After his parents are killed in a gang shooting in Phoenix, 10 year-old Gabriel is raised by his aunt and uncle in Mexico City. He matures into a smart and athletic young man, but one thing from his childhood remains constant: his love of Lucha Libre, the popular form of wrestling that combines athletics, performance art and folklore. When attending an event with his would-be boyfriend, Gabriel witnesses a match featuring a wrestler known as La Rosa and is instantly enthralled. La Rosa is an exótico, a persona that is strongly gay, yet he commands the ring with his prowess as well as his charisma. Gabriel convinces the wrestler, whose real name is Miguel, to train him at his gym, setting Gabriel on the path to becoming a luchador.
It’s a difficult path Gabriel chooses to follow, full of hard choices and compromises. Lucha libre is big business in Mexico, and it’s the promoters who call most of the shots, and even own the rights to the personas the luchadors play. Gabriel is an out and proud young man, but he may not be comfortable with the role the promoters want him to play. Fortunately, he has a strong mentor in Miguel as well as a second family of sorts in the troupe of misfits that work under Miguel’s tutelage.
You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy “Luchador”. The writing really brings the action alive to give you an insight into what it feels like for the wrestlers and why it’s so popular. However, fundamentally this isn’t a book about Lucha Libre, per se. You could call it a coming-of-age story, although that may make it sound a bit more of a “young adult” theme than it is. Like all of us, Gabriel has to choose the path he wants to take in life, and that path involves making hard choices. Then there are the ‘surprises’ that life also throws in our way. Gabriel and his friends are forced to deal with everything that life has to offer.
Gabriel is painted as a very realistic character, and he is surrounded by a rich set of family and friends who are all very three dimensional. Some of Gabriel’s friends are faced with their own hard choices, and all are depicted honestly.
In addition to its engaging story line, “Luchador” is an extremely well crafted book all around. The proofing is nearly flawless and unlike so many books these days, the cover art actually not only has something to do with the story, it realistically portrays the picture you get of Gabriel.
“Luchador” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).
