The Squared Circle

They always have wrestling at Cinco de Mayo, the faked and staged American commercial version. Often it's the Mexican variant, lucha libre, with its colorfully masked contestants. Not this time, at least while I was there. But anything goes, as long as it looks violent but really isn't. It is a field trip in cultural anthropology.       

Bread And Circuses

Moving down the street from the cheerful if wacky People's Joy Parade to the Cinco de Mayo festival, held on whichever Saturday is closest to the date. Fake American wrestling and horrible if typical excuses for food. Kind of fun, though, if you can loosen your laces.                  

Wham!

As I understand it, state and federal law prohibits mass entertainment in the form of death matches between gladiators and wild animals. So, America has to improvise. We came up with so-called professional wrestling, which gives viewers a similar thrill without any real danger to the participants. This is a down-scale version but you get the idea.

That's not to say, though, that we don't have some spectacles with real risk of horrifying injury. Think of Joan Rivers' plastic surgery, the National Football League and riding motorcycles.
                        
Love that inflatable "alien" in the right rear of some of these shots. Welcome to our world.                          

Wrestling In The Street

Something else new at Cinco de Mayo, American-style fake wrestling. You would think the organizers would present Mexican lucha libre battles.

Anyway, the combatants hurl themselves into the ring, bellowing like wounded bull elephants. They snarl at each other. Eventually they fall into a series of scripted throws, gouges, illegal kicks, sometimes throwing each other out onto the pavement. Each seems about to triumph at times, only to be thrown off by a burst of strength from the opponent.

I can't help but notice that the man in the middle photo looks like he's singing Wagner. Maybe Alberich. If so, the first guy could be Siegfried.

More of this to come.