John Stagikas is a stout man with a pale complexion and shaved head.  He is in his early 30s and is from New England, specifically from the Boston metropolitan area. He is fairly bilingual and owns a villa here in Costa Rica, which he smartly purchased years ago when the price was right.

Whenever he is not enjoying his vacation/investment property in Costa Rica, Mr. Stagikas makes a living as a wrestler in the United States. Before getting up on the ring, however, he must assume a different persona. He is RJ Brewer, fictional son of Jan Brewer, the controversial Governor of the State of Arizona who is known in the United States for two main reasons: her open (and mostly camera-grabbing) disapproval of U.S. President Barack Obama, and her staunch support for Arizona Senate Bill 1070.

SB 1070 is a controversial law in the State of Arizona that aims to curb illegal immigration, and which has unleashed a debate over just how much a single state in the American Union can get away with. SB 1070, which is currently under review by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), has received opposition from many individuals, entities and even nations. President Barack Obama is openly against SB 10170, but Governor Jan Brewer thumbs her nose at the White House and seems empowered by the attention she gets.

Even Costa Rica is against SB 1070, and to that extent she has joined other nations in an amicus curiae brief sent to the SCOTUS on this matter, as previously reported in The Costa Rica Star.

“I’ll wrestle you right back to Mexico!”

For the RJ Brewer wrestling character, SB 1070 is a fighting motto stenciled on the back on the red tights he wears on the ring, often with the Arizona state flag draped around his shoulders. What’s interesting about RJ Brewer is the wrestling federation he fights in: Lucha Libre USA, a circuit that celebrates the whimsical world of Mexican wrestling, where portly masked wrestlers with mysterious pasts fly across the ring and perform acrobatics that defy their weight. Lucha Libre is all about the eternal battle of good vs. evil, and to this extent wrestlers are classified under two distinct categories: Tecnicos and Rudos.

Tecnicos are the good guys. They are masked warriors who fight on behalf of La Raza (the Mexican ethnicity), the poor, and -more importantly- the children. Rudos are their opponents, caricature-like wrestlers who are essentially whipping boys, and who give the Tecnicos a hard time.

RJ Brewer is the ultimate Rudo, “El Mero Malo”, the king of all bad guys. He hits the ring with taunts to the fighters and the crowd, which in the Southwestern United States is about 99 percent Mexican. As the most nefarious villain, he threatens his opponents no so much with bodily harm as with deportation. His trash-talk mostly consists of the same vitriol that is parroted by conservative radio hosts that make a living out of speaking out against the perceived evils of immigration, like Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs (who is married to a Mexican woman). RJ Brewer’s act also includes taking potshots at the “Mex” portion of Tex-Mex food (which is predominant in Arizona), and the quality of Mexican beer.

The dynamic of Lucha Libre requires a character like RJ Brewer, possibly the most colorful that the world of Mexican wrestling has ever seen, a caricature that exemplifies just how ridiculous politics and partisanship can get. The audiences hate him, which is akin to Governor Brewer’s contempt for the Obama administration. And though RJ Brewer wrestles in front of auditoriums packed with Mexican audiences who regale him with profanity, the most dangerous threat to Mr. Stagikas comes from junk food and snacks (mostly tortilla chips) thrown in the ring.

RJ Brewer is such a caricature, that his bio on the Lucha Libre USA site offers the following description:

In his spare time, he enjoys volunteering with the Border Patrol along with his pitbull “Visa” by his side.

Should SB 1070 end up enacted and enforced in Arizona, the state could face a wave of deportations and reverse migration of the audience who Mr. Stagikas loves to entertain, and who put food on his table and allow him to visit his villa in Costa Rica. SB 1070 could be the end of RJ Brewer.

Source: Hector Becerra, Los Angeles Times