armendáriz into the public

Cassandro El Exótico, also known as the Liberace of Lucha Libre.

Saúl Armendáriz, known better by his wrestling name of Cassandro El Exótico,

was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1970. Cassandro is part of a generation of openly gay

exóticos, or wrestlers who perform wearing drag costume, and the first exótico to

win a league championship title.1 Armendáriz describes: ‘Once I get there, from the

moment that I start putting my makeup on, the Cassandro comes in. Saúl is being

left behind. And once I do my run with my gown and walk into the ring, my macho

side kicks in. I’m ready for battle’.2 The objects around him are the elements that

recreate Cassandro, the character, for every performance and imbue the backstage

area with transformational power. Paraphrasing Victor Turner (1917–83) and Edith

Turner (1921–2016) in their work on liminal and ritualized spaces, performance

theorist Richard Schechner describes a two-step event process within the liminal,

or transitional, space. First, the performer temporarily becomes ‘nothing’, releasing

their personal identity and place within the world. Then, they initiate a new status,

rewriting the self with the identity of performance.3 Armendáriz describes a ritual

process within performance preparation that builds a new persona, both personally

and publicly. What starts with hair, makeup, and costume preparation is completed

with the run into the ring but embedded with messages communicated through

costume and materiality that exist once the show ends.

Exóticos have existed since the early days of lucha libre. Sterling Davis (1914-

1983), born in Houston, Texas, was one of Salvador Lutteroth’s American wrestling

recruits who made his Mexican debut in the 1940s. He quickly made a name for

himself as ‘Gardenia’ Davis and is considered the first exótico, using gardenias,

effeminately characterized moves, and long cape-like robes as part of his gimmick.

Gimmicks are essentially theatrical constructs or distinguishing traits, which can

be costume-, object- or movement-related, that wrestlers use to distinguish their

wrestling persona from others. Davis incorporated props and audience interaction

1 William Finnegan, ‘The Man Without a Mask’, The New Yorker <https://www.newyorker. com/magazine/2014/09/01/man-without-mask> [accessed 5 May 2021]. 2 Phillip Bidwell, ‘STM Episode 9 - Cassandro El Exotico’, Slouching Towards Masculinity <https://philbedwell.podbean.com/e/stm-episode-9-cassandro-el-exotico/>. 3 Richard Schechner and Sarah Lucie, Performance Studies, Fourth (New York: Routledge, 2020), p. 145.

Fig. 3: Unknown, Gardenia Davis, ca. 1940s.

into his gimmick, entering the ring with a personal assistant and a bouquet of

gardenias to distribute to women in the front rows. He also incorporated gardenias

into costumes he designed and created.4 The press and audiences were the ones

who coined the ‘exótico’ nickname, a reflection and reference to the strippers at

the Tivoli Theatre in Mexico City who were part of the early luchadora matches.5

Characterized as ‘dandified gladiators’, the exóticos were neither rudos nor técnicos.6

They also used hypersexual moves as a defense, groping or delivering a beso, or

kiss, as a way to halt opponents and draw laughs from the audience.7 Because of the

association with stereotypical perceptions of femininity and homosexuality, exóticos

4 ‘Wrestling’s Odd Mr. Davis Must Have Something Anyway, Digest This Blurb “Coronet” Gave Him’, The Windsor Daily Star (Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 22 January 1944), p. 3 <http://www.newspapers.com/image/501171007/?terms=salvador%20lutteroth&match=1> [accessed 19 July 2021]. 5 Lourdes Grobet and others, Espectacular De Lucha Libre (México, D.F.: Trilce Ediciones : Editorial Océano, 2009), p. 38. 6 Grobet and others, p. 38. 7 Nina Hoechtl, ‘If Only for the Length of a Lucha: Queer/Ing, Mask/Ing, Gender/Ing and Gesture in Lucha Libre’ (unpublished doctoral, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2012) <http://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/8056/> [accessed 3 May 2021].

gained a reputation as subpar wrestlers, using the gimmick to hide a lack of skill.

Unlike lucha libre pioneers El Santo (Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, 1917-84) and Blue

Demon (Alejandro Muñoz Moreno, 1922-2000), who upheld their persona outside of

the ring, exóticos were quick to affirm their heterosexuality publicly and insist that

actions in the ring were strictly part of the gimmick.8

The 1980s saw ‘La Ola Lila’, or ‘The Lilac Wave’, of exóticos like Pimpinela

Escarlata (Mario González Lozano, 1969-), May Flowers (Florencio Díaz Bolaños,

1962-) and Cassandro.9 They were protégés of Baby Sharon (Armando Octaviano

Haro Viramontes, 1954-2008), one of the first exóticos who publicly came out as

gay in the mid-seventies and a celebrated Juarez-based designer who created

costumes for himself and took commissions from fellow wrestlers.10 Of course, queer

wrestlers have participated in all facets of lucha libre, whether or not their sexuality

or gender identity is publicly known. Some luchadores were more open about

their sexuality in the dressing room, understanding that other wrestlers would not

divulge their secret, similar to the expectation that luchadores not reveal masked

wrestlers’ identities.11 However, this should not imply an atmosphere of acceptance.

After following Sharon’s example of coming out as gay, the Lilac Wave exóticos

experienced homophobic remarks and abuse. The decision to alter their costumes

and wear makeup was an act of noncooperation, a visual signal of a new type of

exótico that could compete with any wrestler, rather than offering comic relief at

their own expense.

Nonetheless, as concentrated as the transformation from performer and

8 Aaron D. Horton, Identity in Professional Wrestling: Essays on Nationality, Race and Gender (McFarland, 2018), pp. 124–26. 9 Grobet and others, p. 38. 10 Elizabeth Medina, ‘El lado oscuro de la Lucha Libre’, El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas, 2 April 1992), section Vecinos - Neighbors, pp. 1A, 4A <http://www.newspapers.com/ image/430098532/> [accessed 2 October 2021]. 11 Marjorie Tapp and Jean Michel Berthiaume, ‘We Meet CASSANDRO EL EXOTICO’, Putes de Lutte <https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/prise-de-lutte/we-meet-cassandro-elexotico-DdYjZwWLF-t/>; 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>.

character may be, it can never be comprehensive. At the most fundamental level,

the performer bears the mental and physical effects of the performance. When

abuse is also homophobic and directed personally, it is likely difficult to separate

the emotional effect, spurring the desire to change the perception of exóticos. The

performer is also responsible for advance preparation that makes the performance

possible before stepping into the dressing room. Aoife Monks writes, ‘The secret of

the actor’s work is that there is none: it turns out that the “magic” of the stage is

conjured up through dull and hard work’.12 This part of the process, the costume care

and honing of skill, typically include acquiring objects that enable that transition

into character and later become the material remains of the performance.

