Long before 'Nacho,' Austin was eating up lucha libre

The image of the masked Mexican wrestler is no stranger to this city

Jack Black, meet Santo. He could kick your nalgas.

Long before the tenacious star of "Nacho Libre" donned a mask and tights for the silver screen, Santo, the legendary masked Mexican wrestler (luchador), was saving the world from monsters and aliens.

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In some parts of the country, Mexican wrestling might be foreign to folks, but in Austin, Santo and the lucha libre images are old hat, er, mask.

"Some customers ask for the masks of specific wrestlers," says Jonathan Williams, owner of Tesoros Trading Co. on Congress Avenue, which has been selling lucha masks for about 10 years.

Other ways in which lucha libre has Austin's pop culture in a headlock:

•Film: One of the dozens of films that Santo starred in from the '60s through the early '80s is "Santo and the Martian Invaders," a film that many Austinites have become familiar with thanks to Buzz Moran and his Foleyvision. Moran strips the sound from films, then redubs them with live sound effects, music and the original dialogue with embellishments.

The Foleyvision crew, which had tackled only martial arts films until screening the Santo film a few years ago, revived the Mexican sci-fi film on May 28, the weekend that "Nacho Libre" originally had been scheduled to open.

"It was really fun to do it again," Moran says, adding that Foleyvision likely hasn't seen the last of this Santo film. Next up on the Foleyvision calendar: "The Hindi Superman" in July at the Alamo Downtown.

•Memorabilia: Besides the masks, Tesoros stocks lucha libre T-shirts, coasters, plastic action figures and even papier-mâché luchador dolls that the store has specially made.

"It's more of a man thing," says Williams, who adds that the lucha masks sell well during South by Southwest.

•Crafts: "Who didn't grow up wanting to be a superhero?" says Carol Gilson of Austin-based Sublime Stitching. That's a strong appeal of lucha libre, she says. One of the popular sellers for the company, which sells embroidery patterns, is the lucha design. "I think people like the lucha libre motif because the designs themselves are wacky fun," Gilson says.

•Television: Catch the real deal (well, as real as pro westling gets) on Galavision, which airs plenty of lucha libre matches. It's pretty much like the WWE variety of wrestling, except most of the luchadores wear masks or painted faces.

•Music: They may not don lucha masks onstage like Los Straitjackets, but judging by their Web site (www.loshispanosuk.com) and the cover to their latest CD, "Borracho at 3 in the Morning," the Austin-based rock band Los Hispanos UK truly gets lucha libre.