El Santo (right) with Mantequilla Nápoles during the filming of Santo en la venganza de la Llorona (1974)

El Santo ("The Saint") was a luchador enmascarado ("masked professional wrestler") who portrayed a fictionalized version of himself in numerous luchador films from 1961 to 1982.

It is unclear as to when Santo (real name Rodolfo Guzmán) made his professional debut, but by the end of the 1930s, he was an established as a wrestler and had worked under a variety of ring names both masked and unmasked.^[1] One of these aliases was El Murciélago II, with the implication that he was related to the original Murciélago, and after Murciélago made a complaint to the wrestling commission, Guzmán was barred from using that name.^[2] In 1942, his manager wanted him to be part of a new group of masked wrestlers, all dressed in silver. Guzmán chose the Santo persona, and was often referred to as El Enmascarado de Plata ("The Man in the Silver Mask").^[2] Ten years later, Santo was a household name, despite being a rudo, and he was asked by José G. Cruz to star in a television serial named El Enmascarado de Plata, in order to capitalise on his popularity and change his image. Santo declined as he feared that it would not be a commercial success. This saw a late casting change as Médico Asesino, who wore a white mask similar to Santo's, was now the lead, and the title of the serial refers to the villain, which would have been portrayed by Santo in a more heroic role. The serial did become a success, which convinced Santo to make his first foray into film, although he would be portraying the masked sidekick character El Enmascarado, alongside Fernando Osés who portrayed the hero, a masked detective named El Incognito. El Cerebro del Mal ("The Evil Brain") and Hombres Infernales ("The Infernal Men") were filmed in Cuba, but due to the Cuban Revolution, they failed to find a distributor. With the success of Santo Contra los Zombies ("Santo vs. the Zombies"), in which Santo played a fictionalized version of himself, the producers of El Cerebro del Mal and Hombres Infernales were able to release their films by rebranding them under the Santo name instead.^[3]

Many of the luchador films Santo starred in were low-budget and often had similar storylines, in which Santo would fight characters from the science fiction and horror genres of the time. They were also quickly produced, so it was not uncommon for there to be several Santo films in a single year. Santo would appear in a number of films with his in-ring rival Blue Demon, and then later, with Mil Máscaras. In fact, it was because of a contract dispute involving Santo and an injury to Blue Demon, that resulted in the rise of Máscaras, then a little known luchador enmascarado, who would become famous through his own series of films. Las momias de Guanajuato ("The Mummies of Guanajuato"), released in 1970 and co-starring Blue Demon and Máscaras, became Santo's most financially successful film. Blue Demon invited him to star in Los Campeones Justicieros ("The Champions of Justice"), but Santo turned him down as he was too busy making other films to participate.^[4] As luchador films fell out of fashion during the 1970s, Santo's appearances in them dwindled and his final film credit was in 1982, two years before his death.^[3]

Santo's legacy within luchador films lived on through his son, El Hijo del Santo, who portrayed him in the 1993 biopic Santo: la leyenda del enmascarado de plata ("Santo: The Legend of the Man in the Silver Mask"), as well as in a revival of the Santo film series in the 2000s.^[5]

Filmography

Sources:^[3][6]

References