Does the mask make the man?

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."

--Joseph Campbell 

Blue Demon, Jr. sits on a blue beanbag chair upstairs in the gallery -- part store, part museum -- that's named for him. He's wearing jeans and a short sleeve button-down. His mask fits snug and tight over the skull and the ears. I see blue eyes, awide nose and thick lips -- hints of the man beneath the blueLycra. But the mask makes him a luchadodor, special, otherworldly.

He is named for his father, the great luchador who never revealed his identity in public. Sr. took his iconic blue and silver mask with him tothe grave; itwas his son who slipped the mask over his father's face before he buried him.

"What is the mask?" he ponders. He speaks in a measured, even tone."The mask is the magic ofLucha Libre. The whole world wants to know who is under the mask, and it sounds like a lie, but the mask transforms the person, transforms the person completely. Without the mask, maybe I'm shy, maybe I'm very different than how I am with the mask.

"It gives you security," he adds."You could say it gives you some kind of power."

*** 

Christian Cymet keeps 1,300 Lucha Libre wrestling masks in the spare bedroom of his compact apartment. Many of the masks are old and worn. Some are bloodied, some torn, some autographed in black marker. Some are made of satin, others of Lycra or fake fur, encrusted with rhinestones or holograms. Cut-outs for eyes, noses, mouths pierce the bright colors: blue, purple, fuscia, gold, white, green, yellow.

"Here's El Santo's mask," he says, plucking a soft silver mask from a box. It is the most famous lucha mask design of all time. "El señor."

El Santo was Rudy Guzmán, who had begun wrestling in the 1930s without a mask and under his given name. He switched identities several times before he became "El Santo" the character that captured the public's imagination. El Santo's nickname throughout his great career was El Enmascarado de Plata - the Silver Masked One.