Jugglers, clowns and trapeze artists will be in charge of animating this Wednesday the circus performance that will take place in the city of Hialeah, in South Florida, and that will be projected to a very special audience.
It is a free show for children who have just entered the border without the company of adults, as part of the migratory exodus that has been taking place for months.
It is the first time that the US government has approved the release of minors from their detention centers to attend a cultural show.
“There are 126 children who have crossed the border without their parents and have spent little more than a year in centers of the immigration system and for the first time they will have the opportunity to enjoy a regular entertainment act without restrictions,” Martí Leo told Radio Televisión Ramos, owner of the Circus Lena company, which since March has set up its large red-and-white tent in the Westland shopping center, right on the corner of 49th and 16th streets, in Hialeah.
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“We are all immigrants, it could have been my children or me, because we all left our country in search of a better life,” said Ramos, born in Luyanó, 10 de Octubre municipality, and who from the age of 6 began to learn the art of execute mortals, croissants and the dove, among other stunts.
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Circus Lena is made up of 16 members who work in all domains of circus acts, such as gymnastics on aerial fabrics, acrobatics on skates, rope exercises, trapeze, and music with special lighting effects, among other acts.
And the best, the clown Marshmallow, ready to seduce the fiñes with fantasy and humor.
With mastery and uniqueness, Ramos performs numbers with four other Cubans who have joined the company as acrobats.
“They are boys who were linked to the circus and gymnastics in Cuba and we have given them the opportunity to resume their career and training, in order to rescue circus practice in the US environment,” he commented.
The dream of having a circus
After spending in childhood at the hands of different gymnastic trainers, as a teenager, Ramos entered the National Art School, in Havana, and became more directly involved in circus art, learning the easy and the difficult of life of the circus artist.
“I used to say that I wanted to have my own circus and the teachers and classmates told me: stop dreaming, that’s not possible,” recalls the 31-year-old young man who in 2008 emigrated to the United States for family reunification.
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A year after arriving in the US, he began to work in factories and other places that had nothing to do with his career, but kept his dream alive.
“When I was three years old, I was hired as an acrobat by an American circus company that toured the country and then I worked with another circus company in California, until I told myself that it was time to have my circus,” he said.
However, the winds did not blow in their favor. He hired his first tent a little over a year ago, not suspecting that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to prevent him from launching the first show. The authorities closed the show for prevention.
“We were left with nothing, practically on the streets, because we had sold our house in Las Vegas to buy what we needed for the circus. We didn’t have a place to park the trucks, crazy ”, he remembers with regret.
Eight months later, Leo decided to strike a stroke of luck. He moved with his tent and his people to a small town west of Miami, Immokalee, but failed.
“It turned out that if there were five people to the first show, it was a lot. It was my last hope, because we used all the little funds we had, ”he said in distress, recounting the saddest part of the story.
It had hit rock bottom. The dream was almost already a devilish nightmare until a credit card with a $ 6,000 fund saved the situation.
“With that amount, I said to my wife: let’s go to Miami, let’s go to Hialeah, we will do well there. And so it was, we arrived and my Cubans always answered 100. And here we are; we feel very comfortable working in Miami, especially for the Hialeah crowd, ”he said with a beating jaw.
Brightening life, for an hour and 35 minutes of entertainment, is the goal of Leo, who was once a migrant, and who today wants to alleviate the psychological and emotional damage suffered by little Central Americans and Mexicans in an unknown land, far from their parents and other loved ones.
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