From the Annals of the Big Top – In 1852, the San Antonio Ledger published the first recorded mention of a Mexican circus in Texas.  The Mexican tradition of circus type acts has been chronicled since Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote about the Mexican flyers who spun around a pole on ropes during an Aztec religious ceremony.  The traveling carpa (tent circus)  later incorporated Spanish themes with acrobats, jugglers and clowns. By the time such acts reached Texas,  the big-top Mexican circuses had incorporated some aspects of the Italian, English, and United States circuses, most notably the English clown with baggy pants and red wig.