5 Films That Prove El Santo Was the Patron Saint of Mexican B-Movies
Andrew S. Vargas Lissete Lanuza Sáenz
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El Santo needs very little introduction around these parts. More than a beloved athlete or an iconic actor, the diminutive masked luchador truly deserves to be called a legend of Mexican popular culture. Over his 48-year career, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta truly lived the part of the wrestler-super hero he played on screen and in the arenas night after night, and his shining silver alter-ego has been woven into the fabric of Mexican folklore.

Born in Tulancingo, Hidalgo in 1917, Guzmán moved as a child to Mexico City’s infamous “barrio bravo”, Tepito, and showed a keen interest in sport from a young age. After moving through baseball and American football, the young Guzmán took up Jiu-Jitsu and eventually found his way into the nascent world of professional wrestling.

From there it took several decades before Guzmán’s career took off, and he wrestled under a number of monikers – including El Hombre Rojo and El Demonio Negro – before settling on the saintly title that would define his career. But beyond his beloved persona inside the ring, El Santo solidified his status as Mexico’s quintessential masked luchador through a whole network of pop culture spinoffs, including a comic book series and, most notably, the 52 wrestling-themed films that cemented his legend on the silver screen.

El Santo’s successful foray into feature films had a lot to do with timing, but even so, his first appearances as a masked sidekick to Spanish-born luchador Fernando Osés in the films El Cerebro del mal and Hombres infernales hardly registered when they were released in 1958. It wasn’t until a few years later, in 1961, that El Santo burst onto the Mexican film scene with Santo contra los Zombis, a film directed by Benito Alazraki that set the stage for glut of pulpy wrestling films that would dominate Mexican screens for nearly two decades.

Here’s a look back at some of El Santo’s most iconic film roles.