Some truly revolutionary 'staches.note
He wears a purple sash and a black mustache
In a honky-tonk down in Mexico
In a honky-tonk down in Mexico
—The Coasters, "Down in Mexico"
(featured in Death Proof)
(featured in Death Proof)
Latin American men outside the United States seem to have more 'staches than other ethnic groups (especially common between the 1920s and 1960s, when most American men were either clean-shaven or had very thin mustaches). Whether it's Good Hair, Evil Hair, Manly Facial Hair, or just plain funny depends on the character, mustache, and viewer.
This can be a Cyclic Trope, particularly when thick mustaches come back into fashion for men of all ethnic groups (notable, for example, in The '70s). If all the "Anglo" characters have thick facial hair, for instance, Mexican characters may go clean-shaven to emphasize their Aztec heritage.
Mexican actors Mario Moreno "Cantinflas" and Pedro Infante, as well as rebel warlord Emiliano Zapata (and, to a lesser extent, his contemporary Pancho Villa),note are probably the ones who codified this trope.
See also Facial Profiling. Often paired with Sombrero Equals Mexican, and pretty much an obligatory feature for the Bandito.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The majority of the Latin American gangsters in the Black Lagoon manga.
- Cactus Gunman from Gregory Horror Show; he's a Mexican cowboy, and not only does he have a mustache, but it moves when he talks in place of him having an actual mouth.
- Ricardo Martinez from Hajime no Ippo sports a pencil thin mustache, which helps sell his prim and proper look when paired with some neatly combed hair.
- The representative Mexican mecha in Mobile Fighter G Gundam, called the Tequila Gundam, has a mustache-like segment of the faceplate.
Asian Animation
- In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons episode 38, Wolffy's Mexican merchant costume consists of nothing but a sombrero and a mustache.
- Simple Samosa: The Mexican participants in the monster truck race in "Dhakkad Race" are a taco and a chili pepper, both with a mustache.
Films — Animation
- The Book of Life:
- Present throughout the movie, of course, but exaggerated when Mexico itself is depicted as having one of these.
- Joaquin wore a fake one until he was able to grow a real one.
- Luis has probably the most impressive moustache among the Sanchez family.
- Chakal has a magnificent moustache worthy of a bandito leader.
Fan Works
- Parodied in Dragon Ball Z Abridged, when Vegeta mentions that Saiyans' hair never changes from the day they are born, save for "beards and mustaches." Goku then has an Imagine Spot of Vegeta with a mustache, complete with him saying the word in a drawn-out Spanish accent, with Spanish guitars playing in the background.
Films — Live-Action
- Blazing Saddles. The Mexican banditos signing up for Hedley Lamarr's army have mustaches.
- Subverted in The Mask of Zorro — Diego puts on a fake fancypants moustache when he disguises as Don Diego.
- In Napoleon Dynamite, Pedro sports a mustache, in spite of still being in high school.
- Lots of people in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Also Agent Sands wears several (flamboyantly) fake moustaches.
- Also subverted in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over — Gregorio [amusingly, also played by Banderas] puts on a fake moustache when he goes into Spy mode. He'd shaved it off previously.
- ¡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.
Literature
- It All Started With Columbus groups mustachios together with mesquite and "mesquitoes" as "features of the rugged Mexican terrain," with "Pauncho Villa" as an illustration.
- Though it's set in the Philippines (which however was literally a Spanish colony in the story's setting—in the 19th century), "May Day Eve"'s male main character (Badoy) is implied to have them (even if the context is basically his Love Interest and would-be wife likening him to the Devil).
Live-Action TV
- Better Call Saul: Cartel kingpin Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca has a Porn Stache.
- Stephen Colbert's Mexican friend Esteban Colberto is just Stephen in a pastel-colored suit and a mustache...
- Marco Lopez on Emergency! beginning in Season 2.
- Similar 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 Marshall — except he has a mustache (and wears a beige suit).
- M*A*S*H. One episode dealt with a Puerto Rican soldier who was depressed that his mustache was shaved in pre-op. He's fine with the fake mustache Klinger gives him to wear while he grows a new one.
- El Chavo del ocho: Quico's Disappeared Dad, Don Federico, sported a large moustache as shown in a photo album and a following flashback.
Music
- The band members of Genesis wear false Mexican moustaches in the music video for their song "Illegal Alien".
Pro Wrestling
- During his NWA Tag Team title days, Chavo Guerrero boasted a most impressive mustache, father Gori, brother Hector and USA national Al Madril have less impressive but still noticeable staches while they were partnered with him during his many reigns. Fellow Mexicans Halcón and Raúl Mata were masked, and clean shaven, respectively, however. Puerto Rican Victor Rivera also had no noticeable facial hair. His son, Chavo Guerrero Jr., also spent most of his career with a mustache and usually had some other kind of facial hair even when he did not, such as his WCW beard. He removed all his facial hair when he rejected his Hispanic heritage as "Kerwin White" however. Senior took to shaving in his later years.
