Mil Máscaras

True story:

When I was a little kid, I used to hang out all the time at my grandmother’s small hotel in downtown Monterrey (accross the street from and yet vastly better than this one).

Visiting baseball teams and wrestlers would stay there. Obviously, my brothers and I would always harass the baseball players in order to score original, fitted baseball hats: the ultimate cool. Too big for me at the time and too small by the time I hit eleven.

The wrestlers, however, I wouldn’t dare bother.

One day, this very huge, very muscular dude with a J. Jonah Jameson-style mustache walks by me in the lobby. Chinto, the very small, very skinny bell boy with a Cantínflas-style mustache whispers to my ear: “That’s Mil Máscaras“.

Back then, and unlike other masked wrestlers, legend Mil Máscaras kept his identity completely secret. No one knew who he was. He was very, very secretive. Chinto also claimed that if you sneaked into his room and opened his closet, he’d have nothing but hundreds of masks (a thousand?) hanging from individual hangers. This second claim I never verified.

However, I did get his real name from the front desk. And I remembered it for many years. Finally, he retired and his real name is known. Another lose end in my life was tied up about twenty years later. Indeed it was him, Mil Máscaras: Aarón Rodriguez.

4 thoughts on “Mil Máscaras”

  1. I had 12 of those masks when younger, so I can verify at least those. Rumor has it it was only 5 styles in several color combinations. But that’s all I know….

  2. Teniamos gorras de los Tecos de los 2 laredos (que todos creian que era del equipo de futbol) y de los Charros de Jalisco.

    Ademas una infinidad de bolas autografiadas… incluyendo una de Valenzuela cuando jugaba para un equipo en Mexico ya casi retirado.

    Yo me acuerdo del Mil Mascaras que se sentaba en el Lobby a esperar… pero ni nos atreviamos a acercarnos.

  3. Esta historia es cierta. Aaron Rodriguez… el Mil Mascaras. Salia a correr a la calle Colon (antes de que hubiera metrorrey) en una tank top blanca pegadita y shorts cortos-cortisimos. Regresaba al hotel que parecia que se acaba de banar, completamente empapado. Estaba cabril de mamey el guey.

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