Somewhere in the world, someone’s favorite movie waits patiently in a forgotten can to be rediscovered. For Viviana García—who leads the archival collective Permanencia Voluntaria—that cinematic spark bears a combat name: Las Lobas del Ring (“The She-Wolves of the Ring”), an extravagant gem produced in 1965 by Cinematográfica Calderón, the family enterprise forged between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
Starring big-screen legends like Lorena Velázquez, Elizabeth Campbell, María Eugenia San Martín, and Sonia Infante, the film follows the trail of four women who broke in without asking permission into one of Mexican popular culture’s most fiercely masculine bastions to claim it as their own.
However, the real drama unfolded outside the studios. While cameras immortalized these heroines on the canvas, reality dictated a different sentence: in Mexico City, women were strictly forbidden from stepping into the ring professionally. The real world denied them the space, but popular cinema already envisioned them at its epicenter.
Breaking Celluloid and the Patriarchy
Today, more than sixty years after that cinematic daring, García faces the challenge of returning them to the big screen. It is a mission driven not only by nostalgia, but by personal and familial historical reparation.
For generations, the women in her family were marginalized from the celluloid business. By taking on this task, García became the first woman in her lineage—with records dating back to 1906—to make cinema the center of her life. Saving these films from decay and oblivion meant, at the same time, rescuing the memory of her own and finding her own place within it.
Through Permanencia Voluntaria, her effort has already yielded resounding results: sixteen restored films that have crossed borders to screen at festivals the likes of the Berlinale, Locarno, Morelia, and Film at Lincoln Center. Nevertheless, the greatest treasures do not happen on European red carpets, but in the audience’s reaction.
It happened at screenings in the Old Continent where spectators with no prior knowledge of professional wrestling ended up cheering and laughing in unison as if they were in the front row. Or in a recent flash, when a 13-year-old Latina girl approached her after watching The Bat Woman to confess: “I want to be a film director. I have stories to tell.”
One Dollar, Three Frames: The Collective Bet
To make the digital and physical resurrection of Las Lobas del Ring possible, the project has launched a fundraising campaign under a premise as educational as it is poetic: One dollar equals three frames.
The initial goal was set at $35,000 USD to complete the restoration. However, the ambition goes beyond the historical archive: if the collection reaches $50,000 USD, the surplus funds will help finance free community screenings, educational workshops, and panel discussions to bring Mexican film heritage closer to new generations.
“We aren’t asking you to pay for the past. We invite you to help create its future,” the call states.
How to Join the Rescue?
Donating is very easy. You can contribute directly through the Permanencia Voluntaria Film Fund | Paso Del Norte Community Foundation.
Tax-deductible contributions for U.S. taxpayers not only seek to fund post-production, but also offer companies and patrons the opportunity to stamp their names in the opening credits, turning sponsorship into a permanent link of binational culture.
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