The Cagot People
The Cagots were a persecuted and despised minority found in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Gascony, and Brittany. Their name has differed by province and the local dialect: Cagots, Gahets, and Gafets in Gascony; Agotes, Agotac, and Gafos in Basque country; Capots in Anjou and Languedoc; and Cacons, Cahets, Caqueux, and Caquins in Brittany. Evidence of the group exists back as far as AD 1000.
Cagots were shunned and hated. They were required to live in separate quarters in towns, called cagoteries, which were often on the far outskirts of the villages. Cagots were excluded from all political and social rights. They were only allowed to enter a church by a special door, and during the service a rail separated them from the other worshipers. Either they were altogether forbidden to partake of the sacrament, or the Eucharist was handed to them on the end of a stick, while a receptacle for holy water was reserved for their exclusive use. They were compelled to wear a distinctive dress, to which, in some places, was attached the foot of a goose or duck (whence they were sometimes called Canards). So pestilential was their touch considered that it was a crime for them to walk the common road barefooted or to drink from the same communion cup as non-Cagots. The Cagots were restricted to the trades of carpenter, butcher, and rope-maker.
The Cagots were not an ethnic group, nor a religious group. They spoke the same language as the people in an area and generally kept the same religion as well. Their only distinguishing feature was their descent from families identified as Cagots. Few consistent reasons were given as to why they should be hated; accusations varied from Cagots being cretins, lepers, heretics, cannibals, to simply being intrinsically evil. The Cagots did have a culture of their own, but very little of it was written down or preserved; as a result, almost everything that is known about them relates to their persecution. Their cruel treatment lasted through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Industrial Revolution, with the prejudice fading only in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Origin and etymology
The origins of both the term "Cagots" (and "Agotes", "Capots", "Caqueux", etc.) and the Cagots themselves are uncertain. It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths, and the name Cagot derives the name from caas (dog) and "Goth". Yet in opposition to this etymology is the fact that the word "cagot" is first found in this form no earlier than the year 1542. 16th century French historian Pierre de Marca, in his Histoire de Béarn, propounds the reverse - that the word signifies "hunters of the Goths", and that the Cagots were descendants of the Saracens. The theory that the Cagots were "descendants of Moorish soldiers left over from the 8th century Muslim invasion of Spain and France", a 2008 article in The Independent states, "is supported by many French experts."
Assumptions about the etymologies are often linked to debates on the origin of this phenomenon still misinformed. It is therefore difficult to keep one or the other for the final.
In analogy with the Greek word "caco" (bad), near the Breton word "Kakouz" which means "leper", "stingy", it would undoubtedly be preferable simply the origin of the Vulgar Latin verb "CACAR" . This etymology, the most credible, is given by Rabelais . In the Isle ringing, it shows the suffering of bigots harpies disease , the cholera . Rabelais also uses the term "bigot" in a passage of Gargantua about the Abbey of Thelema : An inscription on the door prohibits the entry to "hypocrites, bigots, hypocrites."
Prosaically, the name comes from cago, the first person present indicative tense CACAR Vulgar Latin that evolved into Occitan cagar, ( shit ), "bigot" is actually a derogatory name occasionally, the more neutral crestian being more represented, for example in the names . . The pronunciation is not [ca'go] but [ca'gòt]: as-OT is a diminutive Occitan , bigot can be literally translated as "dung" or "little shit".
Others have claimed that Cagot just a cagoule. But there is evidence that the word cagoule is younger than Cagot. cagoule only dates from the sixteenth century, corruption Cogule (cuculla), a kind of hood or cap.
The original Gothic are excluded: they claimed that Cagot was formed by contraction of caas-goths, Gothic Dog, as usual insulting name 507 to refer the Goths because of their commitment to Arianism, the subject of scandal and hatred for Catholics. According to this hypothesis, this race, dedicated to the persecution of the Franks after their victory at the Battle of Vouillé, in 507, when Clovis killed Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, was forced to hide in the most secret recesses of the mountains to keep his religious habits (such as the Kabyle Berbers and refugees in the Atlas and Aures). It would, in addition to inbreeding, contracted leprosy and hypothyroidism, endemic diseases which, combined together, would reduce this race to a state similar to that of idiots (compare the cretin of the Alps). When, afterwards, she would have abjured Arianism to meet the Roman communion, the community of Cagots would have been regarded as a set of lepers and foul. But the term "Cagot" only appears around 1300, making this hypothesis implausible historically, etymologically implausible. P. Mr. Quitard offers a fantastic alternative hypothesis : Court Gebelin derived the word caco-deus, reported by Ducange. Caco, meaning false, would become a Cagot, hypocrite, hypocrite and as always the name of God in his mouth, and uses it for anything, he was nicknamed, among people who call God God, God-kakle, cackles Christi, and gradually cak-god and Cagot.
Another theory is that the Cagots were descendents of the Cathars, who had been persecuted for heresy in the Albigensian Crusade. A delegation to Pope Leo X in 1514 made this claim, though the Cagots predate the Cathar heresey. Yet another theory claims descent from Viking invaders.
One early mention of the Cagots is from 1288, when they appear to have been called Chretiens or Christianos. Thus, another theory is that the Cagots were early converts to Christianity. The hatred of their pagan neighbors continued after they themselves converted, merely for different reasons. Another possible explanation of their name Chretiens or Christianos is to be found in the fact that in medieval times all lepers were known as pauperes Christi, and that, whether Visigoths or not, these Cagots were affected in the Middle Ages with a particular form of leprosy or a condition resembling it, such as psoriasis. Thus would arise the confusion between Christians and Cretins.However, early edicts apparently refer to lepers and cagots as different categories of undesireables.
