[Speaking Spanish]
[Applauds]
[Laughs]
♪
[Laughs]
[Grunts]
♪
Ah!
[Cheering]
♪
[Sizzling]
[Speaking Spanish]
♪
When you go to a wrestling show,
a lot of times, people skip the first couple matches.
But here, people are lined up right from the get-go,
and I guess it's because the second match has
Pimpinela in it, and Pimpinela is...
the queen of Exoticos, you don't want to miss that.
You gotta be here early.
DAMIAN: Lucha Libre's history in Mexican culture runs deep,
dating back to the middle of the 19th century.
Sometime during the 1940s, they started putting characters
in the ring that would act effeminately,
and in a manner that might imply that their characters
were homosexuals.
They called these characters "Exoticos,"
and for years it was so, until: enter Pimpinela Escarlata.
A gay man tired of performing as straight found that
he could perform his gayness freely in the ring
under the label of Exotico.
Tonight he's wrestling in a massive tag match
with some of AAA's top talent.
♪
[Crowd cheering]
[Cheering]
Polvo de Estrellas, or Stardust, is one of
the original exoticos wrestling since the 80s.
Wrestling for decades alongside the likes of Pimpinela,
he's well known in the industry for having helped
many a young wrestler break in as a talent scout for AAA.
[Cheering]
Polvo sat with me to watch the ground-breaking Pimpinela.
What was Pimpinela chanting?
Oh, that's what it is, okay.
[Cheering]
How often is it a mixed match like this,
with exoticos and traditional male division wrestlers?
It's so crowded. Is it always this full?
[Cheering]
ANNOUNCER: Pimpinela Escarlata!
When you came to Mexico City and started wrestling as exoticos,
who were some of the initial people that you met?
[Chanting]
[Cheering]
[Speaking Spanish]
Getting to be in the crowd again must be a...
a return to something from before.
Like you're not having to watch backstage this time,
you get to watch with the people.
[Cheering]
[Laughs]
[Cheering]
♪
Look at these!
Ah, the feathers!
This is gorgeous. This is amazing.
It makes me feel like a superstar!
Shooo!
[Whistles]
Look at this.
Woo!
[Laughs]
Ric Flair, eat your heart out.
Miss Gaviota, or Wendy Martinez,
has been an exotico for 30 years.
A protégé of Pimpinela Escarlata,
she's known for her wrestling move,
"The Back Breaker Against Homophobia".
She created this move because of the discrimination she suffered
early in her career as a trans woman.
Miss Gaviota is also well known for the eye-catching outfits
she wears in the ring.
Oh my gosh...
Miss Gaviota.
Oh!
Whoa.
You feel the weight of the feathers.
It's actually like... whoa.
[Speaking Spanish]
There's so much more required to being an exotico
than just a luchador.
You have to think about all this stuff.
So Pimpi was-- has been very supportive of you
in your career?
What are these?
[Cheering]
Oh! Ha-ha!
[Cheering]
[Traffic noise]
My biggest takeaway of any part of Mexico I've been in
is that crossing the street...
is one of the most dangerous parts of your day,
no matter when you do it.
You just kind of have to rely on the car to stop.
Lot of trust, crossing the street in Mexico.
[Traffic whistle]
♪
Well, we've left the hustle and bustle of Mexico City for
the comparatively tropical climate of Acapulco.
We've come here to see our friend Miss Gaviota
wrestle tonight.
♪
DAMIAN: Miss Gaviota is wrestling on
the International Day Against Homophobia,
Transphobia, and Bi-phobia.
♪
She's the only Exotico on the card,
and will be fighting in an inter-gender match.
Lucha audiences are known for their lude
and emotional outbursts, and I'm curious to see
how they'll react to her performance in the ring.
[Applause]
[Cheering]
[Snoring]
[Laughs]
Gaviota!
