Luchador
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Each week, Gabriel Romeros drive to Sunday Mass takes him past “El Ángel,” the golden statue at the heart of Mexico City that haunts his memories and inspires his future. Spurred by the memory of his parents, Gabriel is drawn to the secretive world of lucha libre, where wrestling, performance art, and big business collide.Under the conflicting mentorships of one of lucha libres famed gay exotico wrestlers and an ambitious young luchador whose star is on the rise, Gabriel must choose between traditions that ground him but may limit his future, and the lure of sex and success that may compromise his independence. Surrounded by a makeshift family of wrestlers, Gabriel charts a course to balance ambition, sexuality, and loyalty to find the future that may have been destined for him since childhood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Finnegan's glorious coming-of-age story is as much a sweet and touchingly rendered love letter to lucha libre as a romance. Gabriel Romero's love of the Mexican wrestling circuit began when he was a child in Tucson, Ariz., and it becomes a personal passion when he attends a match in Mexico City and sees an ex tico wrestler for the first time, the famous and flamboyant La Rosa. Gabriel, sensing a queer kindred spirit, persuades La Rosa to train him to become a luchador. Gabriel's struggles to balance wrestling training with college classes and familial obligations provide a poignant tension as he studies the deep roots of lucha libre storytelling, particularly the social movements tied to it. But as Gabriel pursues his career passions, his romantic passions center on El Cadejo, a closeted wrestler who shares Gabriel's dreams of becoming a superstar. Torn between lucha libre's traditions and the practicalities of modern spectacle, as well as his desire to be open about his sexuality without trapping himself in the role of a cross-dressing ex tico, Gabriel deftly carves a path for himself straight to readers' hearts. The central relationship is the love between Gabriel and his vocation, and readers will cheer them all the way to their happy ending.
