Julia Pastrana was born in 1834 into an Indigenous community in the Sierra Madre in Mexico. There are various stories about her early life, and little is known for certain, but some accounts allege that when Pastrana was born, her mother was worried that supernatural interference had affected Pastrana's features. According to Public Domain Review, when Pastrana's mother saw her for the first time, she whispered the name of the naualli, a breed of shape-shifting werewolves that were often blamed for stillbirths and physical variations in infants. Born with undiagnosed generalized hypertrichosis lanuginosa and gingival hyperplasia, Pastrana had thick hair all over her face and body, as well as thickened lips and gums.
Pastrana and her mother reportedly left their community when Pastrana was very young. After a few years of living in a mountain cave, they were found by Mexican herders, and Pastrana was placed in an orphanage in a nearby village.
Due to her unique looks, as a child, Pastrana became a local celebrity. After hearing about her, NDTV writes that Pedro Sanchez, governor of the state of Sinaloa, decided to adopt her "to serve as a live-in amusement and maid." She ended up working for the governor until she was 20 years old, at which point she reportedly decided to go back to her Indigenous community. However, Pastrana never made it back. Instead, she was taken to serve as sideshow entertainment in the United States.
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