Saturday, November 5, 2011

Circo Atayde(Aguilar) Hermanos






I didn't get much posted yesterday as we took delivery of our fourth cage/beast wagon earlier this week and myself and my great crew spent most of yesterday training and then shifting animals and getting it all to fit in the animal tent. The show currently has 35 felines. 13 gold tigers from the old act, 9 white and 9 gold tigers for the new act, and an exhibit pair of leopards and and an exhibit pair of jaguars. In addition to the 4 cage/beast wagons the show carries 6 rolling cages for the babies and for training purpose's. Plans call for the elimination of all rolling cages, with the exception of one which is being converted at the moment into a squeeze cage at my insistence(or whining and bitching which was suggested a week ago) :), and a fifth cage/beast wagon is currently in production and when completed the tent will be enlarged to better accommodate everything. Two of the cage/beast wagons housing the 13 act tigers will be leaving for another show, when the new act is completed and we will then only have three cage/beast wagons and a squeeze cage to account for. We have to unhook all the towing vehicles, which caused some pissing and moaning with the transportation department, but after "skillful negotiations" they accepted what I wanted to do, and respectfully replied, "Si, pinche madre Gringo." I think that means The King or O Great One. Neat, huh.

Six mornings a week the two cage/beast wagons on the far left housing the act tigers are pulled out and taken to the front where they are washed and prepared for the daily street parade, and the other two cage/beast wagons/rolling cages are moved over in their place so we can use the tunnel/chute to get the cat's into the arena with the rolling cages pushed up to the arena. As I said earlier I am blessed with a great crew of men who hustle to get it all moved and shifted for practice, only to reverse the process and get it all back in order for a 6:15 daily show.

2 comments:

Dennis said...

Hola Pinche Wade
Is the Atayde name just for 'star power' or is that family still in charge? Is Manuel Atayde still around?
Met him in a cantina back in the 80's and for weeks (Mexican circus dates are typically long) in Acapulco I had the run of the circus lot and a box seat when I wished. When we hit a bar or two, he would drink the rum and me the Coke. Dennis

Wade G. Burck said...

Hola Puta Dennis,
Part of the same family, although the "original" Atayde Circus has downsized from the 70's. I met Manuel Atayde when I first came to Mexico with some of Carson and Barnes baby elephants for the Frank Brown/Atayde Bros. Circus in 1975, at the Palacio de los Deportes. He presented the two big show elephants in the ring and I presented the babies outside of the ring. He also presented a great 6 dromedary camel act, with girl riders and he dressed as an Arab Sheik riding a grey Arabian horse. It was beautiful. I asked about Manuel when I first got here and was told that he had died 3 years ago unfortunately.

Wade