As an investigation into luchadores’ engagement with material culture,

this section examines Armendariz’s use of costume, hair, and makeup as tools to

construct the design for Cassandro. These elements prove that the performance

does not begin when the wrestling begins, but much earlier with makeup application,

costume care, and the work done inside a gym. Understanding how Saúl/Cassandro

engages with objects in his role as a performer and specifically as an exótico helps

link the persona with the reality that belongs to the performer, mainly as cultural

sociologist Ian Woodward describes, using objects as ‘a crucial link between the

social and economic structure and the individual actor’.13 Cassandro reshaped the

parameters around what exóticos could be, exerting agency through costume and

makeup to pay tribute to the performance tradition while staking a claim as a new

type of performer, creating a template for future exóticos.

Not long after debuting as a masked wrestler at sixteen in 1986, Armendáriz

had the opportunity to wrestle for a more prominent Juarez promotion looking

for an exótico. Armendáriz found that he was a natural choice, based on reactions

from those around him, describing, ‘Everybody was like turning around and looking

12 Monks, p. 17. 13 Ian Woodward, Understanding Material Culture (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2007), p. 4.

at me, and I was like, “Oh my god, is this like my coming out day or what…”’.14

This cultural attitude is critical, as it is part of the reason Armendáriz became an

exótico and changed costume design, makeup use, and performance style in the

course of that choice. It also gives a framework for understanding the relationship

between nonverbal disclosure of queer identity for Mexican-Americans and gender

performance.

Using Mexican singer and Juarez resident Juan Gabriel (1950-2016) as a

starting point, a 2020 study in the Journal of Latinx Psychology investigates the

cultural and social factors around ‘coming out’ for Mexican American gay men. The

study is especially relevant to this case study for the findings concerning machismo

and the conflict between Spanish colonial gender rules and fluidity in Mexican

indigenous understandings of gender and sexuality. The study argues, ‘In the case

of coming out, these gender expectations may influence how gay Latinxs negotiate

their behavior in order to pass as heterosexual or utilize gender “transgressions” as a

means of nonverbal disclosure’.15 By this measure, behavior deemed too effeminate

from Armendáriz or even the first exóticos would seemingly have been associated

with homosexual identity. When Armendáriz reached the ring and experienced a

nonverbal disclosure moment in 1986, it was almost expected that he should be

the one to accept the offer because of his sexuality, solidifying an expectation

between gender performance and sexual identity within the performance space.

This relationship also affects costuming and design for exótico performers through

images of masculinity established by early mainstream luchadores.

BODY

In an investigation of costume as a performative object, Donatella Barbieri

14 Tapp and Berthiaume. 15 Kevin Delucio, Melissa L. Morgan-Consoli, and Tania Israel, ‘Lo Que Se ve No Se Pregunta: Exploring Nonverbal Gay Identity Disclosure among Mexican American Gay Men.’, Journal of Latinx Psychology, 8.1 (2020), 21–40 (p. 24) <https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000139>.

discusses Joseph Gramldi (1778-1837), English performer and clown, writing

‘Grimaldi’s powerful onstage presence was developed by making changes with

costume. By altering and distorting the proportions of the body playing with fit, scale,

and combination of elements, his costumes emphasized both its grotesqueness

and its expressive qualities.’16 Clowning and wrestling hold several similarities:

exaggerated movement through acrobatics, communication through costume, and

using coded physicality to entertain. Armendáriz describes early exóticos as being

the ‘clowns’ of the ring, using exaggerated femininity, stereotypes towards gay men,

and hypersexualized speech and movement for comedic effect. Armendariz states

that redesigning exótico performance aimed to dignify the practice, interrupting

the existing connotation. This interruption is propelled by costume, one of the main

set pieces in lucha libre and part of the reason most luchadores use costume to

distinguish themselves as performers.

Monks writes, ‘The appearance, abilities and dimensions of the working body

are produced and rendered meaningful through costume’ and ‘the aesthetic body

can function as part of the design of a production, communicating atmosphere,

creating spectacle and sometimes working as a substitute for the set’.17 Cassandro’s

gowns function primarily as a communication tool, especially in lucha libre, where

sets are minimal; he applies them only at the moment before stepping into the

crowd, using them to make an impression during the journey to the stage, then

removing the garment before starting the match. Cassandro’s costumes, especially

the gowns he wears into the ring and in press photos, connect with past exótico

tradition, create a projection of power, and show investment in his performance.

Cassandro’s gown, though perhaps more easily thought of as a gown-robe

hybrid or coat with train, is made from two pieces that snap together as a jacket that

buttons up entirely from the waist with a train open at the bottom that fits under

16 Donatella Barbieri, ‘Performativity and the Historical Body: Detecting Performance through the Archived Costume’, Studies in Theatre & Performance, 33.3 (2013), 281–301 (p. 295) <https://doi.org/10.1386/stap.33.3.281_1>. 17 Monks, p. 21.

the jacket. Based on Marie Losier’s 2018 documentary film, Cassandro, the Exótico!,

and photos of his appearances, there are likely at least five versions of the gown

with a similar pattern featuring gold embroidery and sequins. In the documentary,

he estimates each gown uses twelve yards of fabric at thirty-five dollars per yard,

placing the cost of each gown at around four-hundred twenty dollars.18 Rather than

purchasing new gowns frequently, he seems to have amassed a collection that he

re-uses for different performances.

When discussing Vonni Diva’s costumes, Rosslyn Prosser writes, ‘Costumes are

an important way into storytelling and the documenting of memory. Each costume

has a story of who made it, where and when it was made, or where it was bought’.19

Unlike Baby Sharon or Gardenia Davis, Armendáriz did not craft the garments himself

but shared a collaborative relationship with his wardrobe maker, Omar Morales.

