Saturday's postcard: Cat luchadores

This awesome-sauce postcard arrived this week from penpal Cynthia in Mexico. The Larenn Syanne illustration shows lucha libre (Mexican pro wrestling), but with cats as the luchadores and the spectators. It's quite the free-for-all taking place in the ring. "It's a really fun activity," Cynthia writes of the human version of lucha libre. "You choose a team and scream to support."

As a member of Gen X, I grew up during peak WWE and Wrestlemania. But, with a few exceptions, I mostly left that behind years and years ago. The fact that the co-founder of WWE could soon lead the U.S. Department of Education, which may subsequently be dismantled, is more than a little sobering.

The most famous luchador of all time is Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (1917-1984), best known as El Santo. The thing I find most interesting about him is that, at the height of his popularity, he made a long series of movies (more than 50!) featuring El Santo as essentially a crimefighter/superhero. The English version of their titles tell you what kind of films they were. Some of the best titles:

• Santo vs. the Evil Brain
• Santo vs. the Zombies
• Santo vs. The Vampire Women
• Santo in the Wax Museum
• Santo in The Witches Attack
• Santo vs. the Martian Invasion
• Santo in The Treasure of Dracula
• Santo in The Mystery of the Black Pearl
• Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolf Man
• Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein
• Santo in The Bermuda Mystery

As a movie buff, I feel an obligation to track down and watch at least one of these some day. We'll have to see if El Santo can live up to Rowdy Roddy Piper's performance in They Live. I'll have to do some research and figure out which El Santo movie would be best. Feel free to make a suggestion in the comments section.

As a final note, Cynthia's postcard was mailed with this very cool Día de Muertos stamp:

Note: This is Papergreat's 3,700th post. At my current posting rate, I won't hit 4,000 until early 2028.