I linked to a positive review of this book earlier this month, and decided to check it out last week.
The content on this blog is mostly looking at the bubble lucha libre world from inside the bubble. The World of Lucha Libre looks at the bubble of lucha libre as it fits in with the rest of the Mexican world, by looking at how lucha libre mirrors the morals and social constructs of the culture that spawned it. The preface says the aim of the book is to study lucha libre as a symbol, a subculture, and a performance, and that’s pretty accurate to what’s told.
At it’s heart, The World of Lucha Libre is a anthropological study lucha libre. It draws strength from it’s scholarly origin, showing more extensive research than normally presented in wrestling books. There’s a wealth of information from other books, conversations with those in and around the lucha libre business and her own experience of training to be a luchadora. At times, the information becomes a little overwhelming. Some of the conclusions (made by others as well as the author) will seem over-thought to those who follow lucha and wrestling closer, especially in the early chapters. More often, the book fleshes out idea and concepts I vaguely understood from observing and puts them in a larger context.
This is not a wrestling book discussing great feuds and war stories, or even one focusing on political maneuvers and the reality behind told stories, though the latter gets spotlight from time to time as it illustrates greater points. There’s some information revealed which might be of interest to people who just care about lucha libre for lucha libre’s sake, but it’s not that kind of tell-all book and those reading it for that story might be disappointed. If you’re interested in discussions of how lucha libre’s developmental reflects the influence of Mexico’s long one part dominated government, or why the male wrestlers reflect different aspects of traditional Mexican male roles but the luchadoras do not, or the adoption of lucha libre by neo-pop artists, this is that type of book.
Besides the greater discussion of symbols and reflected morals in The World of Lucha Libre, I really enjoyed the luchador school segments. It’s not just about what was taught or how teaching was done (though that’s interesting too), but what the author noticed was never explicitly taught. Her trainer, Aguila Blanca, is one of the more interesting characters in the book. Irma Gonzalez steals the book with her stories, too, and I feel like I finally have more than a surface understand of “Super Barrio’.
There are moments of iffyness. Pimpinela’s name gets misspelled. There’s access to independents and CMLL, but AAA is only observed from afar and occasionally stigmatized as the corrupter of all. An Antonio Pena interview, even as he was inverted old ideas being explored, would’ve added much. Events of the moment are given more credibility than they end needing in the long run, but that’s always the way.
I hesitate to recommend The World of Lucha Libre to all. I enjoyed it, and it was certainly worth the read. If you’ve read this far, you should understand what you’re getting out of the book and if the greater discussion of lucha libre’s place is something you want to spend time on. I don’t believe everyone reading this blog wants that, and are waiting for me to upload some matches. On the other hand, the DVDVR crew must read this book at some point. This really is the book they’ve been writing for years, and while I don’t know if they’d agree with all the conclusions, I’d love to hear them discuss it.
If you’re interested in The World of Lucha Libre, here’s a link to it on Amazon, if you’d like to give a friend some extra pennies. I’ll be posting (intra-bubble related) excerpts from the book the next few days.