Wrestlers hit the stacks at Vallejo’s John F. Kennedy Library

VALLEJO – Wrestlers strutting around a ring and diving off the top ropes may feel out of place in a library, but it’s par for the course during Lucha Libro, an event that brings masked wrestlers into libraries for a night of aerial moves, bodyslams, and reading. 

The family-friendly shows have amassed fan followings in San Jose, Berkeley, Vacaville, and Benicia, and now the event is coming back to Vallejo’s John F. Kennedy Library on Saturday night. 

Lucha libre is a distinctive form of Mexican professional wrestling, and it’s known for its acrobatics, colorful characters, and dramatic storylines. Lucha Libro plays off this tradition by incorporating libros — books — into the performance. Each show begins with a wrestler reading to the kids before they dive, literally, into action. During the show, they also advertise the library’s various events and services. 

Each event is hosted and produced by Lucha Libro co-founders Gerardo Rocha and Victor Dwight. Together they book the talent, plan out the storylines, and figure out the logistics of each show. They focus on casting wrestlers who have larger-than-life personas, and always aim to build up a “local town hero” like Jiah Jewell, who grew up in Benicia and is a mainstay of the shows there. 

Rocha said they started their own production company because they had both been in the wrestling business for several years, and “we were just looking to do our own thing.” He said they wanted a “healthy alternative” because wrestling, while fun, “does have that masculine, machismo kind of environment.” 

Rocha first got into producing shows during the pandemic. “Like a lot of people, I had an epiphany of, ‘Is this how the world is going to be? What am I doing with my life?’” 

A longtime fan of wrestling, he and his brother always talked about getting involved in the sport in some way. Rocha focused his efforts on being a promoter and announcer “because that’s where I felt my strength was in,” he said. His brother, meanwhile, began wrestling as Loverboy Leo, and he performed in their first show at the Benicia Public Library in January 2025. 

The Benicia show brought in hundreds of people — a surprising turnout given they were expecting only a few dozen people. Soon, other libraries were reaching out, and the Benicia show continued to gain traction. A TikTok of their October show racked up 1.2 million views.

“It took off like a rocket,” Rocha said. “We didn’t expect that many libraries to really be interested in it because a wrestling show inside of a library? That's not really a library thing.” 

But it gave Rocha and Dwight the space to have fun and “show everybody our art,” Rocha said. “At the end of the day, pro wrestling is an artform.”

Several employees from the JFK Library attended the Benicia show, and they knew immediately that they wanted to host one in Vallejo. Librarian Starry Eigenman first reached out to Rocha in the spring of 2025. 

Eigenman said they were interested in having a Lucha Libro in Vallejo because of its novelty. “It’s an unorthodox thing to do in a library, and it piques people’s interest,” Eigenman said, adding that it allows people to see an upscale production for free that, for some, might have been unaffordable.  

“Libraries are not always just quiet spaces anymore,” Eigenman. “They’re community gathering places.”

They held their first show at the library in June 2025, with 300 people in attendance.

“Everybody loved it. It was an all ages event,” Eigenman said. “At the beginning of the show, they did a little story time and all of the kids were chanting, ‘Read the book! Read the book!’ That was the best moment for me.” 

The library also recently hosted Llama Tales, another Lucha Libro production that features wrestler Llama Jack reading to children and participating in various arts and crafts. 

Though Lucha Libro has traveled all over the Bay, and even out of state, Rocha is especially proud to bring it back to his hometown of Vallejo. The March 28 event will be the second time the show is held at JFK Library.

Rocha grew up just blocks from the library and spent much of his childhood there, so the venue is particularly significant for him. The show is also a personal investment: Rocha and Dwight are funding it out of their own pockets, due to the library’s programming budget being smaller than it was in 2025. 

They’ll be holding another free Lucha Libro show in Vallejo on May 30th. They’ll also return to Benicia on May 2 and Aug. 1. As a way to further engage the community, Rocha said they’ll be partnering with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano for each of these shows, and there will be collection bins available for people to donate canned goods.

“The goal with these free shows is to help out the community as much as possible,” Rocha said.

For future shows, they’re working on partnering with more local businesses like El 2 De Oros Produce Market, who donate to their production company and have been longtime supporters of their work. 

Running a bootstrapped production company is not always easy, but Rocha sees all of this as an investment. Lucha Libro is his way of giving back to the community — and the library — that raised him.

“Everything with this ride has been a huge blessing for us. I've never experienced anything like this, to be quite honest with you,” said Rocha. “The community has been so supportive, so why not give back?”

The Lucha Libro show at JFK Library will be on March 28 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, and seating is first come, first serve. For those who can’t attend in person, they livestream the events on their YouTube channel.