Vamos a estar listo para luchar!

Let's get ready to rumble! That's how they say it South of the Border. Wrestling in Mexico is called Lucha Libre (You might have seen the Jack Black movie called "Nacho Libre"). The stateside version is called Lucha Va Voom! (hence Poocha Va Voom!). The racier American version includes a burlesque show. In both versions, the wrestlers, called luchadors, wear elaborate masks and capes. Mexican wrestling is like American professional wrestling except the pace is faster, the wrestlers smaller, and the masks almost never come off. The performance is elaborately choreographed. Even though the outcome is "rigged", the luchadors exhibit acrobatic talent and strength.

My friend Gilda has two loves: Poodles and Mexicana. Around the time of her birthday in April, she has an annual party called "Fiesta de Los Poodles". Each year, she designs an invitation that combines the two disparate passions. In 2009, she photoshopped a Mexican Wrestling Mask onto a Poodle's face. It made me, and everyone else, laugh. I was hooked. I started painting different masks on different poodles because it was so much fun. The variety and colors are endless. In real life, macho wrestlers would never associate with poodles, and poodles would never deign to wear masks. None of the poochadors were forced to wear masks--not even for the sake of art. By popular demand, I started adding other types of dogs: an English Bull dog in an "El Toro Rojo" mask (naturally), a Bird Dog, and my friend's dog Colby in an "Efesto" mask.