The Osorio Circus

Memories of life in Villa de Garcia in the early 1950s.

 

Elephants, lions, bears, flying trapeze shows.  Every kid feels like he is in heaven when the circus came to town.  And, when the circus came to Villa de Garcia, like every other kid in town, I was transported into a world of lion tamers, elephant riders, trapeze artists and clowns.  For almost a week, we thought of nothing but the circus.  The Osorio Circus would always set up in the little square in front of my mother's uncle's house, Raul Garza, a couple of long blocks from our house. 

There was a family relationship between my mother and the owners of the circus. The "Circo Osorio" was founded by Jesús Osorio Oregón and his wife María Dolores Garza García in 1926.  My grandfather's family names were "Garza Garcia."  I don't know if she was a sister or maybe even a cousin of my grandfather.  But regardless of the relation, all we knew is that we had special access to the animal cages and that we got to see the circus acts for free.

One of the exciting things was watching the main tent go up.  All the workers knew what they were doing, two or three of them hammering the spikes into the ground with those large hammers.  Evaristo, Pablo and me, along with Bruno and several other kids would sit around watching the process and imagining what it would be like to join the circus. Watching the "Big Top" rise was magical.  I remember watching the movie "Dumbo" some years later, watching the workers put up the tent and thinking to myself, "it was just like the Circo Osorio."  I also, some years later, remember watching the Mickey Mouse Club TV program every day in Michigan and enjoying the circus song

"Here comes the circus,

everyone likes the circus

and that includes the Merry Musketeers."

I would always think of the Circo Osorio.  By that time I was about 11 years old and I also enjoyed watching Annette Funicello, my dream TV actress, and the reason why I had to go to confession on Saturdays for the thoughts I had about her. 

Once the tent was put up, they had a "parade" through town with the elephants, the clowns, the trapeze artists and some the cages with the lions and some of the animals to advertise the circus. Although a parade was not needed since it was the most exciting thing and the only new thing in town.  Everybody knew about it and no additional advertising was needed.  I remember the family got a special tour of the compound and we got to be close to the animal cages.  The lions were pretty majestic, but also very stinky.  In fact, all the animals smelled bad.  as an eight-year-old, one of our favorite parts was to go and watch the elephant poop.  We thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

The shows were fantastic with the lights and the clowns, the lion taming show and the elephants dancing.  But the most fantastic and most impressive part of the show was the trapeze artists.  It was absolutely magical seeing them fly through the air and not fall.  I remember that we set up a trapeze from the tree and tried to do what they did.  My brother Alejandro actually fell and broke his arm.  But we had lots of fun swinging on those "trapeze" and pretending we were in a circus show. 

Unfortunately, the Circus would only stay for three or four days.  But those were three or four magical days that we remembered for the rest of the summer.  I remember a big discussion one evening, while some of the neighbors came over to listen to the radio, they were talking about this one girl that ran away with one of the circus workers.  Some of the ladies felt sorry for her and some thought she was starting a life of a loose woman, and some of them thought that the police should have gone and arrested the man who took her.   I did not know what a loose woman was, but I thought it was pretty exciting to run away and join the circus.

After many years the Circo Osorio closed down and part of the Osorio family stayed in Puerto Vallarta in a reformed Circo Osorio and another part of the family formed another Circo Osorio in Las Vegas.  They formed a partnership with the American Crown Circus and present shows throughout California.