Mexico City's Best

Often on a press trip you are kept on the move, from morning till after dinner libations. If possible I always try to arrange my return ticket after a few days on my own. Failing that I check to see if Interlink Books has a title for the city I am visiting. Their Cities of the Imagination series is fantastic. The series offers, “in depth cultural and historical guides to the great cities of the world.” Currently the series covers Athens, Buenos Aries, Brussels, Calcutta, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Havana, Helsinki, Kingston, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, New York, Oxford, Prague, Rome, San Francisco and Venice.

One of my favorite chapters in Mexico City by Nick Caistor covers wrestling and El Santo. Let Hulk Hogan have his reality show, in Mexico wrestling is all about unreality. The crowds get hysterical over their grasping heroes. None was more popular than El Santo. Once the saint became a star he was never aging seen without his mask. He was a frequent visitor to the poorer quarters doing charity work. The loser in the ring must strip off his mask, El Santo never did. He went on to star in D movies, TV and comic books. In 1984 he unmasked on TV, no one believed that the battered beaten face was really El Santo. A few days after he dies of a heart attack while on a variety show, that is the reality. Viva Luncha Libre- free fighting!