With his body and face covered in hair, Jesus “Chuy” Aceves (Mexico) and his relatives suffered discrimination for many years.
Jesus “Chuy” Aceves, a Mexican man with 60,000 hairs on his face, has had to work for a circus. The difference of the man dubbed “the werewolf” has caused him countless troubles. Dozens of other members of his family also suffer from the same condition. They were diagnosed with hypertrichosis, which causes abnormal hair growth on the face and body.
Jesus’ family was constantly shunned by the surrounding community. With no other choice, he joined the circus at the age of 13. “A man said he would pay to hire me and my two cousins. He said he would adopt us and we would get money. I agreed,” Jesus recalled.
Eva Aridjis, who made a documentary about “werewolves”, said that the lives of these people were extremely miserable. “Men and women, boys and girls with this disease are made fun of in school, abandoned by ‘hairless’ parents and their children, which leads to discrimination in the workplace and difficulty finding a partner.” The only work that “werewolves” can do is perform in circuses. They wander around and have no freedom. They share the same fate as “mutants” in history such as Jo-Jo “the dog-faced boy” or Lionel “the lion-faced man”.
Jesus is now married and has three daughters, all of whom have hypertrichosis. “It’s harder for women because society doesn’t accept a hairy woman,” Aridjis told the BBC . “As a filmmaker, I have a responsibility to give them a voice and tell their story.”
To date, only about 50 cases of hypertrichosis have been recorded in the world, but the actual number is much larger. In Jesus’ family alone, 30 people have this strange disease.
Excerpt from the movie “Chuy, The Wolf Man” by Eva Aridjis