Morales passed away from COVID-19 in May of 2020 but was Cassandro’s costume

maker for twenty-five years.20 Morales’s workshop was located in Juarez near Telas

del Mundo, a fabric shop that could have been a resource for his work. Both shops

are within two miles of the Paso del Norte International Bridge into El Paso, making

the location convenient for customers like Armendáriz, who often travel between

both cities. These also exist within a more extensive network of small workshops

in the city that create customized garments, especially for momentous occasions

like weddings and quinceañeras, as well as maquiladoras, or large foreign-owned

factories.21

Cassandro states that the original inspiration for the gowns was Diana, Princess

of Wales’s wedding dress. The wedding dress, designed by Elizabeth and David

18 Marie Losier, Cassandro, the Exotico!, 2018 <https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ cassandrotheexotico> [accessed 12 June 2021]. 19 Edward and others, p. 105. 20 ‘Celebration Honors El Paso Wrestler Cassandro El Exotico with Unveiling of Specialty Beer’ <https://www.elpasotimes.com/picture-gallery/news/local/el-paso/2020/07/28/elpaso-wrestler-cassandro-el-exotico-honored-specialty-beer/5524334002/> [accessed 4 May 2021]. 21 ANGELA McCRACKEN, ‘Beauty and the Quinceañera: Reproductive, Productive, and Virtual Dimensions of the Global Political Economy of Beauty: Angela McCracken’, in Feminism and International Relations (Routledge, 2011).

Emanuel, featured a twenty-five-foot-long train. Like Cassandro’s gowns, the train

attaches through a hidden mechanism.22 Diana’s support of LGBT+ communities,

especially her 1987 to a residential ward for people with AIDs, propelled her status as

a queer icon and made the design element meaningful for its inspiration.23 Cassandro

has participated in lucha libre exhibitions worldwide and, to honor her during one

of his performances in London, he wore a purple version of the gown with sequined

embellishments and a ten to twelve-foot train, the longest in his repertoire.24 As a

communicative tool, Diana’s gown was created to command attention on the steps

of St. Paul’s cathedral. Cassandro’s gowns deliver the same message in a different

context, whether at the Roundhouse in London or a small outdoor ring in El Paso.25

Over time, aided by Marie Losier’s documentary, media profiles, and appearances

worldwide, Cassandro’s name has also evolved into Cassandro the Exótico, declaring

him as not just an exótico, but the exótico.

Losier’s documentary features an image of Cassandro posing in the red

gown, which was included in the El Paso Museum of History’s exhibition. Though it

still garners attention, once in the exhibition, the costume’s communicative ability

changes. The gown is placed on a mannequin, displayed without barriers where

a viewer can observe the garment differently than during the performance. Even

as a spectator in the front rows of the audience, it would be unlikely to gain the

same perspective as viewing the garment in a well-lit, quiet room. The gown is

presented as a complete piece during the performance, but the exhibition grants

the opportunity to see how each part of the material functions in tandem to create

22 Alice Newbold, ‘The Real Story Behind Princess Diana’s “Amazing, Completely OTT” Wedding Dress’, British Vogue, 2020 <https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/princessdiana-wedding-dress> [accessed 5 November 2021]. 23 Louis Staples, ‘The Queer Mourning of Princess Diana’, Harper’s BAZAAR, 2021 <https:// www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a38092562/the-queer-mourning-of-princessdiana/> [accessed 5 November 2021]. 24 Losier. 25 ‘Lucha Libre’, Roundhouse <https://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/2019/lucha-libre/> [accessed 5 November 2021].

an effect.

Each piece is built from several layers. The inner lining is made from satin

and makes up a thicker under-layer. The top part of the train and bottom sections

of the jacket have a hidden white strip with fasteners that hold the pieces together.

The satin inner shines underneath an outer layer of embroidered fabric made from

two cotton tulle or netting layers that feature a delicate looping pattern. Netting

or cotton tulle is better suited for holding embroidery than stiff tulle made from

other materials like rayon or polyester. The netted layer creates a delicate base for

the gold lamé embroidery that loops around a lighter white gold or silver thread,

simulating small loops of gold chain covering the garment (Fig. 4). The gold detail

runs throughout the garment in curving lines, opening up into sparkling red orchids

made from more red lamé thread and sequins that reflect magenta, blue, and yellow

under bright lights. The embroidery runs through the entire coat and tailpiece to

the ends of the train (Fig. 5). Fine netting extends beyond the inner coat sleeves,

creating a sheer embroidered section near the wrists and hands (Fig. 6). The ends

of the sleeves are then sealed with thicker cuffs that create piping at the ends from

zigzag stitched seams. The less visible inner edges of the coat are finished with a

red overlock stitched seam at the ends. The coat also has inner fasteners that close

from the waist up to the higher, stiff collar. When put together, the pieces create the

illusion of a seamless jacket with an extended train (Fig. 7).

Fig. 4: Omar Morales, Red Gown Sequin Detail, 2021. El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of History.

Fig. 5: Omar Morales, Red Gown Train Detail, 2021. El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of History.

Fig. 6: Omar Morales, Red Gown with Train, 2021. El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of History.

Fig. 7: Omar Morales, Red Gown with Train, 2021. El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of History.

In an essay on camp and drag, performer Simon Dodi writes, ‘On a surface

level, the camp of a drag queen is exposed through makeup and costume or in

the energies between the performers and the audience; however, behind such

theatricality is the labour of a working artist’.26 Likewise, Cassandro’s gowns project

the elevation of regality over the masses, but it is clear that Morales also created

each costume with practicality for the performer in mind. The garment contains

several design features suited for performance. First, it is light enough for Cassandro

to run in for his ring entrance. The snaps must also be reasonably strong to ensure

the two pieces do not separate during his entrance, losing the train by accident.

Second, Losier's documentary features a scene with Armendáriz doing his laundry

at home, hanging several of his costumes on a clothesline to dry in the midday sun

in his backyard at home in El Paso. The delicate embroidery and fabric would likely

be too fragile for a standard American dryer, but disassembling the two sections

makes accessible care and storage more manageable, especially for the longer train

pieces that drag onto the ground or become heavier when wet after washing. He

uses the costume to project an image of authority in the ring, but at home, as Saúl,

he is still a working performer who must handle the chore of personally cleaning his

costumes.

Underneath the gown, Cassandro’s typical gear (the general technical term

for the overall wrestling singlet or leotard, kneepads, armguards, and tights) consists

of nude pantyhose or fishnet stockings under a brightly colored plunging V-necked

cotton-LYCRA or spandex blend leotard with triangular lapels and matching arm

sleeves that attach from the middle fingers running up through the edge of the bicep.

The singlets and arm gauntlets are usually embellished with flames, lightning bolts, or

other shapes in contrasting colors from additional pieces of material. He also wears

matching knee guards over knee pads in some instances but often eschews these in

appearances where he is not wrestling. The knee pads are essential for protection,

especially for a wrestler like Cassandro, who has endured painful knee injuries in the

26 Edward and others, p. 93.

past. The covers help mask the visual interruption and, in essence, hide a point of

weakness. Spandex material, especially for leotards and sportswear, is ideal because

it is a white fiber, easily dyeable, washable, and resistant to perspiration.27 It also

clings to the body, highlighting physique and musculature, key parts of wrestling

performativity.

