Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (23 September 1917 – 5 February 1984), best known by his ring name El Santo (English: "The Saint"), was a Mexican luchador enmascarado (or masked professional wrestler), actor and folk hero.

Only one of his eleven children followed him into professional wrestling, El Hijo del Santo ("The Son of the Saint") making his debut in 1982.

[2][3] Rodolfo has a brother who entered the wrestling business as well, Miguel, who is known as Black Guzmán (due to his dark skin).

Accounts vary as to exactly when and where he first wrestled professionally, either in Arena Peralvillo Cozumel on 28 June 1934 or at Deportivo Islas in the Guerrero colony of Mexico City in 1935,[4] but by the second half of the 1930s, he was established as a wrestler, using the names "Rudy Guzmán", "Hombre Rojo" ("the Red Man"), "El Demonio Negro" ("The Black Demon") and "Murciélago Enmascarado II" ("The Masked Bat II").

[3] In the early 1940s, Guzmán married María de los Ángeles Rodríguez Montaño (Maruca), a union that would produce eleven children; including his youngest child Jorge, who also became a famous wrestler in his own right, El Hijo del Santo ("The Son of Santo").

[3] In 1942, Guzmán's manager, Don Jesús Lomelí, was putting together a new team of wrestlers, all dressed in silver, and wanted him to be a part of it.

Although they appeared together in a number of action/adventure films, their rivalry never really ended in later years since Santo always remembered his defeat at Blue Demon's hands.

On that night, Santo teamed up with El Solitario to take on Villano III and Rokambole, in a match that naturally saw the legends win.

The following Sunday, Santo appeared at Arena México, where he teamed up with Gran Hamada to defeat Villano I and Scorpio.

[11] In 1952, a superhero motion picture serial was made entitled The Man in the Silver Mask, which was supposed to star Santo, but he declined to appear in it, because he thought it would fail commercially.

The film was made instead with well-known luchador El Médico Asesino in the lead role, wearing a white mask similar to Santo's silver one.

[13][14] The style of the movies was essentially the same throughout the series, with Santo as a superhero fighting supernatural creatures, evil scientists, various criminals, secret agents and so on.

[12][15] In this movie, the production values were better, and there was an attempt at creating more of a mythos and background for Santo, as the last of a long line of superheroes.

The English-dubbed Mexican films of that time period were imported to the United States through the efforts of K. Gordon Murray who changed the name of Santo to "Samson" for some of his releases.

Santo's most financially successful film was The Mummies of Guanajuato (1970), which co-starred Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras.

The Latin ska band King Changó released an album titled The Return of El Santo.

[18] Jeffrey Bell, writer/director of the American television series Angel, has stated that El Santo and his luchador brothers were an inspiration for the show's The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco episode.

[20] Just over a year after his retirement (in late January 1984), El Santo was a guest on Contrapunto, a Mexican television program and, without warning, removed his mask just enough to expose his face, in effect bidding his fans goodbye.

[2] Santo died at a hospital from a heart attack (during a stage show he was putting on) on 5 February 1984, at 9:40 p.m., a week after his Contrapunto television appearance.

Around 10 thousand people, including Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras, attended his funeral, which was among the largest in the history of Mexico.

While El Hijo del Santo is not as big an icon as his father, he is considered a more technically proficient wrestler.

In August 2012, a court ruled in favor of Axxel, allowing him to again begin working as El Nieto del Santo.

[29] A skeletal version of El Santo, complete with silver mask and cape, appears briefly in the 2017 Pixar film Coco as a guest at a party in the Land of the Dead, with actress María Félix as his date.