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Her Black Hairs Led to Doctors Claiming She Was a Hybrid Between a Human and an “Orangutan”
The woman advertised as the “Baboon lady”, “Dog-faced woman”, “Ape-faced woman”, and “Bear Woman.”
The case of Julia Pastrana led to many theories being born about her origin. These speculations also arose because her face had a gorilla-like appearance, among other body features. One of the most popular theories was that Pastrana was a hybrid between an animal and a human.
Birth
Pastrana was born in August 1834 in Sinaloa, Mexico. She suffered from a genetic condition known as hypertrichosis terminalis (also known as generalized hypertrichosis lanuginosa). The condition caused the growth of long black hair all over her body. Besides this, Pastrana had an irregular double set of upper and lower teeth.
Early life
Julia Pastrana’s true origin is still debatable to this day.
One version claims that she was a Native American from the Root Diggers tribe. The members of this tribe lived in caves and displayed ape features. According to this version, Pastrana had managed to escape with Espinosa, a lady who had been kidnapped by Pastrana’s tribe.
Another version states that people in her local village nicknamed Pastrana as “wolf woman”. After her mother’s death, her uncle sold her to the circus.
In any case, Francisco Sepulveda, a customs official in Mazatlan, acquired Pastrana and was the person who brought her to the United States.
Career
Upon her arrival in the United States, Pastrana worked for J.W. Beach. In 1854, she married her husband, Theodore Lent, in Baltimore, Maryland. The couple made trips around the United States and Europe where Julia performed in sideshows and freakshows. She included singing and dancing in her performances.
During performances, they introduced her as an offspring from a human and an animal, the animal precisely being an “Orangutan”. People knew her…
