“I’m 1,000% ready to fight anyone!” On this Saturday of Pride March in Mexico, Wendy Martinez presents herself as the first transgender woman to star in “lucha libre”, local wrestling very popular among Mexicans and tourists.
Dressed in purple, to the applause of the spectators, Martinez alias “Miss Gaviota” (“Miss seagull”) climbs that day on a ring in Puebla (center, 110 km southeast of Mexico City) to compete against muscular and masked men.
Undaunted by the insults of some in the audience who call her a “puto!”, Martinez, 46, goes on the attack.
“It’s part (of lucha libre),” she says of the verbal attacks and discrimination she also suffered on the streets of Mexico City where she lives.
These insults are even fuel for her in the ring and in life.
“I was very feisty. I fought with everyone. You couldn’t say a wrong word to me in the street. Otherwise, I turned around and it was a fight,” says Wendy Martinez.
“Afterwards, I said to myself: why not train for freestyle, so that I am paid to fight?”.
Thousands of people are expected in downtown Mexico City for the Pride March on Saturday.
According to official figures, at least five million Mexicans aged 15 and over identify with the LGBTQ community, in a country that has a total population of 126 million at the last census in 2020.
“In 2022, there were at least 87 violent deaths of LGBTI people in the country for reasons allegedly related to their sexual orientation or their gender identity or expression”, worries the organization LetraESE. A figure up from the previous two years.
“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always thought of myself as a woman. Maybe the Good Lord sent me to the wrong body. I won’t change for the world,” says Miss Gaviota.
During the day, when she becomes Wendy Martinez again, she manages a small beauty salon on the ground floor of a building where she shares a small apartment with several of her relatives in a popular district of Mexico City.
“I feel as comfortable in the lucha libre ring as here in the beauty salon,” she says.
“Here my clients make me angry, and up there in the ring I let off steam, I evacuate the stress”, she adds smiling while cutting her aunt’s hair that day.
Also a stylist, she makes costumes for other fighters and sells T-shirts bearing her image.
The participation of trans people in sports competitions has been debated.
Last March, the International Athletics Federation decided “to exclude from international women’s competitions male and female transgender athletes who have experienced male puberty”.
06/24/2023 04:58:54 – Mexico (AFP) – © 2023 AFP