[Gasca Family]

This fun collection of promotional photographs shows different members of the Gasca family, one of Mexico's oldest circus families. Described in print as “Mexico’s foremost acrobats,” the Gasca family toured the US and the world with their tumbling, wire-walking, trick bicycling riding, and acrobatics.

The Gasca family circus dynasty began in the late 19th-century, and the photos in the collection seemingly-document the second generation of performers. The earliest photos were taken in Los Angeles in the late-1920s. One charming photo shows Esperanza Gasca and another Gasca atop their bicycles. Another wild photo shows an unnamed Gasca drinking a glass of water while standing on his head, his legs askew. There are also two group portraits, one shows Juan, Felipe, and Pancho Gasca (who would later perform as “The Gasca Trio”) and the other shows six of the Gasca children posed with Manuel Gasca, the patriarch of the family.

The later photos are mainly crisp, double-weight prints which date to the late 1930s or early 1940s. Many of these are of Leopoldo “Leo” Gasca, billed as the “Mexican Wizard of the Wire” and his wife Josephine. Leo Gasca was born in Mexico City in the 1910s, and was performing by the age of eight. He relocated to Los Angeles and eventually married wife Josephine Gasca, with whom he performed and who appears in many of the photos as well. There are also two later photos of Leo and Josephine, which date to the 1960s.

There are also six photos showing members of the “Gasca Trio” (with an unnamed Gasca sister appearing in lieu of one of the brothers). There is also a charming photo of one performer in a costume.