Westward bound.

March 2, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
We're in Las Cruces, in the shadow of the beautiful Organ mountains.
Finally out of Texas. Of the many reasons why I don't like Texas, the fact that they elected George W. Bush as governor should be enough, not to mention having the most populous inmate population in the country and being very liberal in executing them. But then I shouldn't get started on the death penalty either because not only is it a crime against humanity, and a useless and costly one in terms of deterrence, but it is also the most blatant incongruity coming from a people that likes to proclaim its Christianity so high and loud.
So we're out of Texas for good this time, westward bound. This circus only travels west of the United States. More often than not it also plays the same towns, and because of this the show needs to be new each year and ideally it needs to have a new cast as well. This is the first year since the circus opened in 1997 that the cast is actually all new, after the Chimal family left at the end of the season last year. Jim took the Chimal family with him from the Carson and Barnes circus when he started Circus Chimera (he worked at Carson and Barnes for many years, and learnt the ropes,) and they were the backbone of the show. They'll be working with the Kelly Miller Circus this year, and are also making plans to open their own circus in Mexico, a dream of many years.
With the Chimales gone, this is also the first time that Circus Chimera is not overwhelmingly Latino. The Chimales were from Yucatan, Mexico, and over the years a majority of the performers were from Latin America as well, like Fridman. This year Fridman is the "last of the Latinos," as Jim joked. The biggest group is from Russia. Ongoing joke among the administrative staff: the circus has been taken over by the Russian mafia. Next is the Chinese troupe. The circus now has a very different feel.
I called Mom early in the morning when I arrived (it was late morning in France) but she wasn't home; she called me back later; she was on her way back from Paris, I had forgotten all about it.