Miss Mara

María Papadópoulos y Vaquero was born in 1934 in San Fernando, in the province of Cádiz, Spain, to Miro Papadópoulos Stavanovich, who had Greek ancestry but a Romanian family, and his wife, Remedios Vaquero Canela. María was the firstborn of a very large family. She had six brothers and one sister, and all her life she would assume a sort of matriarchal responsibility for her siblings, including her brother Antonio, known as Tonito, who became a celebrated acrobat on tight wire before developing a famous tight-wire duo, The Tonitos, with his brother Jorge.

Mara, as she became known, made her debut in the ring at age five in 1939 in Cartagena where she performed a rudimentary trapeze act in her father’s circus, Circo Florida. A very strong girl both physically and psychologically, Mara developed in time a remarkable trapeze act in which she did most of her work swinging—not a common presentation at the time. Her tricks included heel-catches, neck-hangs, and a slide to heelcatch in full swing, which had been a specialty of the great Australian trapeze artist Winnie Colleano. Mara worked at dizzying heights, without a net, mechanic, or any other safeguard.

Mara’s act was quite exceptional for its time and would remain so for many years. In April 1945, the famous Spanish circus impresario Juan Carcellé noticed her at the Feria of Seville, where Circo Florida was performing. Three years later, when Miro Papadopoulos sold his circus to his brother, Cristóforo Cristo, Mara was free to strike out on her own. It was the beginning of a rich and brilliant international career.

Mara was contracted by Circo Segura, where she struck a lifelong friendship with Cristina Maria del Pino Segura, better known as Pinito del Oro, another legendary aerialist. It was during her time with Circo Segura that she sustained a fall from her trapeze for the first time. Badly injured, she was incapacitated for one month.