Growing up in the circus, part one.

May 13, San Jose, California.

Last night we saw Angelo Rodriguez, an old friend of Fridman from Perú who occasionally works private shows for the Cirque du Soleil. We spent the evening at his sister's apartment in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, catching up on la gente.
Angelo, like Fridman, grew up in the circus in Perú. He came to the United States first to work for the Carson and Barnes circus. He went back home after fighting with the head of the group he worked with, Martin Gonzales. Angelo later came back to the U.S. to work for Circus Chimera. He left the traveling circus life when he got married and settled in the Bay area. He was once offered to work for the Cirque du Soleil, only to turn them down, a newly-wed not wanting to be away from his wife. He does a strap act and now works for private shows.
The Gonzales are another circus family Fridman grew up around. He also worked with and for them on a number of occasion, up to last year at the Tarzan Zerbini circus when it also ended with a fight. The world of the circus, like all others, is a close-knit one, with paths, friendships and romances endlessly intertwined. Most of them try at one point or another to come work in the U.S. and crisscross each other here again, extending the net that binds them over the span of another country, bringing with them old quarrels and debts and sometimes finding their world turned just as upside down as the walk Fridman does in the circus.
A good example is Sami Rojas Stefano, a performer from a Romani family whom Fridman grew up with. Sami's father owned a circus in Peru and after having to leave his family and go earn a living by himself at 12 Fridman worked for them for a while. Sami was the owner's son, a millionaire and a prince in the boy Fridman's eyes. They met again, about a month ago when we were in the Riverside area, after more than ten years without seeing each other. Sami and his sister, Maritza, who was Fridman's sweetheart when they were kids, work for a circus called Circo Caballero . Maritza still does her act in the show but Sami, who has found religion and seems to have aged beyond his years, now works as prop help. Funny how things work out, Fridman commented when he came back from the visit: the owner's son, the all important one, and I just a poor kid, a nobody, and look where we are now.
(To be continued.)

Shirly, Angelo's sister, holding Dylan.