Julia Pastrana was billed as The Ape Woman and drew crowds all over the United States and Europe. After a Roman Catholic Mass in a local church, Julia's coffin was carried to the town cemetery and buried as a band played the local traditional music. When he met with Pastrana, he said she seemed like a monster to the whole world, an abnormality put on display for money like a trained animal., The gawkers, physicians, and spectators left Pastrana feeling very alone. Bess Lovejoy explores her story and how it was only in 2013, 153 years after her passing, that she was finally laid to rest. My nephew is a midget and he has been made fun of his whole life but he has a heart of gold, just sweet, takes it in stride. Money didn't interest her at all. It is still there. sounds fascinating. I've heard of this woman and of other people with the same sad disorder. The most popular story is that she was found living in a cave with her mother and was taken to an orphanage where she was adopted by the governor of the state of Sinaloa who used her as his maid. is she still being studied. He was intimate with her and they produced a child. It's her face and she is stuck with it pretty much. What were the dynamics of their life and marriage? Julia Pastrana's last words on her deathbed were "I am dying happy". They were eventually sold, exchanged hands several times, and in 1921, bought by a Norwegian fairground owner who was building a chamber of horrors in Oslo.. Julia's mummie disappeared over the next few decades. BookTok is Good, Actually: On the Undersung Joys of a Vast and Multifarious Platform, 10 Crime Novels You Should Read This March, 11 Speculative Fiction Titles Out in 2023 Perfect for Crime Fans, Women Outside the Structure: Victorian Widows and Governesses. Shared and tweeted. Why could she not be buried and a statue made of her. It is believed that Pastrana fell in love with Lent as they toured America and Europe together. Then in 1990, Julia was eventually found in the basement of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, in Oslo, Norway. While giving birth, doctors had to use forceps to deliver her baby, resulting in several severe lacerations. She was described as sociable and polite, and, besides being undoubtedly the greatest living curiosity, she is a lady in every respect, with scientific men, ladies and children being highly used by her strange appearance, her dancing and singing. She danced the Highland fling, performed English and Spanish songs and conversed easily with the audience. The child was born with the same disease as his mother. Why would you want to go to a show to stare at someone who is different? Barnums 13 most famous and incredible oddities. Anyway, he responded to the living and dead Pastrana with a sense of disgust he was titillated but also disgusted by the embalmed Pastrana. This hub does a good job in teaching us how to treat other people. I just noticed some commented two years ago that an effort was being made to bring her to Mexico for burial. [13] Francis Buckland stated that she was "only a deformed Mexican Indian woman". It is so sad, how people treated her. The crowds came in their thousands, paying up to a shilling to look at this poor woman and her baby son. According to spectators and those who knew her, Pastrana was an intelligent Indigenous Mexican woman whose life was shaped by brutal racism and cruelty. Used with the permission of the publisher, Pegasus Books. Five days after her child died, Julia Pastrana followed due to postpartum complications. From residencies, fellowships, and workshops to grants, open calls, and commissions, our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers. However, during her performances, she demonstrated her intelligence and talent: singing, dancing, and interacting with the audience.[10]. Nell Rose (author) from England on August 31, 2012: Hi Thomas, yes he certainly was! When will we learn to be kind? Her embalmed baby was never found.. This Idea came from Lent, who suddenly realized that if he didn't want to lose her, he had better marry her himself. In fact after Pastrana died, he toured his late wifes corpse, then found another bearded woman to marry. Julia Pastrana, a woman from Mexico born with hypertrichosis, became one of the most famous human curiosities of the 19th century, exhibited the world over as a "bearded lady" while both alive and dead. Julia Pastrana (1834-1860) was one of the most famous human curiosities of her time . thanks so much for reading, cheers nell. For example, in the 17th century, Jacob Bontius blamed Indigenous Indian women for the existence of orangutans, claiming that they mixed with apes and monkeys with detestable sensuality., Charles Darwin, for his part, described her as a remarkably fine woman albeit with a thick masculine beard and a hairy forehead. A zoologist named Francis Buckland, who examined Pastrana in 1857, largely agreed. One of the best beards in history was grown by a woman named Julia Pastrana. I hope some day she gets the proper burial that she deserves. According to Dr Woolf, this description probably went a long way towards many people denying Pastrana her humanity. The newspapers couldn't get enough of her and when they realized that not only was she a very good singer but she could also speak several different languages, including Spanish and English, they were astonished. A 2003 Texas production of the play staged by Kathleen Anderson Culebro, sister of Laura Anderson Barbata, led to the campaign by Anderson Barbata to repatriate Pastrana's remains from Norway to Mexico.[2]. Nell Rose (author) from England on April 22, 2017: Thanks so much Lauren, glad you liked it. You would think that after she had died, Julia would have been given a dignified funeral, and treated like the lady she was. Those who ran sideshows often didnt take the time to listen and record the backstories of their performers. A wonderful article but so sad all the suffering she had to endure. Lent just saw the cash flow, as simple as that, and when the baby came it was more cash, but sadly for Julia and just deserts for him it didn't happen that way. After lying to that womans family that he would never exhibit her for money, he renamed her Miss Zenora Pastrana and similarly exploited her appearance. Possibly some of them originated with Julia. Pastrana was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1983, to parents of Puerto Rican and Colombian descent, and his interest in bike racing and other high-adrenaline pursuits began when he was only a child, according to Biography. its 4.20 in the afternoon here, with grey clouds and rain! Munby, however, actively pondered Darwinian thinking he bought into the idea that Julia could, perhaps, be the product of an unholy union between ape and man. They were also Mexican Indians. It was only following a protracted campaign that Julia was finally