History of the lucha libre mask (Part 3)

Before continuing with the evolution of the lucha libre mask, if you haven’t read the first 2 parts, you can read the first one HERE and the second one right over HERE. Moving on.

Evolution of the mask (Continuation)

With the introduction of satin in the making process of the mask, some designs turned in a very creative way, which in theory it would make creating new characters a simpler job in the coming years. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Most of the masked luchadores that debuted after the beginning of the “satin era” used similar designs as El Santo and Blue Demon.

Poster from the Huracan Ramirez Movie,
on the left you can see the first mask for this character.

It was around the 50’s when the design in lucha libre masks had another breakthrough. In 1953 a new masked luchador appeared in the Mexican arenas, well at least in the arenas of Mexican cinema, I’m talking about Huracan Ramírez.The producers of the movie were smart enough to make a different design for the mask of this new luchador that was (as you can see in the image above) way different than the current one. The colors for instance, in the majority of the mask they chose a light blue, while the figures were red (representing the mortality of hurricanes). The only part that didn’t have any changes was the front of the mask that acts as the face of the god of the seas.

El Soliario with his first mask.

Until the 60’s there would be more changes and new types of lucha libre masks.  The open mouth mask was created in this decade and was first worn by luchadores like El Caballero Tigre and El Solitario.

Mil Mascaras

There were not only masks with new shapes. Young luchadores introduced better designs in their masks. The most representative was Mil Mascaras, the man of a thousand masks that honoring his name had a wide variety of masks. Most of his designs were made by fans that responded to the call made by Valente Pérez through his magazine lucha libre.

In the 70’s the people in charge of making lucha libre masks, started to use a stronger and heavier type of fabric, Bandon (this is how it’s named in Spanish, i couldn’t find the English translation or I don’t know if it’s also called that way in English).

Tinieblas

In this decade it would also mark the debut of another luchador with a very different and imaginative design, Tinieblas. Like many luchadores from the 60’s and 70’s, Tinieblas was created by Valente Pérez. Mr. Pérez designed the mask of his newest luchador himself, a very simple mask, but still very attractive that at the end represented very well the idea behind the name of the character, darkness.

Just to finish today’s entry, we jump nowadays. Thankfully the designs haven’t lost any imagination at all, maybe the characters are a repeat from another luchador from the early year of lucha libre, but is quite rare to see a mask similar to another.

Pretty much this sums up the history of the mask, but I’m not done yet with the lucha libre mask, next week I’ll do a countdown of what I consider to be the most beautiful masks in lucha libre. See you next week.

Francisco Arreola

@fcoarreola