Body of 'Ugliest Woman in the World' Returns to Sinaloa for Burial Daily Mail UK
go to original February 12, 2013

Tras 153 años devuelven a México restos de Julia Pastrana. (El Universal TV)

A woman branded the 'ugliest woman in the world' after a rare disease left her body covered in hair has finally returned to her birthplace in Mexico for a proper burial - 153 years after her death.

Julia Pastrana was exploited as part of a traveling exhibition through Europe until she died from complications of childbirth in 1860. Even after her death, her body was exhibited across the world.

It eventually ended up in a storage room at an Oslo research institute, and after learning of the body's whereabouts, visual artist Laura Anderson Barbata campaigned to have it returned to Mexico.

"I felt she deserved the right to regain her dignity and her place in history, and in the world's memory," Barbata, who learned Pastrana's story while working on a play about her life, told the New York Times.

"I hoped to help change her position as a victim to one where she can be seen in her entirety and complexity."

Barbata, who lives in New York but hails from Mexico City, eventually won her decade-long battle and on Tuesday, Pastrana's body will finally be buried in Sinaloa de Leyva.

Read the whole story at Daily Mail UK

LA MUJER LOBO - Julia Pastrana y su triste vida (Gato cenizoso)

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