Jack Black's Luchador Comedy Nacho Libre Is Based On A Very Real Story

Jared Hess' 2006 film "Nacho Libre" was a bizarre idea, and one that rings offensive today. Jack Black plays Ignacio, a Oaxacan monk who works as a chef at a Catholic orphanage. Black speaks with a pidgin Mexican accent, which is ... not great. Ignacio fosters dreams of becoming a luchador, which stands in contrast with his monastic vows against vanity. The plot of the film involves Ignacio's orphanage running out of money, forcing him to pursue his luchador dreams. If he wins several high-profile wrestling matches, then he can afford to feed the children in his care. And because luchadors often wear masks, he has the perfect cover.

In the middle of all this, Ignacio also begins to fall in love with a nun, Sister Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera), bringing his monastic devotion into question. He also has recruited a younger wrestling sidekick named Steven (Héctor Jiménez) who wrestles under the name Esqueleto. It's curious that the filmmakers recruited Mexican actors to play Steven and Sister Encarnación, but stuck with Jack Black — born in Santa Monica, California — to play the lead. They explained this away by saying that Ignacio was an American orphan abandoned in Mexico. But still, it's not the most culturally sensitive picture. "Nacho Libre" is about lucha libre, the Mexican wrestling tradition, but it still takes an outsider's perspective on the country, treating Mexico like a cartoonish fantasy land of funny voices and goofy customs. 

The screenplay for "Nacho Libre" was written by Hess, his wife Jerusha Hess, and star screenwriter Mike White. They were inspired by the real-life exploits of one Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez, a Catholic priest who, in the early 2000s, secretly moonlighted as a luchador named Fray Tormenta.

Benítez has an interesting story. Born in 1943, he was raised in a huge family, the 16th of 17 children. He loved the wave of luchador feature films that hit Mexican cinemas in the early 1960s, notably the 1963 films "El Señor Tormenta" and "Tormenta en el Ring." Those two films have a familiar premise: they are about a Catholic priest who would pay for his ailing orphanage by moonlighting as a luchador called Tormenta. The films stayed in Benítez's memory. As he rounded his early 20s, however, Benítez found himself struggling with drug addiction. According to the blog The Eye Mexico, Benítez witnessed one of his friends die a violent death, and turned to the priesthood to get himself clean and devote his life to righteousness. 

Benítez took the priesthood very seriously, studied abroad in Rome and Spain, and attended Roman Catholic colleges in Mexico. He eventually became a secular priest, which is a kind of priest that devotes themselves to the well-being of a whole selected area, and isn't relegated solely to religious duties. Benítez founded an orphanage in the town of Texcoco, one that played host to hundreds of children. He didn't seem to worry about funding, as Benítez had, in the back of his mind, a very palpable plan to raise money for the orphanage. Inspired by the "Tormenta" movies, Benítez donned a yellow luchador mask, and would sneak into town at night to wrestle as Fray Tormenta, or "Friar Storm." He essentially became the film hero he always wanted to be. 

Like many luchadors, Fray Tormenta became a local hero. Benítez had a cameo as a retired wrestler in "Nacho Libre."

Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez, now 80, is still operating his orphanage in Texcoco to this day, although he long since has retired from wrestling. His presence in "Nacho Libre" may stand as a blessing on the production. The film also featured cameos from other real-life wrestlers like the Human Tornado and Mascarita Dorada. To add to the Mexican authenticity, Jared Hess filmed all of "Nacho Libre" in Oaxaca. Some of locations have become tourist destinations. 

Benítez was likely happy to appear in Hess' movie, as "Nacho Libre" could only bring more exposure to his orphanage. It also wasn't the first time Fray Tormenta had been honored on film. Back in 1991, Jean Reno played Fray Tormenta in a French film called "L'Homme au Masque D'or," or "The Man in the Golden Mask." That film was a more direct adaptation of Fray Tormenta's actual career. Also, the year after "Nacho Libre" came out, Benítez decided to tell his own version of his story in "Padre Tormenta," an only slightly fictionalized version of his life. 

These days, Fray Tormenta's legacy lives on in a series of comic books called "Místico: El Príncipe de Plata y Oro," which features the fictional adventures of the real-life luchador Místico. Fray Tormenta is a regular character in that series. Not incidentally, Místico (aka Luis Ignacio Urive Alvirde) was, when he was a boy, raised in Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez's orphanage. There was also, very briefly in the early 2000s, a mysterious young luchador in operation calling himself Fray Tormenta, Jr. Fray Tormenta has been retired since about 2001, but has occasionally appeared in exhibition matches and other wrestling events since.