Leotard or bodysuit use in wrestling dates back to the days of the circus

strongman. Barbara Brown and Danny Graydon write, ‘The strongman makes a

career of physical labor, and dresses accordingly. The costume is pulled tight over his

muscles, so as to evidence his extraordinary size and tone, and is flexible, enabling

the gymnastic stretches that he may perform for audiences’.28 They also relate form-

fitting costumes to superheroes and the impression of brightly-colored capes and

bodysuits in comic books. El Santo and Blue Demon also played superheroes on

film in the late 1960s and early 1970s, battling all manner of horror monsters, which

were then used in comic books, with each medium culminating into the live ring

performance. They wore their masks for the duration of each film, appearing in

street clothes (usually leisure suits fashionable at the time), before appearing in the

ring shirtless with wrestling tights and glittering capes that echoed other famous

American comic book superheroes.29 This interaction between media can be viewed

through an intertheatrical lens, described by Jacky Bratton as a ‘reading [that] goes

beyond the written. It seeks to articulate the mesh of connections between all kinds

of theatre texts, and between texts and their users’.30 These connections drew many

luchadores to the live performance, including Cassandro, who first encountered

27 Senthilkumar Mani and N. Anbumani, ‘Dynamic Elastic Behavior of Cotton and Cotton / Spandex Knitted Fabrics’, Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics, 9.1 (2014), 155892501400900100 (p. 94) <https://doi.org/10.1177/155892501400900111>. 28 Barbara Brownie and Danny Graydon, The Superhero Costume: Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016) <https://doi. org/10.5040/9781474260114>. 29 Bobb Cotter, The Mexican Masked Wrestler and Monster Filmography (Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., 2005) <http://archive.org/details/mexicanmaskedwre0000cott> [accessed 19 July 2021]. 30 Jacky Bratton, New Readings in Theatre History (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 37.

lucha libre through film or comic books and, once able to attend matches live, were

eager to see their superheroes in person.31 They also used costume and exposed

skin to project an image of idealized masculinity that moved from media into a live

environment.

Many early luchadores wrestled only in boots, masks, and trunks that

exposed significantly more skin. Exóticos typically used the same costume

template, opting for elaborate robes and exaggerated movement to distinguish

their performance.32 When the Lilac Wave exóticos, the supposed sexual deviants,

chose to recreate their costume style, they covered up more skin. First invented in

1959, LYCRA experienced a resurgence in the 1980s and became popular in fashion

and sportswear.33 Armendáriz describes a moment in 1989, at the beginning of

both their careers, when he met with rival-turned-friend Pimpinela Escarlata, and

they decided to incorporate pantyhose and ‘bathing suits’, or V-neck leotards into

their standard costumes.34 Pimpinela and Armendáriz decided to embellish their

costumes and gear while underlining their physical ability as wrestlers as a way

to oppose the idea that exóticos were not as athletic as their more stereotypically

masculine counterparts. They initially tested several looks, including more-exposed

thong bathing suits that they ultimately decided were too uncomfortable and too

explicit for their new style.35 Nearly a decade after celebrities like Olivia Newton-

John and Jane Fonda helped popularize spandex leggings and leotards in different

environments, they would have been able to access a variety of women’s sportswear

styles easily. As his career progressed, he commissioned matching sets of gear from

31 Don Shapiro and Valentin Sandoval, ‘Power at the Podcast Featuring Cassandro El Exotico and Diego Martinez’, Power at the Podcast <https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AIb vvPrFiyt8JaQD3Bhtc?si=ylUI-fYUSKqBRTCVEv4r0w&dl_branch=1>. 32 Grobet and others. 33 Mette Bielefeldt Bruun and Michael A. Langkjær, ‘Sportswear: Between Fashion, Innovation and Sustainability’, Fashion Practice, 8.2 (2016), 181–88 (p. 185) <https://doi.org/ 10.1080/17569370.2016.1221931>. 34 Tapp and Berthiaume. 35 Tapp and Berthiaume.

Omar Morales, who created the suits recognizable from the later parts of his career.36

Cassandro also dances into the ring for some matches, shimmying his shoulders

and shaking his hips before removing the train and tossing it away, performing a

pseudo-striptease. Writing on the dynamics of stage nudity and striptease, Monks

proposes:

‘…dressing or undressing establishes a “normal” body (naked or clothed) and taking off or putting on clothes then crosses the boundary of that normal body. It is less the loss of clothing that matters, as much as the shift in the boundaries of the body that makes the striptease erotic’.37

By the end of the routine, when he removes the gown and prepares to wrestle,

he will still have less exposed skin than most opponents, but the removal and

movement style make the costume reveal underneath the gown provocative. The

act of removal becomes part of the performance, with the absence of costume

functioning differently than if he had arrived on stage without the gown. Santo and

Blue Demon also performed a version of this, changing from their regular clothing

into lucha libre uniforms over the course of a film. Cassandro subverts this image

of exposing a typically masculine uniform that fully reveals his chest by removing

the gown to uncover a feminine costume (though it is not necessarily the costume

a luchadora would use) with a plunging neckline (Fig. 8). In 1990, though he nearly

took his own life from the pressure around the event, he competed against El Hijo

del Santo (Jorge Ernesto Guzmán Rodríguez, 1963-) and credits that match as the

turning point that earned exóticos legitimacy and respect among other luchadores.38

36 Shapiro and Sandoval; ‘Celebration Honors El Paso Wrestler Cassandro El Exotico with Unveiling of Specialty Beer’. 37 Monks, p. 102. 38 Finnegan.

Fig. 8: Katie Orlinsky, Cassandro in the Ring, 2016. The New Yorker.

In his work on disidentificatory practice, José Esteban Muñoz outlines a mode

of performance wherein artists reformulate cultural logic within the performance to

neither assimilate to nor oppose mainstream culture.39 Armendáriz views the work

he and others built around ‘dignifying the exóticos’ as an act of defiance against

abuse he experienced away from lucha libre and through harassment from other

wrestlers and promoters. Additionally, Muñoz remarks that comedy does not exist

independently of rage; this is visible through Cassandro’s playful performance and

the material he uses. The ring became a space for empowerment and a place to

create a new type of performance that used material culture to experiment with

maintaining a specific mode of performance for exóticos while competing with

mainstream wrestlers.40 Cassandro engages in worldbuilding through performance

that also affects his life away from the ring by exposing his private life and sexuality

to the performance audience.

