Pride & Professional Wrestling: ‘Cassandro’ Review
By Keely Miyamoto
A film set in the machismo-heavy world of lucha libre is a far-from-obvious first choice for your next Pride Month movie night. Yet, Roger Ross Williams’s 2023 biopic Cassandro might be just that. Based on the real-life queer, Mexican-American wrestler Saúl Armendáriz (Gael García Bernal), Cassandro charts the rise of the eponymous fighter and his drive for inclusion in a heteronormative and homophobic subset of sports entertainment.
We first meet Saúl in the late 1980s as an openly gay young man helping out his single mother, Yocasta (Perla De La Rosa). Yocasta is supportive of her son’s sexuality, as well as of his nascent wrestling career: At night, Saúl frequents a nearby ring, fighting as the masked El Topo (“The Mole”). Despite Saúl’s best efforts, El Topo is consistently cast as a runt, relegated to pipsqueak status opposite towering opponents.
Dreaming of success akin to the heroic luchadors he idolized as a child, Saúl seeks the guidance of local trainer Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez). After coaching him for some time, Sabrina encourages Saúl to consider wrestling as an exótico. Saúl hesitates, pointing out that exóticos — characters typically rooted in queer caricatures — are never allowed to win. Eventually, he does adopt an exótico persona, beginning to fight as the maskless Cassandro in drag-adjacent makeup and sequined costumes. Rather than playing into stereotypes, Saúl leans into the opportunity to become a flamboyant superhero. As Cassandro transforms from the subject of jeers and slurs to a fan-favorite underdog, he effectively shatters the anti-gay archetypal confines of lucha libre.
Of course, Saúl’s ascent is not entirely this smooth. Befitting the sports-drama genre, the movie features no shortage of training montages. Critically, the story remains equally (if not more) attuned to its protagonist’s more intimate struggles. Saúl sustains an affair with married luchador Gerardo (Raúl Castillo), the charged secrecy of which juxtaposes sharply with Saúl’s unapologetic flair in the ring. Saúl also grapples with the absence of his father, who cut contact after Saúl came out as a teen. And, as the popularity of Cassandro grows, Saúl is increasingly courted by the dubious and drug-involved underbelly of talent management and promotion. (Here, it is worth noting that, though drug use is persistent throughout the film, the real-life Armendáriz recently passed 20 years of sobriety.)
Ultimately, Cassandro paints a simultaneously affirming and human portrait of the “Liberace of Lucha Libre.” Saúl Armendáriz literally and figuratively changed the narratives told about gay men during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (which is not mentioned in the film). By redefining the exótico persona, Armendáriz reclaimed space for queer people in lucha libre and challenged stereotypes surrounding queerness in sport. For a glamorous, poignant, and true story about an LGBTQ+ icon, look no further.
About the Author
Keely Miyamoto is a second-year at Grinnell College. Keely’s passion for peer support led them to become a founding member of the Be-A-Friend Project’s Teen Kindness Board. They have also volunteered on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, as well as with Grinnell’s student-run SA/DV hotline. Keely identifies as transgender and nonbinary, and, as a collegiate student-athlete, they are especially invested in representation and inclusion in sports
