De Argentijnse dichteres en schrijfster Ana María Shua werd geboren op 22 april 1951 in Buenos Aires. Zie ook alle tags voor Ana Maria Shua op dit blog.
Uit: Microfictions (Vertaald door Steven Stewart)
A Bearded Woman
Some stories don’t even give your imagination a chance.
On a trip through Mexico in 1854, a circus promoter noticed the servant girl of one of his hosts. She was a shockingly hairy girl of twenty or so years. She looked like a bearded orangutan. She had protruding jaws, a double row of teeth (like a dogfish), a slim waist, and natural feminine grace. We don’t know if she followed him for love, money, or adventure, or to escape the tragic tedium of her life. The promoter exhibited Julia Pastrana all over the world; he made her famous and possibly happy.
She was already a pro when Theodore Lent met her. To swipe her from her agent, he married her. That way, in addition to getting what she made at the circus, he could sell much more expensive tickets to their own house, where the monkey woman would serve tea to the astonished guests. Lent got his wife pregnant and sold tickets to the birth, which took place in Moscow in 1860. The baby was born with the same characteristics as its mother and died two days later. Julia died three days later, always surrounded by spectators. Lent had the corpses embalmed and sold them to the University of Moscow. Nevertheless, when he learned that the university was exhibiting the mummies for “scientific” reasons, he reclaimed the bodies of his wife and child and took them with him to exhibit throughout the world. Some time later on, in Sweden, Theodore Lent married another bearded woman. He died insane in 1880.
Some stories don’t even give your imagination a chance.

Ana María Shua (Buenos Aires, 22 april 1951)