Furthermore, Saúl is never entirely erased from the performance. There are

39 Muñoz, p. 6. 40 Bidwell.

elements of his personal identity and life in the objects he uses that carry Saúl

along with Cassandro. He has also used his status as a public figure to advocate for

LGBT+ issues and is transparent about his previous struggles with mental health

and substance abuse. As he builds this public identity, disseminating more images

of himself as Cassandro but speaking as Saúl, his costumes become embedded with

his personal history and part of the next performance. He typically rounds out his

character design with distinctive butterfly boots that reflect his identity and stay

with him in the ring as Cassandro.

There are two different sets of boots that appear most consistently: a pair

with multi-colored butterfly outlines in magenta, yellow-green, sky blue, and red-

orange, white soles and laces through fourteen sets of eyelets over a white leather

upper and full boot, and an additional pair featuring monarch-style butterflies with

multicolored wings, gold trim over a white leather upper, and about fourteen sets

of eyelets. Each pair is usually laced tightly up to mid-calf. It is unclear whether

Morales also created Cassandro’s boots, but they are likely, like the gown, made

for Cassandro and expensive enough to commission several pairs and wear them

multiple times. In 2021, it is possible to order a custom pair of leather wrestling boots

online for around two hundred dollars, albeit without the advantage of returning to

the shoemaker quickly if they do not fit correctly.41 In many of the photos featuring

these two sets of boots, he adds strips of rhinestones in red, orange, yellow, green,

blue, violet, and magenta in reference to the LGBT+ pride flag (Fig. 9). There are

other sets of boots, but with one exception that uses orchid motifs, every pair

features some type of butterfly element and uses a cushioned rubber sole. Like the

early wrestlers who contracted Antonio Martinez’s services, any boots need to be

flexible with enough grip for Cassandro to climb onto the ropes easily and quickly

perform acrobatic tricks without falling.

41 ‘World Wrestling Wear The Number One Boots’ <https://www.worldwrestlingwear.com/ stock.html> [accessed 5 November 2021].

Fig. 9: Rowdy Lee Dugan, Cassandro with Butterfly Boots, 2019. Marfa, Texas.

Cassandro’s performance often includes movement atop the ropes, bringing

the boots to eye level with the audience. The boots are as much an opportunity to

express support or pride for Saúl’s community, blurring the separation between

performer and character through costume, especially for audience members

familiar with his personal life. Simon Sladen writes about a similar occurrence when

Pamela Anderson played a British pantomime role in 2009, performing as the Genie

in Aladdin but wearing a costume reminiscent of her iconic red swimsuit costume

on Baywatch. Sladen describes, ‘This mode of performance relies heavily upon

the layering of illusion, the foundations of which are present in the construction of

Role; a conflation of Character (Genie of the Lamp) and Performer (Anderson)’.42

As an exótico, Cassandro performs a version of homosexuality in the ring while

also drawing attention to his sexual identity outside of the ring through costume.

42 Simon Sladen, ‘“Hiya Fans!”: Celebrity Performance and Reception in Modern British Pantomime’, in Popular Performance, ed. by Adam Ainsworth, Oliver Double, and Louise Peacock (London, UK: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017), pp. 179–201 (p. 189).

As a young luchador, he experienced the same partiality through identification

when seeing Baby Sharon perform. The performance still draws on stereotypes of

femininity and homosexuality but, rather than isolate LGBTQ+ fans, the perception

of authenticity earns him support.

Cassandro and Pimpinela also brought exótico gear closer to drag than

Davis's original dandy image by wearing high-cut women’s leotards and stockings

compared to traditional wrestling trunks or tights with bare chests. The key to their

new formula was maintaining charismatic audience engagement while moving the

performance style closer to typical luchador wrestling but subverting masculinity

through costume. Barbieri characterizes Grimaldi’s costume adjustments as having

lasting effects on the industry, writing, ‘By reconnecting to the outsider status

and constructing visually a role that allows him to critique human failing, while

empowering its wearer through dignity, movement and presence, costume here

is a second body so effective that it becomes a lasting blueprint for generations

of future clowns.’43 Within Baby Sharon’s mentorship and the tradition started by

Gardenia Davis, Cassandro and Pimpinela successfully altered material culture

associated with exóticos while ‘dignifying’ the practice, as they set out to do, by

setting an example of legitimate competition with all luchadores.44

HAIR

Though names are intangible entities, the process behind retiring a name

is not as simple as rewriting advertising materials and acquiring new gear. When

Armendáriz debuted as an exótico, he started as Rosa Salvaje. When he decided to

retire the character and become Cassandro, he was forced to wager his name in a

lucha de apuesta, or betting match. To participate in a lucha de apuesta, wrestlers

must bet their hair or mask. If a wrestler’s mask is removed by their opponent during

43 Barbieri, p. 295. 44 Tapp and Berthiaume.

the match as a result of the challenge, they must reveal their identity and retire the

character. If a wrestler who competes unmasked bets their hair and loses, they must

stay in the ring where their hair is immediately shaved and given to the opponent

as a token. The shaving or unmasking is a display of humiliation and, while the

outcome is often pre-determined, it can draw an unexpectedly emotional response

and affect wrestlers’ mental health over the loss.45 However, it may also offer other

rewards.

After losing a lucha de apuesta to Hijo del Santo in 2007, Cassandro lost his

hair but earned a $25,000 windfall.46 On a 2011 episode of his talk show, Experiencias,

El Hijo del Santo introduced the episode by describing Cassandro as a well-regarded

luchador and a fierce fighter both in and out of the ring whose career progression

has paralleled his own. He then segues into a lengthy segment that brings the viewer

into the ‘sanctuary’, or the room holding his collection of career artifacts, focusing

on walls of masks and title belts. Santo then returns to the scene, walking to a

motorized glass case with revolving rows of masks, opening it, pulling out a small

glass box containing Cassandro’s hair from the 2007 match. He lifts the lid, allowing

for an extreme close-up of the box in his hand (Fig. 10) before the segment ends,

and cuts to a reel of Cassandro’s matches.47

The past haunts every part of the scene. Marvin Carlson writes, ‘…theatre spaces,

like dramatic texts and acting bodies, are deeply involved with the preservation and

configuration of cultural memory, and so they also are almost invariably haunted

in one way or another, and this haunting of the space of performance makes its

own important contribution to the overall reception of the dramatic event’.48 The

segment, or dramatic event, is the performance of a collection. Whether or not

the clip shows Hijo del Santo’s rooms or a set created for the show, the camera’s

45 Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz, Lucha Mexico, 2015. 46 Finnegan. 47 El Hijo del Santo, ‘Experiencias con Cassandro, El Exótico’, Experiencias, 2011. 48 Marvin Carlson, The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine, Theater--Theory/ Text/Performance (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001), pp. 131–32 <http://hdl. handle.net/2027/mdp.39015049624524>.

presence transforms the area into a set filled with the relics of his career, the memory

of each opponent and match, and the legacy of his legendary father, El Santo. In

essence, because he uses the same mask design as his father, he cannot act without

evoking that history. With this tradition present, placing Cassandro’s hair into the

collection is treated as a sign of reverence, at least in the context of the talk show.

