There is no fiesta without a circus. That is what many Peruvians think, especially people from Lima. The feasts of the national holidays are not only painted red and white. They are multicolor with more hews than a rainbow. The circuses raise their big tents and with them the illusions and hopes of children and adults.
They think of trapeze artists, magicians and their tricks. They cannot wait to laugh with clowns and their strange names like “Little Rocoto”, “Whistle”, “Tea Spoon”, and more. They are the first to come out at the beginning of the circus and between each number to entertain the public. They keep people distracted while the lions are prepared, or the horses, elephants, monkeys, and dogs ready to perform their unusual tricks.
You can see contrasts in luxury, color, brilliance, music and elegance in the circuses of the capital of lima and the patched, stained tents of provinces or smaller cities. They mix with the poor landscape and dust of more marginal neighborhoods and towns, like those of Limas cones, its extremes. Still, they like the fancy tents, fill their role of bringing delight and joy to Peruvian families on the national holidays.
I used to see the circuses in my village of upland lima when I was a girl. They came with poor tents laced with holes, yet they brought novelty and delight to the town. The circuses with their clowns would parade through and raise our expectations, We knew that come the 28th of July, with its civic parade of school children, everyone would go to eat at the Bazaar>>> in Canta’s Plaza and then to the circus.
We let our imaginations run freely with the amazing things we hoped to see and thought of the strange animals they brought, as well as the funny clowns. With delight we looked forward to the day it opened. Even if their were no exotic animals, just some dogs capable of strange tricks, who sometimes would obey and sometimes not, still there were always clowns. At the end of the show, we always left happy, content for having seen the best circus in the world.
