Three generations, one tradition: A family finds strength in lucha libre

While Red Spider and his young son wrestled in the ring, Jaime Perez recorded their matches, capturing moments that would later be shared with someone missing from the crowd. 

Perez’s 13-year-old grandson has battled cancer since he was 5 years old. Just days before the Museum of Latin American Art’s (MOLAA) Lucha Libre live event on Sept. 26, the boy underwent surgery to remove a tumor, leaving him unable to attend the performance alongside his family.

For Perez, the recording has become part of a three-generation family tradition that began when he introduced his own sons to Mexican wrestling years ago.

One after another, men in vibrant, fitted masks and custom costumes emerged onto the ring. Some spectators cheered, while others heckled as the luchadores fought reluctantly in the ring, celebrating the high-flying Mexican wrestling known for its theatrical rivalries and choreographed combat. 

Among the performers were Red Spider and Spider Jr., a father-son luchador duo from Orange County whose interest in wrestling began when they were spectators themselves. Outside the ring, the family has been confronting the challenges of caring for Red Spider’s oldest son.

“We wish he was here with us. He wants to come, but he can’t be out. You know, he needs a lot of attention. One second he’s talking to you, and it’s like you turn the lights off and he goes out. So it’s hard,” Red Spider said, describing how his son’s illness can cause him to lose consciousness suddenly.

For Red Spider, stepping into the ring offers a temporary escape from the difficulties his family has experienced. 

“It helped us escape a little bit from our issues. You never know what each individual is going through at the moment,” Red Spider said, “But we’re all here for the same thing.”

His opportunity to enter the ring came through a chance encounter with another wrestler while selling merchandise at a swap meet with his father.

When the man asked why he hadn’t trained, Red Spider explained that he didn’t know where to begin. That is when the wrestler offered him a place to train in Anaheim.

By 16, according to his account, Red Spider had performed in his first match. 

His ring name came from another wrestler who offered him a costume featuring a spider design. He wore it for about a year until his father, Perez, made him a new one. 

At MOLAA, Perez stood next to a table selling Red Spider-branded lucha merchandise, including masks, belts, keychains and shirts. The family’s involvement in the world of lucha extends to a third generation, as Perez was in attendance to support his son and grandson.

Perez has been a wrestling fan since childhood. When his sons were teenagers, he began taking them to lucha libre events, eventually developing an interest in making masks and costumes worn by the performers. 

“Lucha Libre isn’t only for kids; it’s for grown-ups and older people, too. Look at me. I’m really into it – When I make a new costume for my son, I get excited,” Perez said, speaking in Spanish.

That excitement grew, Perez recalls, when one of his grandsons showed interest in wrestling.

During a luchador event they often frequented, his grandson saw a young luchador from Tijuana wearing a costume. 

“Grandpa, make me a costume,” the boy said. 

“You’re crazy, you don’t even like it,” Perez remembered telling him. 

Now, the family spends weekends together at wrestling events, with Perez making the costumes and Red Spider performing alongside his young son. 

“We are with each other every weekend,” Perez said. 

Perez also makes costumes for other performers, including Keepin It Loco, a luchador formerly known as Mariachi Loco. 

Originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Keepin It Loco moved to the United States when he was 5. He grew up watching Mexican wrestling with his father and grandparents, following performers such as Konnan, Octagón and Perro Aguayo. 

As he grew older, he began to feel that his connection to Mexican culture had weakened amid the influence of growing up in the United States.

“I felt like with lucha, I kind of got that back,” he said.

Keepin It Loco has spent 18 years wrestling, a career that has taken him into television productions and performances across different venues, however, there were periods when he worked his regular job and wrestled four nights a week sometimes for only little compensation. 

“Sometimes you do it for $20, sometimes you do it for $10. Sometimes you just do it for free because you just want to do it,” he said. 

He has considered quitting several times, particularly as the physical demands of wrestling have become more difficult with age. Still, he continues performing because to him it’s the reaction of spectators that keep him going.

“For the wrestler, they need the audience. They need the audience to hype them up and the audience need the wrestlers to entertain them,” Rudy Meza said, an attendee at MOLAA Lucha night with his wife and kids.

The family regularly watches wrestling together at home, following American, Canadian and Mexican wrestling. 

With lucha libre, however, there is a lot of soul and a lot of pride, Meza said. To him, the performers are masked heroes.

Meza said he especially enjoys the villains, whose storylines make the matches entertaining.

“Because they have a tragic back story, and they try to fight it so badly to be good, but in the end, it just comes out bad. But they’re just misunderstood,” he said.

For Red Spider, who portrayed the “rudo,” or villain, during the second spectacle of the night, at home, he is a father navigating the challenges of caring for another child with cancer.

While Red Spider and his son perform, Perez records the matches. When the family returns home, they share the video with the 13-year-old. 

“My father is the one who records the videos of us performing and when we go home we show it to him,” Red Spider said. “He still enjoys it and his little brother shows him and says, ‘Look, brother, what I did today.”