The act also draws attention to the materiality of hair, especially once it becomes

detached from the person.

Fig. 10: Hijo del Santo, Experiencias, 2011.

Part of Cassandro’s trademark look is his bleached blonde hair styled to

resemble Farrah Fawcett’s famous short, feathered layers popular in the late 1970s

and a tribute to his fondness for the era and the point when he first encountered

lucha libre.49 He describes, ‘For me that I don't use a mask, the most valuable thing

is my hair. This gives me identity, gives me protection, gives me a lot of personality

and everything. The guys that use the mask, that's like their secret. They cannot

lose their mask because then you see their real identity’.50 He grows his hair out to

several inches long with the sides shaved, an ideal length for curling and drying. He

uses rollers, a curling iron, or a hairdryer and brush to create voluminous waves at

the top and sides. He sprays each roll with hairspray before breaking the curl and

fluffing the hair out with his head upside down, then finishing with more hairspray.

When he returns to standing, the hair should hold its volume and remain in place

through the performance, withstanding any sweating or movement.

The 1970s inspired Cassandro, but he also made his debut during the height

of glam rock and hair metal in the 1980s. Anna Kurennaya deconstructs magazine

images of glam metal rockers, primarily white and male, and the contradictions

they hold, which ‘communicate a potent, dominant and stereotypically masculine

sexuality, but at the same time they make use of the feminized glamour typically

associated with the historically feminine pin-up format’.51 Musicians like Sebastian

Bach pose in images with long hair and makeup while advertisements aimed at

women in the same publications tout a need for feminine beauty to appear ‘natural’,

even when advertising chemical perming products to achieve the over-the-top

hairstyles popular for women at the time. Kurennaya argues that glam rockers

complicated ideas of masculinity by drawing attention to its performativity through

hair and makeup.52 In this context, Cassandro’s hair choices appear more closely

49 Finnegan. 50 Losier. 51 Anya Kurennaya, ‘Look What the Cat Dragged In: Analysing Gender and Sexuality in the Hot Metal Centerfolds of 1980s Glam Metal’, Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, 2.2–3 (2015), 163–211 (p. 203) <https://doi.org/10.1386/csmf.2.2-3.199_1>. 52 Kurennaya, p. 206.

aligned with popular aesthetic images of masculinity for the time, even if styles have

changed. Life on the border also comes with popular culture from each country,

presenting both images of masculinity.

The perception of masculinity as free from artifice or performativity is

also worth interrogating in terms of luchadores. While there is an area for further

exploration around body development and performance-enhancing drugs that

falls outside this project's scope, exótico or not, luchadores essentially perform

masculinity and use products to manipulate their bodies and heighten this perception.

For example, many luchadores use body oil to simulate sweat and highlight muscle

definition when performing. While some luchadores, especially in the 1970s and

80s, contrast this image, most also display a distinct lack of body hair. Body hair

removal is also standard within ballet and other dance forms but is associated with

uncleanliness in women in a way that is not present with men.53 Cassandro likely

also uses hair removal techniques but enhances this perception through the nude

nylon pantyhose he wears under the leotard. Most masked luchadores often cover

their hair, making the absence of visible hair as much a design choice as drawing

attention to it as Cassandro does.

Hair preparation is part of the pre-performance ritual and liminal space where

a performer transforms from the self to the character, the ‘not me’ and ‘not not

me’, or double negative relationship between private and social, that performance

theorist Richard Schechner poses.54 Lucha libre stretches this liminal space, mainly

through wrestlers who perform masked but keep their identities private, leaving

and arriving with the mask. Hair is also an identifying feature that, as much as they

become their character, is part of the performer associated with the self. If pulled,

it garners a reaction from the person. However, hair can also be highly ephemeral,

53 Lyndsey Winship, ‘“The Bikini Line Is Still a No-No”: Why Does Dance Have a Problem with Body Hair?’, The Guardian, 3 November 2021, section Stage <https://www. theguardian.com/stage/2021/nov/03/bikini-line-dance-problem-body-hair-chests-armpitslegs-waxed-diverse-performers> [accessed 4 November 2021]. 54 Richard Schechner and Victor Witter Turner, Between Theater & Anthropology (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania press, 1989), p. 112.

altered instantly, or disguised through specialized techniques, whether chemical or

temporary. By applying the same styling techniques consistently, along with masking

the aging process, it is built into Cassandro’s design identity, re-created before each

performance. As Cassandro, Armendáriz utilizes chemical treatment to bleach and

color his hair, which requires additional upkeep and cost. Permanent color also means

that Armendáriz carries part of Cassandro with him in his personal life through his

hair, cementing this connection between his professional and personal identities.

This point is reinforced by actor Gael Garcia Bernal, who promoted other projects

with uncharacteristically bleached hair in between filming the upcoming biopic on

Cassandro. It also embeds an identifying quality into the hair when removed.

People lose hair naturally each day and, if the norm in their cultural

environment, have it cut regularly with little regard to the parts removed. However,

when attached to a ritual process, it also acts as a tangible memorial remnant of

a person, whether through items like Victorian mourning jewelry or hair match

winnings that become part of the victorious wrestler’s archive, like the box in El Hijo

del Santo’s collection. Marcia Pointon describes mourning jewelry as a museum-in-

miniature, where, ‘This process of containment (the hair element can no longer be

touched once it is captured and collected in the ‘museum’ of jewellery), reduction,

and universalization is a visible enactment of mourning in which individual loss is

experienced as a total world-transformation’.55 After an emotional experience after

losing his trademark tresses in a hair mask to a younger wrestler, Cassandro states,

‘It's more of an honor for you to have my hair than for me to have your […] mask’.56

This speech is significant to a material culture study as Armendáriz directly refers

to hair’s object status and value once removed. However, at the end of the scene, he

also states, ‘Yes, I care about my hair, but it'll grow back’, pointing out the ephemeral

55 Marcia Pointon, ‘Materializing Mourning: Hair, Jewellery and the Body’, in Classic and Modern Writings on Fashion, ed. by Peter McNeil (Berg, 2009), pp. 39–57 <https://doi. org/10.5040/9781847887153>. 56 Losier

quality hair has when on a person’s head, but permanence it gains once detached.57

In lucha libre, hair in place of a mask can transform from a communicative tool for

the wrestling persona to a valuable part of the event’s material remains, haunted by

the individual wrestler to whom it once belonged.

