"Mexican Wrestling"



 

                                                                  



I remember the lackadaisical summer afternoons visiting my favorite cousin in the City of Tlaxcala, in central Mexico. My cousin Martin and I had a lot in common - the love of playing all day in the street, horseback riding, playing as young entrepreneurs engaging in small “businesses” that would earn us enough money for all the ice cream we could eat, or better yet, going to Lucha Libre, the idiosyncratic art of Mexican wrestling!


Free-style wrestling is practiced in Mexico with its own unique style. It truly is a mixture of raw athleticism and theatrical sequences. Wrestling remains a very popular spectacle nationwide, and in the summer season the league went to the City of Tlaxcala.


It is said that this sport was introduced in 1863 during the occupation of the French Empire in Mexico. In 1933 the Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (Mexican Wrestling Enterprise) company was founded. The founding of that organization was instrumental in turning wrestling from a regional pastime to a national phenomena. 



My father, who was very fond of wrestling and boxing especially, took my cousin and I to wrestling matches on many a hot summer afternoons. Of course, even with the heat we wore the masks of our favorite wrestlers!


The mask is the most sacred thing for the wrestlers because part of this folklore also contains a mystery as to the fighter's face, giving an element of “incognito” to the man behind the mask and thus each fighter has his own elaborate lore and legend. My cousin and I loved to learn about and recount the stories of each one of them. Even today the atmosphere of the audience is electric, full of energy and color. Maybe you want to witness a show like this one day and select your favorite fighter or and have his mask! I assure you that even through wrestling you will learn many words and expressions in Spanish! Gracias! Viva la lucha libre!


www.carlotaroa.com

www.spanishtodaytutoring.com




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

''The Power of Puppets in Education''

Image
                                  It could be said that puppets are in every culture and in every community around the world. Sometimes they have a religious or ritualistic context. Other times puppets are used for storytelling and entertainment. In regions such as India, Africa and Southeast Asia, puppets and puppeteers generally engage in ceremonies or rites. In Europe it has a more theatrical, or musical context. In the Americas, especially in Mexico, puppetry has existed since pre-Columbian times, and was used to narrate and preserve the memory of daily life. In these early stages puppets were clay dolls articulated directly with the puppeteers hands. In addition to serving as vehicles of oral history, puppets were used to represent religious texts, usually accompanied by a song or dance. At the time of Independence in Mexico, puppetry flourished in the realm of performing arts and enjoyed great popularity. Puppets even began to be used to educate the population about basic public
Read more

"Día De Los Muertos, a millenary tradition for Mexicans"

Image
                             Martin Marquez  ©        The Mexican tradition of Dia De Los Muertos is of pre-Hispanic origin, and is a World Cultural Heritage as named by UNESCO, a title which causes no surprise once its profound and complex beauty is appreciated.  Dia De Los Muertos is a celebration those loved ones who have passed, a time to craft an ornate altar of offering decorated with fragrant flowers, lit candles, fresh fruit, and cherished photographs. Such an altar serves as a welcome-home sign, akin to when a family member returns from a trip abroad and finally arrives home. In order to truly understand Dia De Los Muertos it is essential to understand the concept of death as the beginning of a journey in which the soul goes to a sacred place and periodically returns to the mundane world.  My memory is replete with thousands of images of altars that I have seen throughout my life, especially during the years that I lived in Mexico City. Also of note are the impressive altars a
Read more

''Spanish and Art''

Image
                                         photo by Carlota Roa  ©        Art is a powerful tool to learn a language through cultural expressions! For more than six consecutive years, Spanish Today has developed courses to harness the pedagogic spark of art. Such fusions of creativity and language have been offered in a variety of institutions such as the Montalvo Art Center in the City of Saratoga. For the summertime, we have curated Spanish courses that aim to encourage and motivate students to converse in Spanish through innovative problem-solving and observation. By engaging in sculpture, paintings, handicrafts, musical performance, and dancing, our students form deep connections between their experiences and their environment. When students participate in what we like to call “transcendent-learning”, they can more easily connect with the target acquisition - in this case the Spanish language. The stimulation of both cerebral hemispheres causes genuine emotions and exalted sensation
Read more