La Ruda

Lupita Machado is a beautiful, athletic, very aggressive young Chicana, but not in touch with her identity. Bounced from athletic scholarships and police academies for her attitude, she ends up mud-wrestling in Tijuana, then going on to become a professional wrestler Mexican style--a Ruda with cape and mask. She becomes the object of lust, then frustrated anger, of the wrestling promoter, Ray. Invited to his mansion for a private bout, she angers him further and is shocked to see him and the spectators turn into a crew of masked, caped demons. He kills her and dumps her body off an onramp. Her body falls into a junkyard sanctuary where Tijuana's gamines gather, the street kids who we have already seen being exploited into prostitution, drugs, and clinics where their organs and vitality are harvested to rejuvenate aging foreigners. Under the ramp they pray to a private shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, who speaks to them and tells them she will send them a deliverer and protector. In a scene reminiscent of much Mexican art, the Virgin greets and revives Lu. The gamines' prayers seem answered--a gorgeous, furious angel of destruction who starts mopping up pimps, cocaine labs, clinics, and child abusers in general. Her crusade naturally brings her back up against Ray the promoter, also in charge of much of the abuse industry. And fairly well connected to the supernatural himself: he morphs into a devil ray creature and defeats Lu again, this time taking not only her life but, her soul: the "real death" as he puts it. Lu awakes again in the arms of the Virgin, humiliated and devastated by her second defeat. In another painterly cosmos, the Virgin reveals herself to Lu, timeless, rootless: the Mother of God. She shows Lu the importance of her femininity and racial roots-and the importance of reversing the self-defeating nature of her dominate-or-die attitude through selfless love. Meanwhile, back in real life, the gamines are contributing to Lu's revival by voluntarily sacrificing their own souls to save her--which the Virgin shows them is the only way to save one's own soul. Then they start the reconstruction of Lu's broken body, using local talent and materials including a body shop. The result is a "Sixty Million Peso Woman," a sleek cruise missile hotrod with a cool paintjob, winglike cowl, and calm chrome face of an angel. Powered by tequila, chile, herbs and pure spirit, Lu soars forth to an amazing battle and mystical victory. She rescues the kids and ends up as an icon, always there to defend the homeless and helpless children.