Lucía Zárate


Lucia Zarate was a Mexican entertainer with dwarfism who performed in sideshows. Zarate is the first person to have been identified with Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II. She was entered into the Guinness World Records as the "lightest recorded adult", weighing at the age of 17.

Early life

She was born in Mesa Arizona, Veracruz, Mexico, and settled on the Agostadero,, Veracruz. According to an 1894 article in Strand Magazine, Zarate achieved her full growth by the age of one year. Her family home, Casa Grande is open to the public as a museum.

Career

At age twelve, Zarate moved from Mexico to the United States, where she was exhibited for her small stature. She first worked as part of an act billed as the "Fairy Sisters", later partnering with Francis Joseph Flynn to exhibit internationally. In 1889 she was billed in The Washington Post as the "marvelous Mexican midget" and described as "a tiny but all powerful magnet to draw the public."
An 1876 book published by Oxford University discussed a visit to Zarate paid by several medical professionals, who could not certainly verify that she was twelve years old, but they could ascertain through her dental development that she was at least six years old. At the time, her height was measured at tall, and her calf was measured as in circumference, more than the thumb of an average adult man. She was with her parents at the time and found to be healthy and intelligent, able to speak some English along with her native Spanish.

Personal life and demise

After her circus train became stranded in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, Zarate died of hypothermia in 1890.