Lucha Libre Covers Part 1 – Macho Men

A Mexican wrestling fan recently posted his collection of “Lucha Libre” magazines from the 1960’s for sale on E-Bay.  Have you seen these magazines?  Each one features a wrestler or Tag Team on the cover — pure shirtless beefcake, dressed in wrestling gear and itching to fight.

Some of the powerful-looking men are wearing masks, some are unmasked, but all of them seem to celebrate masculinity and the male body.  Lets take a closer look at these 1960’s Cover Boys and the messages they’re sending with their cocky poses.

Wrestling magazines in the USA usually feature a collage on the cover — a mix of images showing wrestlers in action in the ring or posing, maybe applying a nice hold, often with bloodied faces and sweaty brows, and several captions promising violence and aggression and provocative articles. This smorgasbord of messages was meant to appeal to the widest possible audience (muscle worshippers, lovers of violence or drama, fans and followers of villains as well as heroes).  They promise something for everyone to sell as many magazines as possible.

These Lucha Libre magazine covers, however, are much cleaner, quieter and simpler.  All we see is one man on display, his body motionless but also ready for action — a potential for violence without showing the actual violence.  There is little text.  The focus is squarely on his body and clothing because he is the only thing available for our eyes to lock onto.  He alone must sell us on the magazine and the pleasure we’ll experience if we invest “Dos Pesos” to purchase it.

Everyone knows that “sex sells,” but in Mexico, “Macho” also sells.  Machismo is the Mexican concept of (and celebration of) manliness — the believe that men are strong, dominating, selfish, stoic, and brutal.  Macho Men resort to violence if anyone dares to disrespect them or question their power.  Generations of violent uprisings and repeated invasions has created a Mexican culture of mental and physical toughness, a belief that you’ve got to fight and hurt people to defend your honor.

The Lucha Libre magazines package and sell “Machismo” to the fans, beginning with the full color photos of the Gods of Machismo — the rough tough brawling Luchadores — on the cover.  Their bodies are beefy, perhaps with some chest hair or a beard, and posed in threatening or tense or dominant positions.

Mexican Machismo is focused on honor through violence — the belief that the ideal man is a conqueror.  A man should be an invader, a man of action, a dominator and penetrator.

Dishonor and shame come from surrendering to your enemy, showing weakness, and being symbolically violated (raped) by an invader (which has happened to Mexico multiple times beginning with the Spaniards’ invasion in 1519).  Therefore, the cult of machismo is defined through competition, resentment of other men,  brutal actions to establish control, and the need to constantly prove one’s own strength and ferocity. These concepts are personified in the stoic, tense, hyper-masculine images that graced covers of of Lucha Libre magazines.

These cover photos were stripped down to the bare basics.  Certainly the wrestlers themselves were stripped to the waist usually, so their colorful gear was carefully chosen, but also the photo itself was cropped to put the Beefcake front and center, with a simple background.

The message seems to be: “Look at that torso!  Feast your eyes on his body.  What more do you need?”  It’s similar to the cover of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition — the image of one perfect, appealing body posed in a revealing and colorful suit.  It is a clean and simple message — which is the most effective sell.  Just one body, one pose, and one outfit to convince you to buy the entire magazine — to buy into the lifestyle.  What more do you need?