Roberto Gonzalez Cruz was initially billed as El Zica II, in honor of his brother, El Zica I. He later changed his name to El Hijo Del Santo, not to be confused with the legitimate son of
El Santo that later assumed the mask. Roberto Gonzalez Cruz moved to Tijuana to pursue his career as a professional wrestler but had a difficult time finding regular work as he was young and still small at the time. He continued working local arenas until he began making a name for himself as he grew physically and refined his wrestling skills. Cruz realized that in order to take his career to the next level, he would have to select a more crowd pleasing name and character. He chose the name
El Solitario, derived from the popular comic book character
El Llanero Solitario ("
The Lone Ranger"'). He also adopted his now trademark gold and black colored costume and golden mask with a fringe around the eyes representing the Lone Ranger's mask. After the change, promoters and fans took notice of the new dynamic wrestler. On November 16, 1965, El Solitario faced Panchito Ramirez in Arena Coliseo located in Guadalajara. He would make his debut in
Arena Coliseo Mexico City on September 6, 1966, when he defeated Tony Reyna. In 1966, El Solitario defeated and unmasked Águila Tapatía, that was followed by a win over Mano Blanca. He won his first world title when he defeated Occident Welterweight champion Luís González. El Solitario was now working for
EMLL, Mexico's largest promotion company. He was catapulted into stardom within the professional wrestling world when he defeated veteran
Rey Mendoza in a mask vs hair match on December 13, 1968. A few weeks later, he defeated another legend,
Rene Guajardo, and also took his hair in another wager match. El Solitario formed a wrestling trio alongside
Dr. Wagner and
Angel Blanco; the group was known as "La Ola Blanca" (
The White Wave). He was wrestling as a rudo at this time but when his partners Dr. Wagner and Angel Blanco turned on him, he became one of the most popular tecnicos of his era. It also started a legendary rivalry between himself, Wagner and Blanco. He continued wrestling as an individual during this time, and in 1969, won the NWA Middleweight world title by defeating
El Rayo de Jalisco. In 1970, El Solitario won the NWA Light Heavyweight title by defeating Ray Mendoza. In 1972, he unmasked his rival, Angel Blanco, in the ring. El Solitario was one of the first stars to leave EMLL to join the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) promotion, which was run by
Francisco Flores and Ray Mendoza. He won the UWA's first Junior Heavyweight title in 1982. He also toured Japan in 1972, 1979, and 1981, where he would face and team up with premiere stars such as
Tiger Mask and
Tatsumi Fujinami, along with other Mexican wrestlers such as
El Solar and
El Canek . He was unable to fully exhibit his wrestling skills during his tours, as the junior's division formula in Japan consisted of popular Japanese wrestlers facing off against foreign heels. However, he gained a following outside of Mexico as a result of those tours. While in Mexico, he remained one of the most popular headlining stars throughout the country. In the early 1980s, he formed a short lived trios team with
Aníbal and
Villano III, the group was known as
Los Tres Caballeros that ended when Aníbal turned on El Solitario. He won the UWA Junior Light Heavyweight title in 1980 and 1981. In 1982, he won the NWA Light Heavyweight title. That same year, he participated in
El Santo's final career match when he teamed up with legends El Santo,
Gory Guerrero, and
Huracan Ramirez to defeat
El Signo,
Negro Navarro,
El Texano, and
Perro Aguayo. Perhaps his biggest match took place on December 1, 1985, when he defeated and unmasked Dr. Wagner in a mask vs mask match. ==Death==