[Crowd chattering]
[Laughs]
[Shouting]
[Laughs]
[Crowd shouting]
Wendy's really got the whole audience
kind of behind her, I think.
But I can't tell what people are saying, so there's--
every once in a while, someone will say something in the crowd
and she'll look over at them, and...
It's not the same look of like enjoyment that she's given
the other audience members.
[Laughs]
[Cheering]
[Shouting]
[Crowd shouting]
[Cheering]
[Shouting]
[Cheering]
♪
So, you won this at your first-ever time in Mexico City,
and you're here with the greatest collection of
Exoticos in the world.
It must have made you feel like you were on the right path.
DAMIAN: At 23 years old, Estrella Divina is
an up-and-coming Exotico in AAA,
one of the largest wrestling companies in Mexico.
Raised by her grandmother, she has transitioned,
takes female hormones, and advocates for trans rights
on her social media.
She originally started wrestling because
her older brother was a luchador.
[Laughs]
Does it feel weird to come back here now that you're in
Mexico City most of the time?
So, take me back to when you started wrestling.
Did you want to be a masked wrestler
when you first got into it?
Growing up, were you familiar with Exoticos?
So, do you feel what you're doing in the ring is helping
push things forward outside of the ring,
in the greater world, as far as homophobia and transphobia?
♪
Do you think he'd be proud of everything you've accomplished
so far in lucha?
♪
From what Estrella Divina has told us,
it seems like growing up in Acapulco would have been
a very difficult thing to do.
[Sighing]
♪
Super Gay first came to life with this mask.
All black.
DAMIAN: Joselo Luis Constello has been
a gay rights activist since the 90s.
Although he doesn't wrestle himself,
he created the Lucha character Super Gay,
who would promote LGBTQ rights in Mexico City.
Yeah, this is... this is almost historical
because it was the second cape that Super Gay ever had.
Oh, wow.
Like when you walk out on the street with it,
it really calls out attention.
Oh yeah, I could see!
When this hits the sun, it must explode.
♪
Can you tell me a little bit about the activist group
where you two met?
This group was made up of a group of friends in the 90s,
'cause in that time we didn't have equal marriage.
But maybe the people needed, like, an icon to look up to
and to know that they could fight for their rights.
And that's how Super Gay came up.
The people will say like, "Why is he wearing a mask?"
We say we're not for being in the closet.
If you want to be in the closet, it's okay.
But the idea is that anybody can be Super Gay.
♪
Why is it important that Super Gay was a luchador?
Mexican wrestling is buried deep into people's minds in Mexico,
so the children will run to him and they will ask,
"Who are you?"
Of course the answer was, "I'm Super Gay."
And the children will turn to their parents and say,
"Mom, I'm with Super Gay, take a picture with him!"
That's another way to do activism from our point of view.
♪
So, Reese, how did it feel when you put on the mask?
How'd you feel when you were donning that?
I like this one very much.
I love that one, too. [Laughs]
I've always been kind of intrigued about how
Exoticos are viewed within the gay community.
Maybe we are not so much attracted to see
wrestling matches, because if we go to see an Exotico,
we go like...
It's fun, yeah.
But really, gays don't behave like that all the time.
And these stereotypes are also a little bit harmful,
which is something that we also fight against.
Unfortunately, the Exotico, the classical Exotico
feeds that stereotype of a hypersexualized gay man.
Exactly, where everybody can identify, "This guy is gay."
'Cause people assume that if you are gay,
you have to "look" a certain way or act somehow.
I don't really know.
- Like an Exotico? - Probably.
And we come back to the stereotypes.
- Yeah. - You know?
Super Gay is not against Exoticos, of course not.
We are against the stereotypes.
We haven't really met a wrestler
that was willing to fight for their community rights.
After discussing Exoticos with Joselo,
I wanted to introduce him to Estrella.
While her in-ring skills are impressive,
it's her outspoken views on trans rights inside and outside
the sport that I think he'll find most powerful.