FACE

Prior to the Lilac Wave, exóticos like Baby Sharon and Rudy Reyna (Andrés

Rodolfo Reyna Torres, 1946-2015) performed in elaborate costumes but did not use

masks or makeup. Like hair, makeup became part of Cassandro’s design identity

in place of a mask. However, it does not leave the same physical remnants or join

collections as hair does. It is possible to collect cosmetics that belong to a person,

as the Victoria and Albert Museum has done with Kylie Minogue’s dressing room,

but it is not possible to physically collect a makeup look without mediation, like

photography or videography. Started in 1946, the Clown Egg Register acts as a

copyright collection for the members of Clown International, recording each clown’s

makeup design onto an eggshell (though they now use ceramic eggs for longer

preservation).58 However, this is not quite the same process as collecting hair or a

costume.

Aoife Monks writes, ‘Make-up unsettles the distinction between the real and

the illusion. It has the same but more condensed effect as costume by remaining

perceptually indistinct from the actor’s body, yet resisting total absorption into that

body’.59 Makeup has physicality and must be applied and removed, making the sum

of each component temporary. Wearing exaggerated eyeshadow, false eyelashes,

and glittery red lipstick is preparation for Cassandro, the character that occurs

57 Losier. 58 Luke Stephenson and Helen Champion, The Clown Egg Register, 2017 <https://www. overdrive.com/search?q=379A3C14-E6D1-49C5-BD04-F886E71A154C> [accessed 6 November 2021]. 59 Monks, p. 80.

through Saúl, the performer. Further supporting Schechner’s proposal of the ‘not

me’ and ‘not not me’ space, the makeup application process marks the beginning

of his transformation. It occurs more slowly than putting on a mask and is applied

layer by layer, a skill the performer must acquire since he does not employ a makeup

artist. As the first exótico world championship holder and multi-linguist, Cassandro

is featured in many short pieces about exóticos and lucha libre. As his image spreads

through film and live performances worldwide, he becomes the primary template

for exóticos, solidifying makeup use as a standard. In turn, his use of makeup while

wrestling communicates to audiences that he is an exótico because he and the

other Lilac Wave exóticos created the standard.

Monks also remarks on the history of paintings and photographs depicting

actors in dressing rooms, which ‘undertake the task of displaying the seams between

the illusion and reality, of showing us what the actor is “really” like offstage’.60

Aligned with Monks’s argument, Marie Losier’s 2018 documentary includes a

sequence where Cassandro applies makeup in a dressing room. It is critical to view

the images with the understanding that the backstage image is a representation

and the documentarian’s presence in the space, along with Armendariz’s awareness

of the camera, create a performance out of the makeup application. Nevertheless,

the sequence also provides insight into his process, providing a loose template of

the skills and tools needed to craft this aspect of Cassandro, applied through eye

makeup and lip color.

Makeup artist and theorist Thomas Morawetz writes, ‘Although part of the

purpose of self-change is decoration, enhancement, or beauty, the deeper and

more radical purpose is transformation’.61 When creating the look for Cassandro,

Armendáriz opts for glitters and graphic, contrasting eyeshadow, exaggerated rather

than ‘natural’, as the 1980s magazine advertisements urge for women in Kurennaya’s

60 Monks, p. 14. 61 Thomas Morawetz, Making Faces, Playing God: Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001).

glam rock study.62 The style aligns more closely with drag performers like Divine

(1945-1988), whose makeup extends facial features and pushes eyeshadow beyond

the eyelids and into the eyebrows to demand attention. Cassandro’s base routine

begins with techniques that apply to many different application styles, then veers

into a design intended for a performance setting. The sequence begins with the

makeup application in progress with hair pulled back with a jersey headband and

wearing a base layer of stick foundation. He then applies powder with a round

sponge applicator and finishes the look with a highlighting powder over the nose,

chin, and forehead. The most significant aspect of the face makeup application is

not necessarily the technique but the products used. Rather than heavier stage

makeup offered by specialist brands like Mehron, he uses widely available products

from mainstream brands that are inexpensive.

While still using commercially available products, the eyeshadow application

moves from a standard beauty makeup into specialized techniques less likely to

appear outside a performance setting. First, Cassandro lines his top and bottom

waterlines with black eyeliner, applies a thin line of eyelash glue on the top eyelid,

and uses a small brush and sponge applicator to apply white highlighting lines for

eyeshadow over an eye primer. Eyelid primer is beneficial in a high activity setting

for preventing creasing on eyelids, especially with glitter eyeshadows that attract

oil. Without priming skin first to extend the makeup’s ability to remain in place,

it can quickly melt from sweat and exertion, breaking the illusion Cassandro has

foregrounded with other parts of his costume. Once eyeshadow is applied, he places

false strip eyelashes with rhinestones to glue at the base of his eyelids and uses

color to fill in, shape, and exaggerate his eyebrows, creating visual balance within

the face and enhancing facial expression. Cassandro then uses bold red lipstick to

accentuate his lips, following this step with a layer of bright red lipstick and lip gloss.

62 Kurennaya, p. 203.

Fig. 11: Marie Losier, Cassandro Styles Hair with Completed Makeup, 2018. Cassandro, the Exotico!

