Corona Daily 371: Segovia Brothers Circus, Part I

Alejandro Segovia from Guatemala is the top man of the Segovia Brothers circus. His father started it in 1987, but generations before him had worked in the circus business since 1884, when Guatemala’s first modern circus was founded. Alejandro feels there is such a thing as circus blood, and equates the circus with liberty. His circus moves to a different city every week, and a different country every month. They call the non-circus population “stay-at-home” people. The crew lives in small cabins in circus trailers.

In September 2019, the troupe started their much anticipated year-long tour of five Central American countries. The show was named “Circus Extreme”. Travelling circuses are extremely popular in Central America. Great family enjoyment and a way for people to de-stress from daily worries. A convoy of Segovia-branded trucks and trailers landed in Nicaragua, where the troupe performed for two months. In Costa Rica, a circus truck and Alejandro’s mobile home were confiscated by the unfriendly authorities for want of a permit. There was no time to go to the courts, so Alejandro took the pragmatic decision of moving to Honduras and returning later to Costa Rica once its bureaucrats were satisfied.  

On 6 March, they arrived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras’s capital, set up the giant red-and-yellow tent in a field, with its brightly lit “Segovia” on top, surrounded by glimmering red trucks and trailers. Only 25% seats were sold for the first show. The third show was empty. On 15 March, Honduras went into a lockdown. Weeks later, its president would be hospitalized with the infection.

Alejandro was trained as an acrobat, a stunt motorcycle rider in the globe of death, a magician, a juggler, but he had no idea how to face a pandemic. For the first time in its history, the circus people became “stay-at-home” people.

The circus investors, who normally pay running expenses in advance and recover from ticket sales, suddenly disappeared. Their phones no longer answered. In three days, the troupe of 35 people ran out of food, supplies and money. They had no money to go home. By the first week of April, circus kids began complaining of hunger. Drinking water ran out, they began washing dishes in puddles. Alejandro’s mother first sold her cell phone, pans and fridge. Others followed. They used that money to buy food and water.

Guatemala’s border was more than 600 km away through a mountainous region. In a lockdown, without money, it was impossible to take the circus back home. Alejandro had two deadlines. His license to operate overseas would expire in July. After that, he was supposed to pay import duties on everything he brought into the country. That would kill him. His wife, Vany Lopez, was due to give birth at the end of July. As per the laws, if the baby was born outside Guatemala, it wouldn’t have citizenship and might not be allowed to enter Guatemala.

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In a frenzied state, he wrote pleading letters to the Guatemalan embassy, and the Honduras chamber of commerce. He sought help from local circuses. He cried when alone, and managed to sleep only three or four hours a night.

None of that helped. Then his troupe began performing on the streets. In 40 C temperatures, women dancers performed on the road. They set up the “globe of death”, in which motorcyclists rode in 360-degree loops. After that they held up signs and jars to seek donations.

(To be continued)

Ravi