- When they were in the LAX stable in TNA, both Hector Guerrero and Hernandez had pretty epic 'taches.
Video Games
- An infamous Mexican-themed mod for DmC: Devil May Cry gives Dante, Vergil and Kat magnificent mustaches among other stereotypically Mexican features (and music).
- 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.
- 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.
Web Animation
- When Brazilian website Mundo Canibal made a Mexican-styled adaptation of their most iconic animation, "Avaiana de Pau", titled "Sandalhita de Ripa", all characters wore sombreros and moustaches regardless of age or gender.
- PONY.MOV: The giant Mexican who beats up Rarity in DRESS.MOV.
Web Original
- Chad Warden claiming Mario to be Mexican in his second video.
Web Comics
- Gordito and family in The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Significant in that Gordito is twelve. He grew it out of sheer willpower in about five seconds when the custody agent refused to let him have his late father's guns. It's called "the Mustache of Authority" and it works like the Jedi Mind Trick, allowing him to command the weak-willed into obedience.
- Cabinet Sanchez in Spamusement. (link)
- In Wapsi Square, Monica's Mexican uncle has a rather impressive mustache.
Western Animation
- Bother and Blister, the twins in The Crumpets, wear fake ones as well as Mexican accessories while doing a couple of their antics. There's an episode in which Lil-One also wears them when he assists the twins.
- El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera: Quite a few characters sport a few of these. Notable examples are:
- Grandpapi Rivera, aka Puma Loco, the title character's Cool Old Guy. He's also considered quite the ladies man.
- The Moustache Mafia, which is a criminal gang with powers based around their moustaches being able to be used as Combat Tentacles. They're led by Don Baffi, a Retired Badass in his own right who's reliance on a wheelchair does nothing to stop his moustache from kicking all kinds of butt.
- Finally we have Raul, who IS this trope in character form. An ambulatory moustache, Raul will often attach himself to Manny's lips, enhancing the hero's machismo and giving him the same powers as the above-mentioned mafia.
- In the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi episode "Ole", which takes place in the Hollywood Atlas Version of Mexico, apparently, everyone dresses like a member of a mariachi band and has (you guessed it) huge mustaches.
- The Megas XLR episode "Universal Remote" featured the robot bandit Skalgar with big mustache, over-the-top accent, a mariachi leitmotif.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): The episode "West in Pieces" takes place in an Old West alternate universe. As such, the Gangreen Gang become a gang of banditos called Gang Verde, complete with Ace and Snake growing mustaches.
Real Life
- Truth in Television — There HAVE been news articles on the strange moustaches the Mexican police have. To be more precise; after various successful films featuring Pedro Infante and Luis Aguilar as leads, a specific set of movies depicted them as Traffic Officers. Even more specifically, they both play rivals/friends motorized traffic officers. Previous to these movies, all police officers were required to conform to military dress code; that meant buzzcut and shaving all facial hair. Legend states that after the movies were a hit with the audiences, the motorized traffic division officers started to grow moustaches mimicking those of both Pedro and Luis; and to this date they still do. It is very rare to see a completely shaven biker cop or even actual police officers. It's expected of them now. Federal Police, Interstate highway police, and the Mexican military still adhere to the full shaven look, however.
- It gets more noticeable the farther back in time you go, with Revolution era moustaches 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. More specifically, they were New-Spain-born Spaniards, thus Creoles. But it wasn't YET Mexico.
- The Mexican-American congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) sports magnificent moustaches. 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 moustache was worthy of its own Chuck Norris list.
- Cesar Romero, famed for his frequent Latin Lover roles, refused to shave off his moustache when playing The Joker on the 60's Batman (1966) TV show; he painted it over instead.
- Danny Trejo technically counts. Although from Los Angeles, he actually is of Mexican descent.
- Mexico-born Bill Meléndez, director of A Charlie Brown Christmas and countless other Peanuts cartoons, had one.
- Geraldo Rivera has a larger-than-average moustache that's been his trademark for decades — combined with his enormous nose, however, it makes him look more like Groucho Marx. This makes sense, as he isn’t Mexican at all: he’s Puerto Rican on his father’s side and Ashkenazi Jewish on his mother’s—hence the schnozz.
- Spanish/Mexican MAD artist Sergio Aragonés still has a luxurious 'stache.
- Subverted in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Men in that city tend to be clean shaven more so than many men from the USA.
- When Mexico hosted The World Cup in 1986, mascot Pique◊ was a Jalapeño pepper with a mustache.
