Miss Mara

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Aerialist

By Dominique Jando

María del Pino Papadopoulos Vaquero was born in 1934 in San Fernando, in the Province of Cádiz (Spain), to Miro Papadopoulos Stavanovich, who had Greek ancestry but came from a Rumanian family, and his wife, Canela Remedios Vaquero. María was the firstborn of a large family and all her life, she would assume a matriarchal responsibility over her siblings—who included her brother Antonio—the celebrated acrobat on tight wireA tight, light metallic cable, placed between two platforms not very far from the ground, on which a wire dancer perform dance steps, and acrobatic exercises such as somersaults. (Also: Low Wire), Tonito.

Mara, as she became known, made her debut in the ring in 1939, at age five, in the family circus, Circo Florida, which was performing in Cartagena. A very strong girl, both physically and psychologically, she developed during her youth a remarkable trapeze act, in which she did most of her work swinging—not a very frequent presentation then. Her tricks included heel catches, neck-hang, and a heel catchIn a trapeze act, a dive frontward or backward, caught to the trapeze bar by the heels. in full swing—the latter trickAny specific exercise in a circus act. a specialty of the great Australian trapeze artist, Winnie Colleano. Mara worked at dizzying heights, without any protection.

Mara's act was quite exceptional for its time, and the famous Spanish circus impresario, Juan Carcellé, noticed her at the Feria of Seville, where Circo Florida was performing in April 1945. When, three years later, Miro Papadopoulos sold his circus to his brother, Cristóforo Cristo, Mara was free to go on her own. It was the beginning of a brilliant and rich international career.

Miss Mara was contracted by Circo Segura, where she struck a lifelong friendship with Maria Cristina del Pino Segura, better known as Pinito del Oro, another legendary aerialistAny acrobat working above the ring on an aerial equipment such as trapeze, Roman Rings, Spanish web, etc.. But during her stay with Circo Segura, she fell for the first time from her trapeze, and was incapacitated for one month.

She made her first tours abroad in 1949, in Portugal first, and then in the south of France. On March 4, 1950, she married Enrique Campo Muñoz in Seville. Their union was to last 18 years. In October of the same year, she signed a contract with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, The Greatest Show On Earth, then in its final Golden Age under the inspired direction of John Ringling North.

Miss Mara made her U.S. debut on April 15, 1951 at Madison Square Garden in New York; one and a half months earlier, on March 1, she had given birth in Seville to her only child, a daughter, Enriqueta. Mara would eventually spend six years in the U.S., but on September 11, 1953, in Tacoma, Washington, she fell again—this time with very serious consequences: she had to go through no less than seven surgical interventions. She returned to Ringling with her original act unchanged on March 4, 1955.

Miss Mara returned to Spain in December 1957, and began working at Circo Americano. The largest traveling circus in Spain at the time, Circo Americano was under the management of the powerful impresarios Manuel Feijóo and Arturo Castilla, who also ran the venerable Circo Price in Madrid. She worked for Feijóo-Castilla in several of their ventures (Circo Americano, Circo Price, Spanischer National Circus with Carola Williams) in Spain and abroad until 1963. That year, she received the Oscar Internacional del Circo, which was awarded for several years by the International Circus Federation, a circus organization controlled by Arturo Castilla.

After that, Mara worked with her uncle, Cristofóro Cristo, at his Circo Berlin, and then toured extensively all over Europe, and even Australia, flying from time to time to the U.S. where she appeared on several occasions on television in the Ed Sullivan's show.

In 1976, she participated, along with her brother, Tonito, in the 3rd International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo. Awarded a special prize instead of a Gold or Silver Clown, Miss Mara, who was in her own way a true circus diva, refused to participate in the final Gala Performance, and left the Principality. This kept the circus community present in Monaco abuzz for a couple of days…

Miss Mara eventually retired from performing in 1979, at the end of a season with Circo Atlas, one of Spain's major circuses, which was owned by Manolo and José Villa, better known as the Hermanos Tonetti—Spain's most celebrated clowns.

In 1992, the Spanish government awarded Miss Mara its Premio Nacional del Circo (National Circus Award). Mara had a great personality and immense charisma, not to mention her outstanding talent. Hers remained, until the 1970s, one of the greatest trapeze acts the circus had seen. Remarkable trapeze performers such as Isabella Nock, Judy Merton and, more recently, Silvia Zerbini have since continued in her footsteps.

By the late 1980s, Russian trapeze artists, beginning with Elena Panova, gave swinging trapeze a completely different image, less centered on danger and more on the aesthetics of tricks that were much more elaborate than ever before, This was made possible in part by the generalized use of safety devices. Yet, the flamboyant Maria Papadopoulos reigned in her time over the trapeze world, and she will always been remembered as "La Mara," as she was often nicknamed—one of the great circus performers of the twentieth century.

See Also