Alvarado wrestling family

Third generation Alvarado, La Máscara.

The Alvarado wrestling family, also referred to as La Dinastia Alvarado ("The Alvarado Dynasty") in Spanish, is a Mexico City based family of professional wrestlers. The family works primarily in Mexico but have made appearances in the United States of America, Canada, Europe, and Japan over the years.[1][2] The Patriarch of the family was Juan Alvarado Ibarra, who wrestled under the ring name Shadito Cruz, followed by his six sons who all used ring name variations of "Brazo" and included wrestlers Brazo de Oro (Spanish for Golden Arm), El Brazo (The Arm), Brazo de Plata (Silver Arm), Brazo Cibernético (Cybernetic Arm), Brazo de Platino (Platinum Arm) and Super Brazo (Super Arm).[1][2] A third-generation of Alvardos made their debut around the turn of the millennium, originally all working under "Brazo" related ring names but later most changed their names to create an identity for themselves.[2] Due to the traditions and secrecy of Lucha Libre some wrestlers who use the "Brazo" ring name are not blood relatives of the Alvarado family and others is unconfirmed if they are truly part of the Alvarado family or not.[3] Due to the number of wrestlers using ring names with the word "Brazo" in it the Alvarado family is at times also referred to as "the Brazo Family", while Los Brazo refers specifically to the trio of Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata and El Brazo.[4]

All family members who currently are or previously have been wrestling under a "Brazo" name have begun their careers as enmascarados, or masked wrestlers. All their masks had or have the same basic mask design with the depiction of a person doing a double bicep flex pose.[4] All six sons of Shadito Cruz have lost their masks as results of losing Luchas de Apuestas or "bet matches", while none of the third-generation Brazos (except La Máscara and Goya Kong) lost their masks in the same manner.[4][5] Most of the third-generation Alvarado children began their careers using Brazo names but were later either encouraged or forced to change their names to create an identity of their own instead.[1][2]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference BrazoFamily was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference MondoFamily was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Madigan, Dan (2007). ""Okay... what is Lucha Libre?"". Mondo Lucha a Go-Go: the bizarre and honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
  4. ^ a b c "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Brazo, Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata (in Spanish). Mexico. July 2007. pp. 39–41. Tomo I.
  5. ^ Ruiz Glez, Alex (February 3, 2011). "Hoy es el octavo aniversario luctuoso del iniciador de la dinastía de Los Brazos "Shadito Cruz"". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Retrieved November 5, 2012.