ODDITY: Lucia Zarate

Lucia Zarate stands as the most well-known small person in the annals of littleness. Not since the reign of the Sicilian Fairy, Caroline Crachami, in the 1820’s had there been anyone exhibited so tiny and yet so well-proportioned.

Lucia’s early childhood is shrouded in mystery. Some say she was born in San Carlos in Northern Mexico. Others, that she hailed from Vera Cruz, which is along the Gulf of Mexico.

As was the custom with showmen who exhibited midgets, she was promoted as being older than her years – in her case twelve. Hence, to this day, many biographers believe she was born in 1864. However, she was consistently said to be a year older than her exhibition companion, General Mite, who we know was born in 1872. Thus I believe she was actually born closer to 1870 making her only about 6 yrs old at the start of her brief thirteen-year career.

Master Franky Flynn became quite a success. In the space of two short years he reportedly earned $20,00 USD – a huge sum of money.

In 1879, a rumour was started in the press that Francis was to marry the Mexican Lilliput Lucia Zarate, a rumour no doubt started by Lucia’s manager Frank Uffner. Lucia had appeared at the Centennial celebration also and consequent upon the success of Francis, who was now known as “General Mite”, Mr. Uffner saw an opportunity to create a huge draw but the “nuptials” never took place.

In 1880, however, General Mite and Lucia Zarate did travel to the United Kingdom appearing together as the “American Midgets” and are even documented by Windsor Castle as having met Her Majesty, Queen Victoria the following year. In fact, a marriage did take place for the General – but the betrothed was not Lucia.

The Mexican dwarf Lucia Zarate was unquestionably one of the tiniest women who ever lived. Born in 1864, her promoters claimed she was only 17 inches tall and weighed a mere five pounds. In other words, she was approximately the size of a small house cat. Many people didn’t believe she was real, until she started to sing and dance before their eyes.

Said to have been intelligent and charming, Lucia exhibited herself for several years and amassed quite an impressive fortune as one of the best paid performers of her day. Unfortunately, Lucia died on tour in 1890 when the train in which she was traveling became stalled in a mountain snowstorm. Zarate is said to have died of exposure. Another account claims she died of ‘gastric fever’, but no matter what the cause death came early for Lucia Zarate.

My desire to communicate Zarate’s scale led me to place her within this composition borrowed from Goya’s portrait of Don Manuel Osorio de Zuiga. My own cats served as the models for the potentially dangerous felines behind the little lady.

We seem to have quite a range of differently sized humans. From Giants to Midgets. I recently learned of Lucia’s existance and was quite astounded at her proportions, I thought I would share the story.

Lucia Zarate was the smallest woman ever recorded. At her birth in 1864 in Mexico, she weighed only eight ounces and was seven inches long. By adulthood she was less than 50 cm tall and weighed less than 2.26 kg, less than a cat.

Unlike dwarves, she was normal in every other way, and was described as bright and animated company. She first came to the US at twelve years old and was one of the highest-paid midgets of all time. She made twenty dollars an hour.

Lucia Zarate looked like a doll and weighed less than most house cats. Born in San Carlos, Mexico in 1864, Zarate is considered the lightest person who ever lived. At maturity, the perfectly formed, doll-like woman stood less than 20 inches tall and weighed about five pounds. Billed as the Mexican Lilliputian, Lucia first appeared on tour in the United States at age 12. Her pay reputedly rose to $20 per hour–a fantastic figure in the 1870s. Unfortunately her career ended in tragedy. Zarate was travelling by train through the Rocky Mountains in 1890. The train stalled during a snowstorm and the fragile Zarate died of exposure.