'Crazy' Canadian Woman Is Mexico Lucha Libre Star Adrian Chamberlain - Times Colonist
go to original January 24, 2016

Kira Forster of Victoria won the title of Reina de Reinas (Queen of Queens).

A Victoria woman who was bullied as a child has become a big star in the crazy world of Mexican wrestling.

Gordon Head-raised Kira Forster is a professional lucha libre wrestler. She’s famous in Mexico, where a new doll in her image was launched this weekend. She appears in TV commercials. When she walks along the streets of Mexico City, where she now lives, Forster — known as “Taya” — is recognized regularly.

“Little kids will run out to me. Little kids will show up dressed like me. People have my T-shirts and my dolls and all that kind of stuff,” Forster said with a laugh.

In North America, lucha libre (literally “free wrestling”) isn’t particularly well known. The key pop-culture reference is the comedy movie Nacho Libre, with Jack Black as a caped Mexican wrestler.

But in Mexico, the sport is followed passionately by millions who watch it on weekly television broadcasts.

It’s both athletic and theatrical. Lucha libre wrestlers sometimes wear colorful masks. There are fierce rivalries, good guys and bad guys. The male wrestlers are called luchadores, the females are luchadoras.

Forster has two nicknames: Taya and Wera Loca (Crazy Blond). Her wrestling persona is a villain whose arch-rival is Faby (a.k.a. Faby Apache).

...It’s unusual for a foreigner to enter the ranks of lucha libre. It’s even more rare for a non-Latin American to achieve the success Forster has.

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