Julia Pastrana

Julia Pastrana Brief Chronology 

(Note: new research is continually uncovering additional information. For the most up-to-date information, we invite you to consult juliapastranaonline.com)

1834 – Julia Pastrana is an Indigenous Cahita woman believed to have been born in Ocoroni, a small village in the western Sierra Madre region of the State of Sinaloa, Mexico. Born with hypertrichosis terminalis and severe gingival hyperplasia, Pastrana´s face and body are covered with thick hair she has and an overdeveloped jaw.  

1834–185? - The details of Pastrana´s childhood are uncertain. According to Ricardo Mimiaga’s oral history research, Julia’s mother dies during her infancy with her uncle becoming her caretaker soon after. He sells her to a traveling circus. 

185?–1854 – Pastrana lives in Culiacan in the home of Pedro Sanchez (the governor of Sinaloa from 1836 to 1837). During this time, it is believed that she begins her training as a mezzo-soprano and dancer. She becomes fluent in English and French, in addition to Spanish and her native Indigenous language, Cahita. Pastrana leaves the governor’s house when she is sold to Francisco Sepulveda, the administrator of maritime customs of Mazatlán, Mexico. According to accounts by Irineo Paz, Sepulveda partners with the governor of Sinaloa and an American businessman, Theodore Lent, to showcase Pastrana in the United States.  

1854–1855 - Pastrana performs in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the US. 

1855 - From evidence found in archival documents, it is possible that Pastrana accompanies Sepulveda from Veracruz to New Orleans to meet Lent. Upon her arrival, Lent secretly convinces Pastrana to marry him and becomes her manager. Lent subsequently organizes exhibits of her in New York, Cleveland, Baltimore, Boston, and Canada.  

1854–1858 - Lent bills Julia Pastrana as The Ugliest Woman in the World, the Nondescript, the Hirsute, the Ape Woman, the Female Hybrid, the Wonderful Hybrid, Bear-woman, and Baboon Lady, among other sobriquets. They travel to London and throughout Europe, presenting shows in which Pastrana dances and sings opera arias. Doctors visit and examine her, and she becomes the subject of writings by Francis T. Buckland and Charles Darwin. 

1857 - Gartenlaube (a newspaper in Leipzig, Germany) publishes an interview with Pastrana. 

1857/1858 - Julia Pastrana is exhibited for several months in the Renz Circus in Vienna.

1859 - Pastrana becomes pregnant by Lent. 

1860 - Pastrana and Lent travel to Moscow. On March 20th, Julia gives birth to a boy who is diagnosed with the same condition as her. The infant dies thirty-five hours later. Complications during childbirth keep Pastrana hospitalized, and Lent sells tickets to view her in her hospital bed. On March 25th, she dies of puerperal metro peritonitis. Lent sells the bodies of his wife and child to Dr. Sokolov of the University of Moscow, who was known for developing embalming techniques.  

1862 - Lent visits the hospital of the University of Moscow. When he sees the embalmed bodies of Pastrana and her son, he demands that they be returned to him. The request is denied. Lent contacts the  US Consulate to reclaim them, and, with their intervention, he is successful. He encloses Pastrana and her child inside a glass case and begins to exhibit them throughout Europe. He experiences greater commercial success than when she was exhibited alive.  

1864 - Lent meets Marie Barthel, a young bearded woman from Karlsbad, Germany. He changes her name to Zenora Pastrana. Barthel becomes part of the exhibition, which presents the bodies of Julia Pastrana and her baby as Zenora’s sister and nephew. Lent’s economic successes continue.  

1877 - The Viennese showman Hermann Präuscher claimed that the sculpture “The Wandering Corpse” exhibited in his Panopticon in the Prater was the body of Julia Pastrana. He claimed to have bought it in 1873. There is no evidence to support these statements.

1884 - Theodore Lent dies in a psychiatric hospital in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Barthel inherits the bodies of Pastrana and her son and continues to exhibit them.  

1921 - Marie Barthel sells Julia and her son to the Norwegian Haakon Jaeger Lund, who exhibits them in Oslo, Norway. Later, his son, Hans Jaeger Lund takes the bodies on tour.  

