Latin American men outside the United States seem to have more 'staches than other ethnic groups. Whether it's
Good Hair, Evil Hair,
Badass or just plain funny depends on the character, mustache, and viewer.
Mexican actors Mario Moreno "Cantinflas" and Pedro Infante, as well as rebel warlord Emiliano Zapata are probably the ones who
codified this trope.
See also
Facial Profiling.
Examples:
Advertising
- Most billboards that involve a Hispanic guy.
Anime and Manga
- The majority of the Latin American gangsters in the Black Lagoon manga.
- The representative Mexican mecha in G Gundam called the Tequila Gundam had one!
Film
- Subverted in Zorro - Diego puts on a fake fancypants moustache when he disguises as Don Diego.
- Also subverted in Spy Kids 3 - Gregorio [amusingly, also played by Banderas] puts on a fake moustache when he goes into Spy mode. He'd shaved it off previously.
- Blazing Saddles. The Mexican banditos signing up for Hedley Lamarr's army have mustaches.
- ¡Three Amigos!. Most of El Guapo's gang and the men of Santo Poco have mustaches.
- In The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in the scene where the Mexican bandits are asked for their badges they all have mustaches.
- Lots of people in Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Also Agent Sands wears several (flamboyantly) fake moustaches.
- Kind of ironic when you consider that, being an American Indian, Johnny Depp is technically closer to being an actual Mexican than the Spaniard Antonio Banderas.
- Not necessarily. There are plenty of Mexicans who are more white/Spaniard than Indian.
Live Action TV
- Stephen Colbert's Mexican friend Esteban Colberto is just Stephen in a pastel colored suit and a mustache...
- And chicas. Don't forget the chicas.
- Airwolf
- Similiar to Esteban Colberto, at one point the gang on How I Met Your Mother run into a Latino lawyer who looks exactly like their friend Mashall — except he has a mustache (and wears a beige suit).
Professional Wrestling
- When they were in the LAX stable in TNA, both Hector Guerrero and Hernandez had pretty epic 'taches.
Webcomics
Western Animation
Video Games
- In Sunset Riders only three (unmasked) characters display mustaches, pink-poncho-wearing Mexican Cormano, who pairs it with a beard, and The Smith Brothers, who are not Mexican, and therefore have to die.
- In Fallout: New Vegas, Raul, who is Mexican, has a small mustache. This becomes more impressive when you remember that he is a Ghoul, and has lost all other hair on his body, in addition to being over 200 years old.
New Media
Real Life
- Truth in Television - There HAVE been news articles on the strange mustaches the Mexican police have.
- Also, the way to tell people of Mixed blood is because of their mustaches. Those of pure Native ancestry can't grow facial hair. This is the main reason many men let their mustaches grow.
- Not entirely true. This troper who happens to live in Moustacheland knows quite a few people of pure Native ancestry who wear Magnificent Moustaches. And it has more to do with being macho than with showing your heritage.
- It gets more noticeable the farther back in time you go, with Revolution era mustaches looking very formidable. For some reason though, the Independence and Conquista periods at most have sideburns.
- That's because they weren't Mexicans YET, just angsty spaniards.
- The Mexican-American congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) sports magnificent mustaches. This wouldn't be a big deal, but his campaign logo is a stylized version of it. Are we electing him or his facial hair?
- Back in the day, Cheech Marin's mustache was worthy of its own Chuck Norris list.
- Cesar Romero, famed for his frequent Latin Lover roles, refused to shave off his mustache when playing The Joker on the 60's Batman TV show; he painted it over instead.
