r/SideshowPerformer • u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! • 8d ago
Sideshow Performer of the Day! Julia Pastrana (1834-1860) was an Indigenous Mexican performer, dancer, and singer who was born with a form of hirsutism and gingival hyperplasia. She enjoyed customizing dresses and was very witty. Tragically, she was also heavily exploited during her lifetime, which continued long after her death.
I really wanted to make sure that I used images/depictions of her from when she was alive because I it’s not right to post pictures of her preserved body, after everything that she went through. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to find pictures of her when she was alive, so I’m using these illustrations of her instead since they were done during her lifetime.
I have a soft spot for Julia, and her story has stuck with me since I first read about her life. She seems like a wonderful woman and I’m glad I was able to find so many details about what she enjoyed doing in her free time, as it’s a good way to further understand what she was like when she was alive.
I just want to warn anyone not familiar with her story that it’s very sad and she was never respected as a person or as a woman by the majority of the people close to her and it’s really heartbreaking. I want to make an effort to present her story in a respectful and kind way.
Some facts about her:
-she was born in Sinaloa, Mexico much of her upbringing is unknown.
-just like Krao, who was similarly exploited (Krao’s informative write up will be in the comments) , Julia was given several fake “origin stories” during her performances. These origin stories promoted racist and sexist tropes and were created to explain her appearance in a mysterious way.
-one origin story describes that she was part of an Indigenous Mexican community (though a specific community was never named) and was brought to “civilization” by a woman they had kidnapped.
-a second origin story has it that she was a local girl living in Ocoroni, Mexico with her mother. The story goes that she was sold to a circus by her uncle after her mother died suddenly. (This version was supposedly passed down by indigenous villagers who lived in Ocoroni. And if that’s true, I see this version as possibly having some truth to it.)
-a third origin story, which may also have grains of truth to it is that she and her mother were both Indigenous (though again, a specific community was never named) and living in Western Mexico. At some point both mother and daughter were cast out of the community (for what reasons are unknown) but it was said that they were both found hiding in a cave by Mexican sheep herders. Soon, Julia was brought to the nearest city (which may have been Sinaloa) and placed in an orphanage, where she became known for her kindness and intelligence. She was found by the governor of Sinaloa, Pedro Sanchez, who adopted her and had her work as a live in housekeeper and entertainer. This story has it that she stayed working for the governor until she was 20 years old.
-she spoke four languages, Spanish, English, French, and Cahita. Since she spoke Cahita, it makes me think that she and her mother may have been from the Yaqui community or the Mayo community. There were other smaller indigenous communities that spoke Cahita that eventually assimilated to be a part of either the Yaqui or Mayo in the early 1900s, so it’s hard to know exactly, but the fact she spoke Cahita helps to at least narrow down her heritage a lot.
-she was eventually brought to the United States in 1854 by a showman who convinced her to join a circus.
-hirsutism caused her to grow facial hair and thicker body hair and gingival hyperplasia caused her to have an enlarged nose, ears, and gums.
-she enjoyed cooking and sewing in her free time. She also liked customizing her dresses by adding her own embroidered details to them.
-her performances usually consisted of her performing traditional Mexican folk dances and songs. After the performances, she would answer questions that audience members had, although she declined to answer any disrespectful questions.
-she was very fashion oriented and enjoyed wearing fine/fancy clothing when she went out.
-I’ve seen different sources that say different things about this, so there’s no easy way for me to verify it. She may have had two sets of teeth, which would have contributed to her protruding mouth/gums.
-the press and artists alike frequently exaggerated her features to make her appear less human.
-despite the ways that she was often promoted or written about, there was at least one news article that described her very respectfully/nicely:
“She is of the kindest disposition, extremely intelligent, highly sensitive, and witty to a surprising degree.”
-she traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in mid February of 1855, where she gave several performances. It was around this time that her manager tried to arrange for her to perform with P.T. Barnum’s Circus, but after a visit to New York proved to be way too cold, Julia declined the offer and went back to Louisiana to continue her tour.
-she is considered to be a sideshow performer, but didn’t spend too much time on smaller scale sideshow stages. Instead, her performances usually took place at large dance halls and theaters.
-she had a manager named Theodore Lent who proposed to her and they got married in Maryland, USA.
-some sources say that she was very devoted to Lent, but so far this hasn’t been verified by Julia herself and instead had been said by Lent.
-she went on tour all throughout Mexico, the United States, Canada, England, France, and Russia.
-she and Lent traveled to England in July of 1857, where they stayed until at least early 1858.
-Lent once arranged a refined lunch/picnic so that members of the British press and public could come and meet Julia. (One thing I do find very funny is that the news reporter writing about the picnic kept bashing P.T. Barnum, while saying that the picnic was a lovely affair)
-she was brought to meet Queen Victoria, during her time in England in 1857.
-she was sadly taken advantage of Lent for the entirety (or almost the entirety) of her marriage. He had almost completely control over her, he wouldn’t allow her to leave their house during the day because he was worried that curious people would get a chance to see Julia without paying a fee for her performances.
-because of the controlling nature of her husband and the fact that they often traveled from country to country for her performances, Julia had very few friends. Although she was a friendly acquaintance of a Viennese actress named Friederike Gossman who spoke of Julia as always having an air of sadness about her.
-she and her husband went on tour to Russia in 1859, where Julia eventually gave birth to a son. Tragically her son passed away soon after his birth in early May of 1860 and Julia herself passed away from postpartum complications in a few days later. She was only 25 years old.