1943 - Shortly before World War II, the German diplomat in charge of the medical department in Oslo orders that the bodies of Pastrana and her son be confiscated and sent to Berlin. Lund declines and takes them on tour through the Nordic countries.  

1953 - The bodies of Pastrana and her child are stored in Linkönping, Sweden.  

1954 - Hans Jaeger Lund dies, and his son, Bjorn, inherits the bodies of Julia Pastrana and her baby. They are subsequently stored in a warehouse in Oslo.  

1971 - Pastrana and her son are exhibited in Norway multiple times as part of the touring Tivoli Fair.  

1971-1972 - Pastrana and her son are taken on tour to the US and exhibited in fairs.  

1973 - Sweden and Norway pass laws that prohibit the exhibition of human bodies. The bishop of Oslo requests that the bodies be confiscated and buried in a Catholic ceremony.  

1976 - Bjorn Lund puts Pastrana and her son in storage in Oslo. Thieves break into the warehouse and throw the mummified infant into a field, where it is eaten by rodents. Pastrana’s arm is ripped from her body. It is later found in a dumpster and taken to the police.  

1979 - Lund’s warehouse is vandalized again and Pastrana’s body disappears. 

1988 - Dr. Jan Bondeson finds Pastrana’s body in a janitorial closet in the basement of the Institute of Forensic  Medicine at the Rikshospitalet in Oslo. The body is restored, and she is kept at the Institute.  

1994 - The University of Oslo and other organizations discuss the future of Pastrana. Voting is in favor of burying Julia, only Dr. Per Holck opposes. Shortly after the vote, the Royal Ministry of Health and Church Affairs orders that Julia Pastrana remain in custody of the Schreiner Collection in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Oslo for research purposes. The director of the Schreiner Collection is Dr. Per Holck.  

1996-2005 - Dr. Jan Bondeson, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, and numerous other authors publish studies on Pastrana in Europe and the United States. By contrast, there are only a few studies on Pastrana published in Mexico.  

2003 - Laura Anderson Barbata becomes familiar with the life story of Julia Pastrana after being invited by her sister Kati Culebro to collaborate on the costume design for a play based on Pastrana (produced by Amphibian Stage in New York City). Culebro sends a letter to the Mexican Embassy in Norway requesting the repatriation and burial of Pastrana. She gathers hundreds of signatures in support. The letter is sent, but no reply is received.  

2004 - The Office of Contemporary Art (OCA), Oslo invites Anderson Barbata to meet with Sami communities in northern Norway. She makes contact with institutions, academics, scholars, artists, politicians, and activists from and for the Sami communities. She learns that the Shreiner Collection, where Pastrana is kept, possesses hundreds of illegally obtained Sami skulls.  

2005 - The OCA awards Anderson Barbata with an artist residency in Norway. She proposes a project on Julia Pastrana during her residency, beginning correspondence with the University of Oslo, Dr. Per Holck, anthropologists, sociologists, Sami scholars, intellectuals, historians, artists, and the University´s ethics committee. The National Committee for Research in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH) informs Anderson Barbata that they are forming a new Board to evaluate cases involving human remains. They agree that she can bring Julia Pastrana to the Board as the first case for review.  

2005 - Anderson Barbata publishes an obituary for Julia Pastrana in the Oslo newspaper, which states that there will be a Catholic ceremony (the faith that Pastrana practiced in her lifetime) in her honor. With the aid of Christiane Erharter, Anderson Barbata organizes a mass in Pastrana´s memory at St. Joseph Chapel in Oslo. The mass is the first humanitarian gesture toward Pastrana, and it is attended by hundreds of people, many of whom are circus performers, who bring her flowers.  

2005 - The new Board for the Evaluation of Human Remains under NESH is officially formed. Anderson Barbata formally requests that they evaluate the case of Julia Pastrana’s repatriation and burial in Mexico.  

2007 - The committee informs Anderson Barbata that the case of Pastrana will be reopened. The official document stating this is lost by the United States Postal Service, but is recovered and delivered to Anderson Barbata, damaged, one year later.  

