Superbarrio
Superbarrio Gómez
Anti-crime activist
Superbarrio Gómez is a Mexican "real-life superhero," celebrity, satirist, and organizer.[1] Inspired by the Luchador wrestler El Santo, and his social-justice superhero persona in comics and movies, Superbarrio wears red tights and a red and yellow wrestler's mask. Rather than fight crime and corruption with violence, he uses his image to organize labor rallies and protests, and file petitions. Although he has been claimed to be Marco Rascón Córdova,[2] the authorized biography Todos Somos Superbarrio states that although Rascón Córdova, a long-time social activist, did create the character, Marco was never Superbarrio, but it was rather a lesser-known political organizer, who was in turn substituted for a wrestler in the few times he actually fought on the ring.[3]
The character was created in 1987 by Asamblea de Barrios, an organization fighting for affordable housing after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which left thousands of homeless. He began with stopping the evictions of families who paid rent. In 1988 he was informally declared candidate for the Mexican 1988 presidential election. He declined in favor of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and his Party of the Democratic Revolution which he supported in the following years.
In 1996 Superbarrio declared himself a candidate for the 1996 United States Presidential Election and held mock campaign rallies in the United States and Mexico.[4]