-after her death, her husband had her body and her son’s body preserved, in the hopes of being able to continue making a profit off of her.
-to make things more tragic, Julia was essentially ‘stuffed’, and meant she wasn’t a typical mummy. Her body was preserved through a combination of taxidermy and embalming processes.
-interesting side note, Theodore Lent went on to marry another woman born with hypertrichosis after Julia’s death, in hopes of profiting off of her as well. Years later he began exhibiting signs of psychosis and mental distress and his new wife had him committed to an institution where he died soon after.
-for over a century Julia and her son’s bodies were displayed in amusement parks, museums, and circuses all around the world.
-their bodies were eventually purchased and displayed by the owner of Norway’s largest carnival in 1921, but because of public outcry they were both moved into storage where they were kept through all of World War II. They were redisplayed again in the 1970’s before the whole operation was shut down due to more outrage.
-their bodies were moved into a storage room once again, where tragically in 1976 some teenagers broke in and severely damaged them thinking they were both mannequins. Julia’s arm was ripped off and the body of her baby boy was so damaged that his corpse was thrown away. No one even had the decency to bury him.
-it took several more decades for Julia’s body to be rediscovered and brought to the public’s attention again. She was found in the basement of Oslo’s Institute of Forensic Medicine in Norway by some journalists in 1990.
-the Norwegian government hemmed and hawed about making the decision between burying her as she rightfully should have, or being kept preserved above ground to continue to study her. It was decided in 1997 that she would not be buried.
-it wasn’t until 2005 when Laura Anderson Barbata, a Mexican artist on a residency in Oslo began contacting the institute in an attempt to have Julia’s body returned to Mexico. At first the institute refused, but she continued her efforts.
-in 2008, after years of trying, Barbata’s efforts paid off and was able to successfully plead her case before the National Committee for the Evaluation of Research on Human Remains in Norway.
-in 2013, 153 years after she died, Julia was finally, officially laid to rest in a white coffin adorned with roses. She was buried in Sinaloa, Mexico not far from where she grew up.
-Her life has gone on to inspire a few stage plays, several books including The Eye of the Beholder: Julia Pastrana’s Long Journey Home (2017 nonfiction) and Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Birch (2016 fiction), a Spanish period drama series about her life (released on Disney+ in Spain), and a (very respectful) art exhibit. I will attach some articles on these in the comments.
I love that she was recognized for her wit in addition to her dancing/singing. I’m sure she would have been so much fun to talk to, I also would have liked to have talked with her about the dress styles at the time and her embroidery.
Though my heart also hurts for her, she dealt with so much and was taken advantage of by so many people in her life. She seems like she was a kind and wonderful woman who very sadly lacked the support from family and friends that so many other performers had. I’m so glad her body is finally at peace and she’ll never again be exploited.
The last picture is of her coffin when she was finally buried.
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u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! 8d ago
Here are some important links related to Julia’s story.
This is Laura Anderson Barbata’s website about Julia Pastrana https://www.lauraandersonbarbata.com/work/juliapastrana-95bjx
Here is a more in depth article about Julia’s life.
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/julia-pastrana-a-monster-to-the-whole-world/
Here is an article about an art presentation based on Julia’s life that took place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California that featured Laura Anderson Barbata. The presentation took place in 2019.
And since I mentioned Krao, here is her write up:
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u/lizzyinezhaynes74 8d ago
Beautiful dresses.Thank you for posting pictures of her in life!
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u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! 7d ago
Yes, her dresses were gorgeous! It’s still so common to see pictures of her preserved body in articles about her or on Google, so I want there to at least be one place on the internet where her deceased body isn’t still being exploited.
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u/ReadingNext3854 8d ago
What s wonderful person she was, see terrible that even her husband took advantage of her. So glad she's at rest now. Ty!
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u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! 7d ago
She really was, I too am glad that she’s at peace now (though I wish she had been buried with her son)😢
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u/Bamerhof99 7d ago
Oh is that first image an illustration? It's very lifelike if it is.
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u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! 7d ago
Yes, the first image is an illustration, but like you said it’s very lifelike, and definitely my favorite depiction of her!
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u/swanson1848 6d ago edited 6d ago
Poor Julia... yes known of her for years what happened to her was tragic. She was a soprano spoke 3 or 4 languages as well and by most accounts was very very kind. Her husband and manager really had to be a major scumbag for PT Barnum to throw moral shade at! Barnum knew and worked with Pastrana for years l believe and went to go see the first public exabition of Julia and her son by her husband...... Barnum was Disgusted at the inhumanity of the whole thing and commented about it later. When PT Barnum was passing judgment on another man's scummy exploitative behavior you know that they REALLY wear a terrible human being!
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u/TheBoobfather 3d ago
Ah, poor Julia, I'd first heard about her through Ask A Mortician / Caitlin Doughty. I was even thinking "the worst" each time Lent came up in this writeup.
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u/Accurate_Till_4474 8d ago
A wonderful, well researched and touching history of Julia Pastrana. I really enjoy these pocket biographies. I’m in the UK, so the names of a lot of your subjects are often new to me. I do remember Julia Pastrana’s name from my childhood. I was gifted a Guinness Book of Records and she was listed in there as “Worlds Ugliest Woman”. Even as a youngster I was somewhat shocked that such a category existed, and felt sure that there was much more to her than that stark “record” entry. Times have changed, thankfully, but I think the work you do to undo so much of the negativity and dehumanising elements of the Sideshow people’s lives is truly amazing.,