"Whore the One Who Takes off!". Independent Wrestling Against Popular Imperialism. An Ethnographic Look at the Pachuqueño Pancracio

Abstract

In this work we aimed to present ethnographic data that allows us to argue about the ways in which collectives that do not hold positions of power try to participate on society and legitimate their own world view from the bottom up. This aspiration can be seen on followers of different sports-spectacle, soccer's and wrestling's being the most known among Pachuca's population. Thus, we focus on independent wrestling in Pachuca, Hidalgo, whose functioning is successful because of the strategies that fighters employ by being themselves the producers and gestors of the show, and by allowing a stronger interaction with their audience. This is how we bring to the table a discussion about how popular culture is built in our country. On the one hand, because of the non-pecuniary origin of independent wrestling, it seems viable to conceive it as more legitimized than mainstream wrestling sponsored by important national and international companies and, above all, Televisa, the biggest television company in Latin America.