‘Fray Tormenta’, the Mexican Priest Who Inspired ‘Nacho Libre’

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When known as to help the susceptible, the bravest will set them selves in hazard if necessary. The tale of a devoted priest who grew to become a wrestler to help the orphans underneath his care built its way to the silver display screen in 2006 with the film Nacho Libre starring Jack Black.

It turns out, even so, that the movie was influenced by the pretty true tale of a Mexican priest named Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez, who is superior regarded by the ring identify he took: Fray Tormenta (“Friar Storm”). He moonlit in the wrestling scene to make some funds and assist young children in require.

Scroll down to learn more about Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez, aka Fray Tormenta.

Who is Fray Tormenta, the inspiration guiding Nacho Libre?

Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez was born in San Agustín Metzquititlán, a city in Central Mexico, in 1945. He experienced a challenging youth and commenced struggling with addiction when he was just 11 years old. “By the time I turned 18 I experienced previously turn out to be a prison and a thief. I was functioning to sustain my dosage. I did almost everything, I [even worked as] an actor and clown in a circus, but I put in every little thing on my doses and I required a lot more, so I started out thieving,” he recalled.

1 day, in research of redemption, Benítez went into a church and entered the confessional booth. The priest supplied small assistance and instead shooed him off. Upset, he decided to enter rehab, be a part of a seminary, and come to be the kind priest he couldn’t obtain at his most desperate hour. His perseverance even took him to more his reports in Rome and Spain and was inevitably inducted into the Piarists Get.

Again in Mexico, Benítez devoted his work to men and women struggling with habit. But just after a single individual died in his arms, he swore to generally help the destitute, and it led him to make an orphanage. He afterwards became a secular priest in the Diocese of Texcoco, just exterior of Mexico Town.

A Wrestling Job to Assistance an Orphanage

Benítez set up his shelter in 1976 but understood it was likely to be a dear endeavor. He remembered a motion picture he had observed years earlier, titled El señor Tormenta (“Mister Storm”), in which a priest gets to be a wrestler to assist his orphanage. From there, he established his sights on successful “a million dollars, like Muhammad Ali.”

To reach his intention, he qualified every single day at a fitness center for 4 hours in the early morning, finishing just in time for the 7 AM Mass. He at times confirmed up to the confessional booth with bruises and in agony. Soon after a yr of planning, he created his debut, earning about $15 from his very first overcome.

Encouraged by the film, he picked the ring title “Fray Tormenta.” Gutiérrez claimed in an interview, “I assumed: the character is likely to be brought to lifetime by the truth that folks believe that he [actually] is a priest.” Safeguarding his identification by donning a crimson and gold mask, he traveled from city to town.

Though it is frequent in Mexican wrestling for a fighter to have their identity uncovered following “waging” their mask and shedding in fight, Fray Tormenta’s legitimate title was revealed by incident. “Another well-known wrestler, Huracán Ramírez, was to blame. 1 working day he referred to as me on the cell phone and told me: ‘Tormenta, we will struggle on Saturday’, and then I slipped out: ‘I cannot, I have to officiate a wedding ceremony.’ [He replied] ‘Are you really a priest?’ I requested him to hold the top secret but that Saturday he arrived to the wedding, and in a few times everyone realized.”

In the end, it turned out to be a superior thing, as he was promoted and bought to journey the environment for exhibition matches.

Legacy of Fray Tormenta

Even though he only planned to be a wrestler for a pair of several years, he used 23 decades in the ring and retired in the yr 2000. “From wrestling, I like that men and women turn you into an idol and you can use the fame to enable them. I are unable to conceive wrestling just for cash if it truly is not for a lead to.”

Immediately after surviving a poor scenario of COVID-19 in 2020, Gutiérrez offered some of his masks to raise funds for the orphanage. In spite of being in his late 70s, he even now officiates catholic masses. He often does appearances at matches and is regarded for donning his mask to church.

Gutiérrez is extremely proud of his orphanage, which he named “La Casa Hogar de los Cachorros de Fray Tormenta” or “Fray Tormenta’s Puppies’ Kid’s Property.” He has helped in excess of 2,000 young children, some of who have grow to be attorneys, physicians, accountants, and, of course, clergymen and wrestlers.