The Circo Atayde Packs a Generations’ Worth of Tradition

Ask just about any Mexican and they’ll probably be able to tell you where they were the first time they saw the Circo Atayde. For Loudres Carerra of La Puente, for example, simply hearing the name was like taking a trip back in time.

“It must have been the ‘50s when I went to see the circus in Mexico City,” she recalled excitedly. “I remember it was huge and very funny.”

Sergio Rocha of Los Angeles was in front of a TV screen in Mexico City. “We were poor and my parents couldn’t afford to buy any tickets,” he said. “But I watched the whole thing on television.”

In Mexico, where the name Atayde has become synonymous with the circus, the family-run troupe is something of a national treasure, like the poetry of Octavio Paz or the films of Gabriel Figueroa. In the United States, however--and even in Los Angeles, home to more Mexicans than all but three cities outside of Mexico--it’s remained a hidden treasure because, despite a 110-year history, the circus has never performed in this country. That will end Friday when the Circo Atayde opens a nine-day, bilingual, 20-show run at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. For Alfredo Atayde, head of the family’s third generation of circus professionals, the shows have taken on the feel of a homecoming.

“Many Mexicans in Los Angeles remember the Circo Atayde,” the circus’ general manager said in Spanish from his office in Mexico City. “They took their kids to see [it] in Mexico. And the new generations that have been born [in L.A.] . . . they want to see what the Mexican circus is like.

“The Circo Atayde has a very Latin style. We’ve developed a way to do circus shows [that’s] different than in other countries. We’re not the best or the worst. We’re different.”

Like other circuses, the Atayde features elephants, wild animals, prancing ponies and clowns--each, albeit, with a uniquely Mexican flavor. It also relies heavily on talented teams of acrobats, trapeze artists and high-wire performers.

And while the circus in Mexico may be different, it’s certainly not new. According to drawings found among Aztec and Mayan ruins, the country’s circus tradition extends to pre-Columbian days. But when the area’s indigenous cultures were decimated during the Spanish occupation, the ancient circus traditions were lost with them. As a result, the modern Mexican circus actually traces its roots to European troupes that toured Latin America in the 19th century.

“Those circuses influenced the founding of small circus companies . . . that worked in bull rings, corrals and public plazas,” Atayde says.

One of those was the Circo Atayde, which formed in 1888. The driving force behind its establishment was Alfredo’s grandfather, Aurelio, who, having been smitten by a touring troupe, left his parents’ farm in Zacatecas to join the circus when he was just 10. Sixteen years later, he persuaded brothers Manuel, Refugio and Andres to join him, and the company was born.

There are other Mexican circus companies with longer histories, but none can match the Ataydes’ years of consecutive performances. They worked through the Mexican revolution, for example, and even, in a sense, helped inspire it. In 1909, a short, pale man with a political philosophy but no means of disseminating it asked the Ataydes if he could borrow their circus tent for a meeting. They obliged and Francisco I. Madero, the author of the revolution, had the forum he needed to rally the people of Sinaloa against the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz.

Shortly after the revolution--and influenced, perhaps, by the political instability gripping Mexico at the time--the Circo set out on a tour of Latin America. Originally, the Ataydes had commitments for just two weeks of shows and tenuous invitations that could extend the tour another month. But the trip would stretch on for 20 years, eventually taking the Circo to every Latin American country save Paraguay.

Today the Circo Atayde is actually composed of three troupes: a major performance group based in Mexico City and two smaller companies that spend most of the year on the road. Since 1978, however, none of those roads have taken the groups outside Mexico, making Friday’s performance the Circo’s first international show in two decades.

“Mexico is very big country,” Alfredo Atayde explains. “We needed time to tour our own country.”

The troupe coming to Los Angeles will be Atayde’s A-team, the 35-member international team based in Mexico City. Its two-hour show includes 15 acts, headlined by three teams of world-renowned acrobats: the Flying Rodogels, the Espanas and Boitchanovi’s Teeterboard Acrobats.

The artists will also be accompanied by dozens of animals, including eight purebred Welsh ponies that make up the Atayde Pony Parade and a team of cavorting canines who form the Eldorado Revue.

In an age when the wonders of the world are just a mouse-click away for any child, when $100-million movies feature breathtakingly real dinosaurs and lifelike monsters, the very idea of a circus seems quaint and old-fashioned. But, Atayde says, the fact that it’s real and not an image on a movie or computer screen has helped it maintain a niche in cultures on both sides of the border.

“I know that the television, other methods of communication like the Internet are wonderful. But it’s not the same,” he says. “If I see a movie about Paris, it’s not the same as being there. The direct evidence--the smell, the sense--they can’t put that in any type of electronic communication.

“That’s why I think the circus will always draw people. Because it’s a total experience for a child. It’s one of their first experiences with a live show.”

Lourdes Carerra couldn’t agree more.

BE THERE

Circo Atayde performs at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 3939 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, Friday through Oct. 25, except Oct. 20. Weekend show times are 11:30 a.m., 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. with midweek shows most days at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $7 to $20; children under 2 are free. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or by phone at (213) 480-3232; (714) 740-2000; (619) 220-TIXS and (805) 583-8700. Tickets can also be purchased at the Sports Arena box office, (213) 748-6131.