Growing up in the circus, part two.

May 17, San Jose (Children's Discovery Museum,) California.
Most of the people Fridman grew up with in the small South American circus world are now in the United States, like the Gonzales and the Rodriguez, Angelo, his sister, Shirly, and younger brother, Jericho (I'll have to investigate the names.)
Fridman has known Angelo since he was six years old, and the Gonzales family for even longer. He worked for many years, in Perú, Chile and Ecuador, for the Gonzales family, which has now grown to include Martin and his wife, Roxanna, Martin's two teenage children from another marriage, Martincito (little Martin) and Estefani, Roxanna's teenage son from a previous relationship, Tito (short for Robertito, little Roberto,) Martin and Roxanna's son together, Vicente, who is four, and Martin's mother, Señora Ines. All except the baby and the grandmother work an act together in the circus. They have a little French poodles act and an acrobatics one. Martin is an only son. His mother raised his two children, Martincito and Estefani, until all three of them came to the U.S. to join their father.
Angelo and his siblings all to work in the circus as well, although not together anymore.
Like a lot of South American circus performers Angelo first came to this country to work for the Carson and Barnes circus. The circus is owned by a family from Hugo, Oklahoma, the Millers and now Byrds, and its performers were until recently dominated by a Peruvian circus family, the Cavallinis. They brought Fridman to the U.S. to work with the Gonzales' family, who was then also at Carson and Barnes. Martin Gonzales' wife, Roxanna, is a Cavallini. The patriarch of the Cavallini clan, Don Roberto, as they call him, lives in Lima, but all his children are in the U.S., some with Carson and Barnes, where some have married the owners' daughters, and others now in other occupations around the country.
Carson and Barnes, like Circus Chimera and many other small circuses, brings the majority of its manual workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries, and its performers from around the world. Many come from Russia, its circus and gymnastics schools among the best in the world. Eugene Baranov, an animal tamer, was a friend of Fridman's at Carson and Barnes. Over ritual Sunday buffets in Paris Texas, near Hugo, Oklahoma, where Carson and Barnes winters and where we were all together the year before last, we got to know him better. For me it was a lesson in understanding and accepting, as I'm usually appalled by the keeping and taming of wild animals in the circus (I can't say that I was convinced, but it is always good to get to know the face of the other; and when this other is someone like Eugene, it's hard to stay entirely hostile.)
(To be continued.)