Cassandro - Queen of Lucha Libre

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cassandro is no ordinary Mexican wrestler. He is an exotico - or drag queen - who wears long Liberace gowns, sequins and flamboyant make-up. Over an extraordinary 27-year-career, Cassandro has won two championship belts and pioneered the idea that a Mexican wrestler can be openly gay.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a BBC podcast. You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use at BBCWorldService.com
0:07.3	Slash Podcasts.
0:15.3	This is the story of Cassandra, Mexico's champion drag queen wrestler on BBCWorldService.
0:22.3	Ladies and gentlemen, the Queen of the Ring, the Liberacci of Luchalibre,
0:32.3	Cassandra, Alexander, Alexander!
0:43.3	The curtains open, I walk out, the first reaction of the people is like, wow,
0:49.3	because they see my lawn, Liberacci down.
0:53.3	That's my one minute of fame right there when I do a walk from the dressing room to the ring.
0:59.3	Now it's time to show them why I'm in the ring.
1:03.3	And it's because I'm a true professional wrestler.
1:11.3	Cassandra is an exotic or wrestler who performs as a drag queen.
1:17.3	He has won two World Championships, which is an enormous, amazing achievement,
1:23.3	not only for an exotic or wrestler, but for a wrestler in general.
1:29.3	Wrestling is so macho, so machista, or gay guy can't do this.
1:35.3	So I play around with him a little bit, and the ring gives me that empowerment.
1:44.3	Luchalibre is a story that Mexicans tell themselves about themselves.
1:51.3	Ideas about the political system, the gender system, what it is to be Mexican.
2:00.3	All played out, almost entirely through physical embodied action.
2:08.3	It's not easy, and if you think this is fake, get in the ring with me,
2:11.3	and I'll show you a little piece of it.
2:18.3	I'm Victoria Farron.
2:20.3	Wrestling or Luchalibre is tightly woven into the fabric of Mexican culture.
	...

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