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The drag-queen wrestler Saúl Armendáriz, who goes by the name Cassandro, at a Lucha VaVoom show, in Los Angeles. “You know who I fight in the ring? Cassandro. The guy who needs to be famous. Your ego is not your amigo. It’s Saúl against Cassandro up there.”
In this week’s issue, William Finnegan tells the story of Saúl Armendáriz, known to lucha libre devotees as Cassandro. As Finnegan explains, “Lucha libre is, on the whole, more acrobatic than U.S. pro wrestling,” and often more theatrical, too. Most luchadores are either técnicos (good guys) or rudos (bad guys). Armendáriz, however, is an exótico, an openly gay luchador who plays a drag-queen character and forgoes the customary mask in favor of a full face of makeup and coiffed hair. The photographer Katie Orlinsky spent time with Cassandro in his home town of El Paso, Texas, as well as at fights in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and in Los Angeles.
All photographs by Katie Orlinsky.
