Circo Atayde Hermanos

Circo Atayde Hermanos. The Atayde brothers circus.

I was walking through Leon last week when I heard a blur of Spanish adjectives projected in the air, coming wildly towards me. Syllables danced for my attention. My ears perked to comprehend the wild and sporadic burst of Spanish. I looked up and saw something difficult to comprehend. It was a small pickup, a pale yellow and beat up truck with a loudspeaker perched on the roof. This explained the muffled slur of Spanish imperatives. Being pulled behind that truck was a trailer and a cage, and inside that cage a live, pacing tiger. The tiger was laying down casually on the cold metal and looking around as the city of Leon whizzed by.

Three days later, my inmerso compañera Pamela invited me to go to the Atayde brothers circus with her
friend and her friends adorable infant. I was morally conflicted at the advertising stragety: wild animals imprisoned and pulled throughout town like condemned criminals. But I decided to go. If anything I could capture the inhumanity into an 8 by 11 print. Something I could post on forums to raise awareness of the criminal ways of these Atayde brothers. The sadistic treatment of animals. Somehow I doubted a photo could do that much. Admittedly I was just plain curious about what a Mexican circus had to offer.

My friend Efi and I walked the three blocks from campus to the circus grounds. I saw lights, red and yellow tents crowding out the horizon, and more parked trailer cages. My stomach twisted upon itself as I realized it was not just one tiger on display.

Before entering the main auditorium tent one walks past a series of about nine trailers. Bears, panthers, tigers and monkeys had been plucked from their biospheres and crammed into cage after cage, no larger than the average kitchen. This area was free to the public and there was no space between the animal on display and human onlooker. The only thing keeping one from reaching through the bars and stroking wild fur was a ribbon rapping around the bars. It was red and had the word peligro printed repeatedly. Danger.

Below is an image of the tents and my friends walking tentatively into the swirling, thrilling wild show of the Atayde circus. Sponsored by Coca Cola.





















I happily left this area to the main tent. I could not look at these animals pacing in their packed in lifes, lying down as if dying, or simply staring out blankly into a world very different from their own. The circus began with a large suede wearing man that had a voice like dracula. The tent was hardly full. For every five onlookers there was a vendor selling 'cacahuates' 'and 'palomitas,' things that glowed and things that sprung. It was overwhelmingly red on the inside with a yellow striped tarp marking the arena where the action happened.

The next hour brought strange and alarming contradictions. Red haired Argentinian clowns squeaked out commands at children volunteers. Scantily clad and busty Latina woman hung from tarps bolted to the ceiling. One woman walked up and down on a shoddy metal latter, balancing various things in her teeth, ranging from a Menorah to a Katana. Horses followed by mini horses pranced around, dressed in vibrant red and yellow silks, colors and patterns that reminded me of Chicago's China town. In the second act a cage was set up to keep in 8 or 9 tigers. The tamed beasts followed the commands of a red suited animal trainer with a leather whip. They obeyed him to a cue, jumping through fire, pausing on platforms, and swiping and growling as the he strutted by with machismo.

I don't like clowns. When they returned in the second act I had had enough. I left the Atayde Hermanos circus about fifteen minutes before the finale.


Before I departed I captured the picture you see below. For 80 pesos you can come see the wild, captured and branded, pacing the small confines of their traveling prisons.