Lucia Zarate

Lucía Zárate (January 2, 1864 – January 28 or 29, 1890) was a Mexican entertainer with dwarfism who performed in sideshows. Zárate 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 Lucía Zárate was born on January 2, 1864, in San Carlos Chachalacas (now Úrsulo Galván), Veracruz, Mexico. Zárate's family soon resettled in the nearby town of Agostadero (now Zempoala).

Zárate is the earliest known person to have been retrospectively identified as having Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II (MOPD II), a rare genetic form of primordial dwarfism. The physicians recorded her height as and noted that her calf measured in circumference, only larger than the thumb of an average adult man. By age 20, she reportedly weighed , nearly three times her earlier recorded weight. 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."

Death On January 15, 1890, while traveling on the Central Pacific Railroad to San Francisco for an appearance, an intense blizzard known as "the Great Snow Blockade of 1890" caused the train to become stalled at Truckee, California. Zárate was one of hundreds of passengers trapped in blizzard conditions that lasted for weeks in what was then very remote areas in the Sierra Nevada and western Nevada, awaiting the progress of a rotary snowplow that would clear passage for the stuck trains. Many fell ill as influenza spread among the trapped passengers, with a single train car serving as a makeshift infirmary, as Truckee lacked any sort of medical facilities. Several passengers died, among them Lucía Zárate, who, according to varied reports, died on January 28 or 29, of what has been variously described as a gastritis and/or exposure.

Legacy , her family home in Zempoala, known as Casa Grande, was open to the public as a museum.