The ancient roots of Mexican circus

Visually, the most obvious ‘acrobatic’ link to the ancient past is the dramatic Totonac Voladores ceremony (pic 1), thought to be associated with invoking rain and agricultural fertility - as Luisa Villani has put it (we have several articles on this spectacular ‘act’ on our website already): ‘To the Totonacs the dance is not a spectacle but a sacred ritual in which forces of nature and climatic agents participate’.
‘Voladores are flyers who descend like birds from a high revolving platform while another acrobat dances on the top platform, playing a flute and a small drum.’ Interestingly, ‘the rope attached to the flyers is called a maroma. Appropriately, the early mestizo circus was called compañía de voladores or la maroma’ (Losser 2023). It is hardly surprising that by the mid-18th century Voladores performers were being successfully incorporated into Mexican circus acts.

Pic 1: The Voladores or Flyers’ ceremony

Classic Maya art also features acrobats, frequently depicted with their legs arching over their heads. ‘At times they are supplied with snake markings, as if alluding to the almost miraculous, sinuous contortions of the serpent’ (Miller & Taube, 1993: 38). In Picture 4 we show a Classic Maya roll-out vase image showing a post-battle celebration. To the right of the scene a warrior waves a battle standard as an acrobat balances on a ladder.
Further examples can be found in the mural paintings of the Tlalocan (watery paradise) at Teotihuacan: in one scene ‘four persons can be seen standing in a row one behind the other, holding hands through their legs as if each were to help the next to turn a somersault’ (Piña Chan, op cit).

Pic 3: A noble Olmec figure is surrounded by a contorted acrobat grasping his feet; Shook Panel, Late Formative period, Guatemala

Clavijero witnessed the log-juggling act for himself - as did European royalty when, in 1528, Cortés returned triumphantly to Spain, bringing with him an entourage of native acrobats, jugglers and other entertainers to join the court of King Carlos V. The juggling of a beam of wood with the feet was captured visually by German artist Christopher Weiditz - he included a series of three paintings the following year in his book Trachtenbuch (Costume book) (pic 5).
The log-juggling was evidently considered a game by the Mexica (Aztecs) - it was called xocuahpatollin in Nahuatl, approximating to ‘game with beam on sole of the foot’ in English - possibly because it sometimes involved other jugglers who ‘sat astride the ends of the log and did not fall off when the man holding it switched it round with lightning movement’ (Piña Chan, op cit).

Pic 5: Christopher Weiditz’s illustrations of an Aztec log juggler; ‘Trachtenbuch’ fols. XV, XVI and XVII