Circo

Circo

This is a very touching documentary of a Mexican family in the circus business. It is a small family owned circus that travels every few days to another small town. They can’t afford to go to big cities.

The towns are small and usually poor. Everyone in the family participates in setting up the big top. The labor is intensive. They sleep in a trailer and the living conditions are difficult.

The young children are trained from an early age to become acrobats and performers. They don’t seem to have any other life than working at the circus. They don’t go to school and most of the children cannot read or write.

The grandfather is the owner of the circus. Some of the daughter-in-laws resent that he takes all the money and they work so hard for so little.

We meet many of the children and watch as they perform. One grandson is taught to work with the wild animals. I kept waiting for some tragedy to happen. Maybe the tent would blow down. Maybe the wild animals would escape. Even the second rate electricity of strung light bulbs looked ominous.

For the most part the family loyalty was strong. One wife cannot cope any longer and leaves for the city. Loyalty to this second rate circus was amazing. The wives made the candy apples sold to the audience. Sometimes there were only a handful of people to watch.

They never stayed more than 2 days in the sleepy dusty old towns.

I was totally fascinated.