I brought Joselo to meet her in person at her training facility
in Mexico City.
[Speaking Spanish]
[Thuds]
♪
I would imagine, just like anywhere else,
you have to confront discrimination in Lucha.
Is that wrong for me to assume that,
or is that something you have to deal with in Lucha Libre?
So that's the goal, I guess.
You're gonna be competing for
that women's title one day in AAA?
♪
Do you view what you do in the ring
as an extension of what Super Gay does?
♪
DAMIAN: The world of a wrestler is hard on the body and the mind
at the best of times, so Joselo guiding Estrella to transition
in a healthy manner helps ensure Estrella is able to
continue fighting for her rights in and out of the ring.
Like many of her peers, wrestling has been a way
for Estrella to begin the process of being open
and confident about who she is.
♪
- Hola! - Hi!
How many days a week are you out here cutting hair?
I find it shocking that you... you know,
you have to be out here cutting hair.
Like, Lucha isn't enough to pay all the bills?
Do you like being called an Exotico?
Because you're a luchadora.
Would you ever want to see that change?
♪
Awesome, awesome.
♪
[Laughs]
[Cheering]
Who is she fighting against today?
- Today? - Yeah.
It's her against Polvo.
DAMIAN: This tag match is a rare treat,
as Polvo does not get inside the ring very often.
[Cheering]
Polvo was like so key in getting her to come to
Mexico City and kind of pursue this.
Yeah.
So, it's like a teacher versus student dynamic.
[Cheering]
Polvo de Estrellas.
Look how fantastic he looks.
[Cheering]
Wow, she looks amazing.
She looks incredible.
ANNOUNCER: Le Parka Negra!
La Parka, oh, wow.
[Cheering]
ANNOUNCER: Nino Hamburguesa!
- Who is this? - Hamburguesa.
Estrella couldn't have asked for a better partner for this match.
♪
[Cheering]
What is this?
What the hell is going on here?
They want a kiss!
Aah! [Laughs]
So even Estrella's doing that chant there?
But either she's aware of it and she's using it
to show him he lacks courage, or she doesn't really know
the implications of it.
I don't really know.
I guess it also shows just how engrained it is
in sports culture.
- Exactly, it is. - As a taunt.
♪
[Cheering]
Oh!
Boo!
Oh!
CROWD: Estrella! Estrella! Estrella!
[Laughs]
I think you both are converted to fans of...
of Estrella matches.
We will. [Laughs]
♪
Oh shit!
[Cheering]
♪
CROWD: Estrella! Estrella!
Estrella Divina wins the match and helps further cement herself
as a baby face within the world of AAA wrestling.
What's special about this is that it wasn't that long ago
that the idea of a trans luchadora in a major company,
not being a heel, would have seemed impossible.
So, what do you think of Estrella,
now that you've seen her in the ring?
- She's amazing. - Amazing.
She's amazing.
And look at these kids come up to her, like...
Yeah, yeah, she's already a... a star.
You were incredible.
[Cheering]
[Speaking Spanish]
[Laughs]
[Speaking Spanish]
♪
When wrestlers like Pimpinela, Polvo, and Miss Gaviota
first started wrestling as exoticos,
they opened a space within Lucha Libre.
Now, nearly two decades on, they've become legends
in the sport, playing to sold out venues and being beamed to
television sets across the nation.
For an entire generation of children,
they were the first openly queer and trans people
allowed broadcast on Mexican airwaves.
At the same time, the tactics that exoticos use in the ring
could be considered derogatory,
and play on negative homophobic stereotypes
that go all the way back to the very beginning of the sport.
Will the tradition of exoticos continue on?
It seems that as long as crowds line up to see them,
promoters will continue booking matches.
But eventually there may come a day
when the wrestlers themselves refuse classification,
and instead fight for the freedom to wrestle
without labels.
Watching Estrella Divina, I think that day is coming
sooner than later.
♪