2007–2011 - In an effort to locate Jula Pastrana´s relatives, Anderson Barbata consults scientists specializing in genetics. After extensive research, it is clear that a moral and ethical argument is a more feasible justification for Pastrana´s repatriation than finding her relatives, since DNA samples are not available. Anderson Barbata meets Ricardo Mimiaga, a historian from Sinaloa who has researched the life of Pastrana. Together they search for related documents: certificates of birth and baptism.  

2011 - Silvia Gámez, a reporter from Mexico´s Reforma newspaper, discovers the story of Julia Pastrana, as well as Laura Anderson Barbata’s involvement in her repatriation. Gámez begins correspondence with Anderson Barbata, the University of Oslo, and Norway’s Ministry of Health, in addition to scientists and historians in Mexico. She publishes her findings, and the story is picked up by hundreds of news sites around the world.  

2012 - Norway´s Ministry of Health recognizes that scientific research has never been conducted on Pastrana’s body, nor have they received any official requests for Pastrana to be buried.  Anderson Barbata discusses the creation of a ceremonial pre-Hispanic huipil for Pastrana’s burial with Remigio Mestas in Oaxaca. Francisca Palafox, a master weaver from Oaxaca, makes the huipil and enredo textiles utilizing natural cotton, coyuchi, caracol, and human hair. 

March 14, 2012 – In Culiacán, Anderson Barbata has an audience with the Governor of Sinaloa, proposing the repatriation of Julia Pastrana to her native state for burial.  

April 16, 2012 - Mario López Valdez, the governor of Sinaloa, joins Anderson Barbata’s repatriation efforts, sending a letter to NESH petitioning for the return of Julia Pastrana’s body. The Governor’s letter is accompanied by a letter from Anderson Barbata, which includes the moral, ethical, and social justifications for Pastrana’s return for burial.  

May 8, 2012 - In Oslo, NESH meets to evaluate the letters calling for Julia Pastrana’s repatriation.  

June 4, 2012 - NESH responds to the petition with a recommendation that Julia Pastrana be repatriated for burial in accordance with her religious faith. Both the University of Oslo and its Institute of Basic Medicine receive the recommendation and agree to the repatriation.  

June–December 2012 - Anderson Barbata contacts the institutions involved in the repatriation of Julia Pastrana, including the Office of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, the Embassy of Mexico in Belgium (which is also responsible for Norway), the University of Oslo, the Ministry of Health of Norway, Albin International Repatriation Services Ltd., funerary services in Oslo, Mexico City, and Culiacán, the Institute of Culture of Sinaloa, and the office of the Governor of Sinaloa. 

January 2012 - Anderson Barbata initiates “A Flower for Julia,” an international call for flowers to symbolically welcome Julia Pastrana’s and give closure to her long journey on the day of her burial.  

February 7, 2013 - Anderson Barbata and the forensic anthropologist Dr. Nicholas Márquez-Grant from the University of Oxford, act as witnesses confirming that Julia Pastrana´s body is sealed in her coffin. In the Chapel at Rikshospitalet, Oslo University Hospital, a private ceremony takes place marking the transfer of custody of Pastrana from the Schreiner Collection to the Government of Mexico. Anderson Barbata represents the State of Sinaloa. Artists, academics, and activists attend the ceremony.  

February 8–10, 2013 - Julia Pastrana is transported from Oslo to Mexico in a sealed coffin. The body arrives in Culiacán, Sinaloa. Anderson Barbata verifies that Pastrana is in the coffin, and the coffin is not opened again.  

February 12, 2013 - Julia Pastrana´s coffin is transported from Culiacán to Sinaloa de Leyva. Pastrana is welcomed with official ceremonies and a funeral mass, then taken to the municipal cemetery following local traditions. Inside her coffin, Pastrana is covered with pre-Hispanic cermonial huipil garments and a photograph of her child rests on her chest. As music plays, Pastrana’s coffin is covered with flowers and buried. Her tomb is then enclosed in concrete walls that are more than a meter thick, protecting Pastrana from vandals and guaranteeing that she will never be removed from her resting place. The tomb is then covered with thousands of flowers that have arrived from all over the world.  

New research is continually uncovering additional information. For the most up-to-date information, we invite you to consult juliapastranaonline.com