brought back to Mexico and buried with dignity. He billed her as -the ugliest woman in the world, half-woman half-ape, bear woman, the misnomered, the female nondescript- among many other sobriquets, they toured . One big happy family then. His name was Arthur Munby, seemingly a respectable upper-middle-class gentleman: a graduate of the University of Cambridge, a civil servant in the Ecclesiastical Commission from 1858 and an occasional poet. But she was anything but a freak, she could cook and sew, sing romance songs, and even better, hold an intelligent conversation which impressed the gentry, in a time when women were not treated as intelligent human beings. The Sleeping Girl of Turville: The True Story of a Girl Who fell asleep for Nine Years.. Her looks resembled an ape. She went through a lot. He renamed her Zenora Pastrana, luring in audiences with the claim that she was Julias younger sister. WHOA! Credit: Wellcome Collection. She does look unique and even before reading this, the first thing that came to mind was orangutan, which is what her appearance resembles, but I'm sure she had other qualities and attributes that people overlooked since they were fixated on her face and excessive body hair. [2], Multiple versions of Pastrana's early life exist. For example, its claimed Julia said Lent Loves me for my own sake. So glad I discovered it ans I find stories with mysterious elements like this one fascinating. She arrived, steeped in mystery, and her life was as strange and sad as her birth. Freak shows, although now politically incorrect and unpopular, gave unique people a stage and they were made stars. I will be back to read more of them. Zenora, his bride, carried on touring with the mummies, and then eventually married a much younger man. Nell Rose (author) from England on May 19, 2012: Thanks Cathleen, glad you liked it, cheers nell. Pastrana, who was born in Mexico in 1834, had two rare diseases: generalized hypertrichosis lanuginosa, which caused her face and body to be covered in hair, and gingival hyperplasia, which. The two would exhibit Julia's preserved corpse for over a decade, before Lent allegedly went insane and died in 1885, but even this is not the end of poor Julia's story. Marco Ferreri's film The Ape Woman (1964) is based on Pastrana's life story. He indexed his diaries Working Women, studies of. His obsession was all-pervasive, as one contemporary academic suggested, and intimately connected to male pleasure; his relationship to working-class women was infused with pornographic voyeurism. What cemented the marriage? Thanks so much Deborah, I wrote this after reading about her years and years ago, and she seemed to stay in my mind, I just suddenly realised that I wanted to know more about her and what happened to her in the end, I am so glad you liked it, and thanks! That Lent guy was horrible with what he did to her even after death. Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson is back. A year later, Marie gave the corpses to a German impresario and they were exhibited in numerous fairs. Credit: Process print after G. Wick. Literature produced by those who managed the freak shows she appeared in described her as belonging to a Native American tribe called "Root Diggers" whose members were similar to apes and lived in caves. Nell Rose (author) from England on September 10, 2015: Thanks Jodah, yes its a very strange story isn't it? thanks as always, nell, Hi Silver, yes she definitely was, thanks so much for reading, nell, HI Blond Logic, Oh yes, Max Clifford! Whats more, hirsute women like Pastrana came to signify hypersexuality, primitivism and bestiality. Or do we? Much of the interest in Pastrana stems from what happened after her death. Lent apparently convinced doctors to let him keep the bodies which he used to sell more tickets. Dr. Nicholas Mrquez-Grant (left) and attendants from T. S. Jacobsen funeral agency with Julia Pastrana's coffin, 2013 Photo: Laura Anderson Barbata. Susan Britton from Ontario, Canada on April 28, 2014: An amazing woman. One doctor, Alexander B. Mott, proclaimed that she was part human and part orangutan. Images in The Eye of the Beholder show Pastrana in elaborate costumes, and holding flowers, all part of the attempted shock at contrasting these hyper feminine accessories to her hairy face. It's sad that one human being has to experience such cruelty from others. A Jutting jaw and very swollen gums added to her appearance. After the bodies were embalmed, Lent had a ghastly change of heart: he realized he could make a freak show from the corpses, so he offered the university 800 as a repurchase. He was covered in hair. On one of these occasions, she was given the honour of dancing with the soldiers, who lined up to have the chance to dance with this unique but strange human being. Wellcome Library, LondonAn ad for Julia Pastranas show. Her ears and nose were unusually large, and her teeth were irregular. Theodor Lent became more and more aggressive, and by the time they had toured through Poland and Russia, Julia realized that she was pregnant. Voted up etc and pinned. Lent returned to London in 1862 determined to continue with the freak show. But it doesn't finish here. I admire her courage to stand in front of a crowd and sing perhaps knowing that she would be ridiculed by others, but what could she do. Let us never see another woman be turned into an object of commerce.. Photograph by George Wick of the embalmed Julia Pastrana (via Wellcome Collection), Pages from The Eye of the Beholder: Julia Pastranas Long Journey Home (photo of the book for Hyperallergic). In 1860, Pastrana fell pregnant, giving birth to a baby boy who only lived for two days. The only parts of her body not covered in hair was the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. I don't know when I have read more interesting info. The baby was torn to pieces. P.T. In 1857 Pastrana and Lentfreak and showman, wife and husbandwere in London, with Pastrana billed as "Miss Julia Pastrana, the Nondescript, known throughout the United States and Canada as the BEAR WOMAN" and "Baboon Lady.". By this time she had received many marriage proposals, and when asked why she had never married, she replied that they were not rich enough! Marie and Lent went to Russia, Lent went insane, and in 1888, Marie left Russia for Munich. In the 19th century, one such human curiosity was the "bearded lady.". While the full science behind the abnormality that caused her condition continues to be studied, even today, congenital hypertrichosis has a variety of effective treatments, including laser hair removal and hormone treatments. I'm glad they finally laid Julia to rest. Read one of your commenters said she was finally laid to rest in a glass coffin. One spectator commended her sweet voice and great taste in music and dancing. 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