--- title: El Santo: New Google Doodle Honors Mexican Wrestling Legend description: Google updates its logo to celebrate what would have been the 99th birthday of the man credited with popularizing wrestling in Mexico canonical: https://time.com/4505683/new-google-doodle-honors-el-santo/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-23T14:40:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:55.535Z og:title: El Santo: New Google Doodle Honors Mexican Wrestling Legend og:description: Google updates its logo to celebrate what would have been the 99th birthday of the man credited with popularizing wrestling in Mexico og:url: https://time.com/4505683/new-google-doodle-honors-el-santo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cadf3ea0239462a/6988a745cf40a8c0bfc44eda/rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santos-99th-birthday-hp2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santos-99th-birthday-hp2x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: El Santo: New Google Doodle Honors Mexican Wrestling Legend twitter:description: Google updates its logo to celebrate what would have been the 99th birthday of the man credited with popularizing wrestling in Mexico twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cadf3ea0239462a/6988a745cf40a8c0bfc44eda/rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santos-99th-birthday-hp2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Google Doodle Honors Mexican Wrestling Legend El Santo by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Sep 23, 2016 2:40 PM UTC  Google by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Sep 23, 2016 2:40 PM UTC Google has rolled out a doodle to celebrate what would have been the 99th birthday of El Santo, the enigmatic fighter known for making wrestling one of the most popular sports in Mexico. Born in 1917,Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta was better known by his nickname “El Santo” (The Saint) and was notorious for never being seen without his distinctive silver fighting mask. It was this mask that allowed him to successfully conceal his identity for most of his life, as he popularized the lucha libre style of wrestling in his home country and beyond. He [became a national figure](https://www.google.com/doodles/rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santos-99th-birthday) through his appearances in film and as the subject of many comic books, depicted always with his mask and portraying the spirit of the courageous and heroic luchador. In 1984, El Santo appeared on Contrapunto, a Mexican talkshow, and revealed his true identity by unmasking himself to the audience and viewers. A week later, El Santo died. He was buried, by his own request, in his trademark silver mask. The Doodle, which is visible across the U.S., Latin America and Indonesia, features El Santo defending cities and fighting off his enemies. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4505683/new-google-doodle-honors-el-santo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4505683/new-google-doodle-honors-el-santo/"},"headline":"New Google Doodle Honors Mexican Wrestling Legend El Santo","datePublished":"2016-09-23T14:40:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:55.535Z","description":"He would have been 99 on Friday","url":"https://time.com/4505683/new-google-doodle-honors-el-santo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Mexico","Google Doodle"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cadf3ea0239462a/6988a745cf40a8c0bfc44eda/rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santos-99th-birthday-hp2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Suyin Haynes","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cadf3ea0239462a/6988a745cf40a8c0bfc44eda/rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santos-99th-birthday-hp2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santos-99th-birthday-hp2x","caption":"","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4505683/new-google-doodle-honors-el-santo/","name":"New Google Doodle Honors Mexican Wrestling Legend El Santo"}}]}] ```