The Truth About Lucia Zarate

Many people know about the world’s tallest person, and there are countless TV shows about some of the world’s heaviest. However, few know about the world’s smallest person. That person is Lucia Zarate.

Lucia Zarate was believed to have been born in San Carlos, Mexico, in 1864 (Although, it is well known that circus showmen often exaggerated the age of little people to help sell their shows to the public. And new facts now seem to show she was actually born in 1870 in Vera Cruz, Mexico. A group of Oxford University medical professionals did pay Zarate a visit in 1876. And while they could not confirm her supposed age of twelve, they could confirm that she was at least six years of age through her dental development) She was born at only eight ounces, and seven inches long. She is said to have became fully grow by the time she was one, although that fact is disputed. When she was fully grown she was only 21. 5 inches tall, and a record (Guinness Book) of only 4.7 pounds; although at times she weighed as much as 13Lbs. (CLICK READ MORE TO CONTINUE READING!)


Lucia first made her way to America in 1876, and then debuted in Philadelphia, at The Centennial Exposition (A celebration of America’s 100 birthday), and was a huge hit. She soon began her carrier as one of the biggest sideshow attractions of the era. After some time on East Coast, Lucia went to tour Europe with her family. In perhaps her most famous stop in Europe, on February 26th, 1881, Lucia visited Queen Victoria and the Royal Family. Lucia would continue to tour Europe and the United States, mostly the East coast, for the next ten years.

Lucia’s demise would ultimately come on the West coast. On January 15th 1890, during the “Great Snow Blockade of 1890”, Lucia was on a train headed to a show in San Francisco, when her train, after a cattle train jump the tracks, became stuck near Truckee California. No one was immediately alarmed, but soon it became clear that the railroad was not prepared to handle such a catastrophic storm and over 12 trains became stuck in the Truckee area. It should be said that before the storm ended around 25ft of snow had fallen on Truckee!

The Zarates had brought special food for Lucia to eat, but after 10 or so days, they ran out of food and had to feed her some of the train’s emergence rations. No one is sure whether sure caught influenza, which was going around the train, or food poisoning from eating the canned food her family receive, but soon after eating it she became sick. With the trains still being stuck, and the train company now having to bring in over 4000 men to shovel the tracks, there seemed no end to the train being stranded. And on January 28th, 1890, Lucia passed away. Some reports have her death being from hypothermia (The night time temperatures were reported as low as -20f), some have it from being from pneumonia. Two days later the trains where freed from the snow, and made their way towards San Francisco.
Her parents then made their way (And reportedly were extorted by customs agents at the border) to their home in Vera Cruz, where Lucia was Buried.