It would be an oversight to ignore the connection between red lips, thin,

drawn eyebrows, and the Chola figure, particularly within this geographic and

cultural context and in terms of makeup design over time. Chola is a slang term

for a member of a subculture within Mexican-American communities, with a look

usually characterized by dark, visible lip liner, red lipstick, thick eyeliner, eyebrows

plucked thin or shaved, and drawn in with an eyebrow pencil. This style evolved

from the pachuco style of the 1940s, which also prized an accentuated outline and

exaggerated shapes in men’s clothing. Pachuca and Chola fashion, which used

similar pieces of clothing, likely arose from women with lower socioeconomic status

inheriting clothing from brothers or fathers and making their own alterations.63 The

pachuco style also developed out of defiance toward assimilation after aggressive

Mexican Repatriation efforts between 1929 and 1944. During this period, nearly

two million people of Mexican ancestry (and those who happened to be in areas

where raids occurred) were forcibly deported from the United States into Mexico,

63 Barbara Calderón-Douglass, ‘The Folk Feminist Struggle Behind the Chola Fashion Trend’, 2015 <https://www.vice.com/en/article/wd4w99/the-history-of-the-chola-456> [accessed 7 October 2021].

with the majority of deportees having been U.S. citizens.64 As a result, the style

became popular within many communities along the border, like El Paso, in the

1960s and 70s.65 Cassandro describes sneaking glances at his mother as a child

while she applied makeup and becoming inspired by her, though he was not allowed

to experiment with it and developed the skill over time later in life.

Adding makeup to the standardized performance style for exóticos also meant

building a new skill. Recalling a time early on when he and Pimpinela experimented

with their new images, Armendáriz states, ‘I remember we had one lipstick, and

we did, with one lipstick, […] the eyes, the blush, the lip. With one red lipstick, we

used to do everything. And nowadays, we have a full table full of makeup and

everything like that.’66 The evolution of his kit and look over time reflect growth in

the cosmetics industry, with dedicated national cosmetics stores like ULTA Beauty

and Sephora expanding into El Paso in 2008, and a better understanding of makeup

application with the fiscal ability to purchase tools as an established performer.67

With makeup finished, hair styled, and costumes applied, Armendáriz completes

the transformation and moves out of the liminal space into the ring as Cassandro.

While these elements carry parts of Armendariz’s biography and personal choices,

they also become part of how Cassandro is interpreted outside of the performance

space. Wrestlers like El Santo and Blue Demon are recognizable through their

masks, but Cassandro’s interpretation relies on alternative components that, when

combined, are identifiably associated with him and disseminated through various

media. By mid-2022, there will be two different films featuring Cassandro: Marie

Losier’s 2018 documentary Cassandro the Exótico! and an upcoming biopic,

currently titled Cassandro, directed by Roger Ross Williams and starring Gaél García

64Dunn, SB 670 Senate Bill - CHAPTERED, 2005 <http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/05-06/ bill/sen/sb_0651-0700/sb_670_bill_20051007_chaptered.html> [accessed 7 October 2021]. 65 Calderón-Douglass. 66 Tapp and Berthiaume. 67 SEC, ‘Ulta Beauty, Inc. 2008 Current Report 8-K’, SEC.Report <https://sec.report/ Document/0000950137-08-008176/> [accessed 4 November 2021].

Bernal and Roberta Colindrez. The main poster for Losier’s documentary (Fig. 12)

features Armendáriz as Cassandro with torso turned one quarter away from the

camera with one arm outstretched. His hair is fluffed out, blonde and voluminous

in feathered curls, with teal and black eyeshadow up to his brows. He wears a red

singlet with green flame-lightning shimmering pieces with matching arm covers

and kneepads. The film poster also uses visual references to circus posters that are

worth examination.

As part of Ross Williams’s production, artists Jesus ‘CIMI’ Alvarado and Fabian

Chairez painted a mural (Fig. 13) combining Armendariz and Garcia Bernal’s ‘rostros’

or visages. The mural shows Cassandro, as the film’s version, taking down a masked

wrestler in a flowing cape at the edge of a ring. Cassandro wears gold and silver boots,

a low-cut singlet with wide lapels, and leopard print patch details in characteristic

lightning and flame shapes. He has matching arm and kneepad covers with a long

train, like his trademark gowns, though only from the bottom half and without the

embroidered details. The painting was initially meant to last through the film’s

production but will become a permanent fixture at the building owner’s request.68

These pieces become identifying items in the collection relating to Cassandro’s

career but are made identifiable through the materiality in his performance. These

pieces become identifying items in the collection relating to Cassandro’s career but

are made identifiable through the materiality in his performance.

The more expensive and exclusive items are part of Cassandro’s costume,

which required skill from Omar Morales to complete. Additionally, the specialized

features for storage and cleaning show a collaborative process in which Morales is

aware of the labor of care needed from the performer to extend the garment’s life.

These garments also indicate a performer at the height of a career rather than the

beginning but build an image for new exóticos to aspire to, just as Baby Sharon did

68 Monika Acevedo, ‘“Cassandro” Biopic Taps El Paso Artist For New Downtown Mural’, 93.1 KISS FM, 2021 <https://kisselpaso.com/cassandro-biopic-taps-el-paso-artist-for-newdowntown-mural/> [accessed 11 October 2021].

for Cassandro. Ultimately, this aesthetic change also marked a new space for LGBT+

wrestlers, who were always part of mainstream lucha libre and continue to be in

varying capacities of openness, as evidenced by events like the Cassandro cup and

participation from trans and gender-nonconforming wrestlers.69

Utilizing a material culture framework to deconstruct Cassandro’s essential

elements leads to several conclusions about the performer and context. The

case study shows specific moments where Armendáriz and his contemporaries

exerted agency through design to build on a heritage that started with elders like

Gardenia Davis and Baby Sharon. They used feminized costumes and exaggerated

makeup to visually signal change while emphasizing their athletic ability through

movement. Their success was cemented when Cassandro competed against Hijo

del Santo, pitting the weight of tradition against a new type of performer.70 The

parallels between his and Cassandro’s careers demonstrate the sequin method's

importance in looking in all directions. Rather than favoring one history over another

as mainstream, especially when Cassandro is less associated with a dominant image

of masculinity, the sequin method places each wrestler at different spots, influential

in their unique ways. However, in many narratives, Cassandro and other exóticos are

ignored or relegated to a marginalized spot. As a frequent participant in lucha libre

showcases worldwide, Cassandro saturates media as not just a representative for

exóticos but lucha libre as a whole.

69 Billy Dixon on the Cassandro Cup: “It’s Time to Prove We Are Athletes”’, Daily DDT, 2021 <https://dailyddt.com/2021/03/22/billy-dixon-on-the-cassandro-cup-and-the-importanceof-the-event/> [accessed 7 July 2021]. 70 Finnegan.

Fig. 12: Marie Losier, Cassandro, The Exotico!, 2018.

Fig. 13: Jesus 'CIMI' Alvarado and Fabian Chairez, Mural for Cassandro Biopic, 2021. El Paso, Texas, Author’s Own Photograph.