Orphans of the Carnival

Afterword

Julia lived between 1834 and 1860. The parts of this book that deal with her life are fictional, but the basic facts are true. She travelled, performed, married, bore a child, died and after death was exhibited along with her child.

Theo Lent (not to be confused with Lewis B. Lent) died insane in St Petersburg.

Marie Bartel survived her husband and remarried.

The mummies were found in a warehouse in Norway in 1976. The fate of the child’s remains is unknown. Julia’s body was kept for many years at the Department of Anatomy, Oslo University. After a campaign by transdisciplinary artist Laura Anderson Barbata and Mario Lopez, governor of Sinaloa state, it was repatriated to Mexico, and in February 2013, after a Roman Catholic funeral attended by hundreds, was finally laid to rest in the cemetery of Sinaloa de Leyva.