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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 24 december 2019
Times Square characters head to Rock Center for the holidays

By SABRINA CASERTA then let them come to you.
NEW YORK (AP) — Visitors Don't go running up to peo-
headed for Times Square ple and touching them."
have long been bedazzled After a Times Square Elmo
by thick crowds, bright was arrested in September
lights, and a cadre of cos- for grabbing a 14-year-old
tumed characters who si- girl's buttocks as she posed
dle up to tourists, pose with for a photo with him, Mayor
them for pictures, then per- Bill De Blasio promised strict-
sistently pressure them for er enforcement to ensure
tips. harassment wouldn't hap-
Complaints about the pen again, but didn't out-
sometimes aggressive be- line how he'd do so.
havior of the performers On a recent Sunday, three
prompted the city in 2016 Minnie Mouses and one
to passed a law relegating Mickey Mouse character
the Times Square charac- roamed the sidewalks out-
ters to 8-by-50 foot "activ- side Rockefeller Center.
ity zones" where they might Each politely declined to
annoy fewer people. be interviewed.
Now, with the holiday sea- Some passersby defended
son in full swing, some of them as harmless and fun.
the costumed superheros, "I work down here, right by
Muppets and Disney char- Rockefeller Center, and
acters have headed to the In this Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019 photo, people snap pictures with familiar costumed characters, I think they should be al-
equally crowded environs who solicit money to perform for the photos in Times Square in New York. lowed to take pictures
around Rockefeller Cen- Associated Press wherever they want," said
ter and its iconic Christmas Jen Radin, who was ac-
tree. ture of his two girls stand- because there were two nity. companied by her son
The scene on a recent ing with Minnie and Mickey characters in his picture, "Don't do it!" Saverino and daughter. "Maybe not
weekend was a familiar Mouse on Fifth Avenue. not one. shouted. "It'll cost you $100." during the week because
one, though absent the After he pulled out his wal- Ed Saverino, of New Jersey, "I'm from around here," it forms crowds, and it's al-
activity zones that keep the let and handed over a few brushed by the characters Saverino said. "So I know ready hard enough to walk
characters penned in. dollar bills, he was greeted on his way to see the tree the deal. These guys are around here. But on the
"All right, smile," one dad by grumbling from Mickey as someone else politely predatory. If you wanna weekends, I don't see a
said as he snapped a pic- that this wasn't enough, declined a photo opportu- take pictures with people, problem."q

Mexican wrestlers thrill public at historic Metro station

By AMY GUTHRIE libre that they are seeing, Like riding the Metro, in-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tinie- they purge their sadness, dulging in a lucha libre
blas, one of the grandmas- their unhappiness — so wrestling match is a quint-
ters of Mexican wrestling, many things," he said from essentially Mexican pas-
looked on from a stage behind a golden mask with time. It's the second most-
over the weekend as lucha black mesh over his face. Ti- followed sport in the coun-
libre wrestlers put on a free nieblas, who is 80, conceals try, after soccer.
show for spectators at the his identity even though he "Mexicans identify with lu-
open air plaza of Metro In- is retired from wrestling. His cha libre because Mexican
surgentes. wrestling moniker means culture is very colorful," said
The young men donned "darkness." So, alluding to the bright
studded collars, devil horns, "Lucha libre is a therapy. In- colors of the wrestlers' cos-
masks and —of course— stead of yelling at the missis tumes as well as their flair
tight pants as they hurled when they arrive home, or for the dramatic.
insults, kicked one another at the mother-in-law, they The bravado on display
in the chest and swung legs arrive calm. They already Mexican wrestler Relampago Veloz encourages the crowd dur- over the weekend includ-
like pendulums around op- yelled at the wrestlers," he ing a "lucha libre" fight in Mexico City, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019. ed a five-woman match
ponents. The high-risk the- added with a chuckle. Associated Press filled with grunts, slaps,
atrics were far more dan- The display on the concrete chest pumps, body locks
gerous than when Tinieblas esplanade of one of Mexi- ers looming within eyeshot fore the wrestling began on and flips. An Aztec princess
began his wrestling career co City's first Metro stations of the base of the sunken Saturday. in fishnet stockings took on
in 1971, but the enthusias- was put on by an arts foun- plaza. The colorless plaza Annual ridership of the the bad girls with the help
tic cheers and jeers of the dation called LuchArte to served as a bleak back- Mexico City subway system of a little person whose hits
crowd sounded the same. commemorate 50 years of drop for a shootout scene tops 1.6 billion in a sprawl- and punches drove the
Taking wrestling to the the city's heavily trafficked in the 1990 science fiction ing metropolitan area with crowd wild.
streets on a day of leisure subway system. film "Total Recall," starring 22 million inhabitants. The "C'mon little one!" cheered
struck Tinieblas as brilliant, This particular station is Arnold Schwarzenegger. lines span 140 miles (226 a spectator as children
since some fans lack the ringed with concrete walls "I think that without the kilometers), making the chanted "Again, again!"
time or economic means meant to evoke pre-His- Metro, the city would be capital's subway one of the every time the blonde
to see a match in an arena. panic architecture, with chaos," LuchArte founder most extensive urban rail woman with dwarfism en-
"Right now, with the lucha the city's tallest office tow- Iliana So told the crowd be- networks in the world. tered the ring.q