In Bordeaux, where they were numerous, they were called ladres, close to the Spanish ladrón meaning robber or looter, similar to older, probably Celtic term bagaudae (or bagad), a possible origin of agote.
The alleged physical appearance and ethnicity of the Cagots varied wildly from legends and stories; some local legends (especially those that held to the leper theory) indicated cagots had blonde hair and blue eyes, while those favoring the Arab descent story said cagots were considerably darker. One common trend was to claim that cagots had no ear lobes, or that one ear was longer than the other.
Graham Robb finds most of the above theories unlikely:
Nearly all the old and modern theories are unsatisfactory... the real "mystery of the cagots" was the fact that they had no distinguishing features at all. They spoke whatever dialect was spoken in the region and their family names were not peculiar to the cagots... The only real difference was that, after eight centuries of persecution, they tended to be more skillful and resourceful than the surrounding populations, and more likely to emigrate to America. They were feared because they were persecuted and might therefore seek revenge.
A modern theory of interest is that the Cagots are the descendents of a fallen medieval guild of carpenters. This theory would explain the most salient thing Cagots throughout France and Spain have in common; that is, being restricted in their choice of trade. The red webbed-foot symbol Cagots were sometimes forced to wear could have been the guild's original symbol. There was a brief construction boom on the Way of St. James pilgrimage route in the 9th and 10th centuries; this could have brought the guild both power and suspicion. The collapse of their business would have left a scattered yet cohesive group in the areas where Cagots are known.
Crestians and gésitains, designations related to leprosy
In place names, the terms most often used are "crestians", "chrestiaà" or "christianus" it appears as early as 1000 the cartulary of the Abbey Lucq and texts about the year 1300 and was be synonymous in Gascon of "leper" (called the "fountains of crestians" for sources reserved for leprosaria ). The lepers were designated under the name pauperes Christi.Many in Bordeaux , they are called lepers leprosy meant that Old French , a term also meaning closer ladrón thief or looter in Spanish and therefore synonymous Bagaud , which could be derived bigot. The chronic often by means of names caqueux, cacous, capos, gaffos, all terms of contempt which also meant lepers.Moreover, in some texts of the sixteenth century , the term Cagot and its equivalents are used as synonyms for " lepers ". En béarnais , ce terme signifiait « lépreux blanc » selon le dictionnaire Larousse . In Béarn , the term meant "white leprosy" according to the Larousse dictionary .
The leprosy refers to the Medieval various ill-defined skin diseases: leprosy red is almost always fatal; white leprosy leprosy or tuberculosis present similar signs, but may be stabilizing. All skin diseases, so visible, were treated as leprosy, a meanness, a word of Hebrew attached to Lazarus. Tous ces malades inspirent la peur de la contagion et sont isolés hors des villages. All these patients inspire fear of contagion and are not isolated villages. The bigots are also known as' gézitains "," giésitains "," gésites "in reference to the biblical character Gehazi (whose name recalls the Hebrew Gehenna ), servant of Elisha , a leper because of greed. The Old Testament , tells how leprosy was supposed to be spread by clothing, but also morally wrong. Elisha's servant Gehazi condemns them to a plague "himself and his descendants". The one and poor knowledge of visible skin diseases under the generic term for leprosy, was therefore in the Bible , and induced falsely that these diseases were transmitted by contact and is transmitted throughout the generations.
The term used for leprosy in Gascony was to feel bad lo Lop ("the evil of Saint Loup), or more often lo Malandra, (literally," evil-go, "Lat. Malandria to have pustules on the neck) cf. l'italien malandato , "seedy" and French "villain" that also follows. Le terme ladre (du nom Lazarus) est aussi employé . The word niggardly (named Lazarus) is also used . We see that the assimilation of insulting terms to the names of leprosy has been widely used, and remains.
We thought so at the time as a precaution dictated by God, hence the term crestian, similar to the original term moron Valais ( Suisse Romande ). . Although they were punished by a plague, these people remained Christian and understood, could benefit - still - to society. Until the mid-twentieth century, Cagot, used as an insult, meant both " stupid "or" village idiot "," bigot "or" goiter .
Religion
Cagots were forced to use a side entrance to churches, often an intentionally low one to force Cagots to bow and remind them of their subservient status. This practice, done for cultural rather than religious reasons, did not change even between Catholic and Huguenot areas. They had their own holy water fonts set aside for Cagots, and touching the normal font was strictly forbidden. These restrictions were taken seriously; in the 18th century, even a wealthy Cagot had his hand cut off and nailed to the church door for daring to touch the font reserved for "clean" citizens.
Cagots were expected to slip into churches quietly and congregate in the worst seats. They received the host in communion only at the end of a stick. Many Bretons believed that Cagots bled from their navel on Good Friday.
An appeal by the Cagots to Pope Leo X was successful, and he published a bull instructing that the cagots be "[treated] with kindness, in the same way as the other believers." Still, little changed, as most local authorities ignored the bull.
"On December 31, 1696 at Siarrouy are gathered in the house and in front of John Betbèze Ducos, royal notary, and Jean Dominique Campagnolles of Tostat Dominique Larrieu and Jean Barrere of Aurensan of Sarniguet. These men have the common feature of being bigots. They wait a few minutes the arrival of two other representatives of their brothers in misfortune Devèze Bertrand, a master carpenter living in the city of Tarbes and Jean Mascaras of Talazac. Everyone is there. Dominique Campagnolles asked the royal notary to record his statement. In essence, the bigots of Bigorre no longer accept the insults and harassment of people among whom they live, notwithstanding the royal decrees issued in their favor. They decide to join together in a union and take care of their friend Guillaume Bouix, master carpenter Bagneres, continue to the prosecutor and even, if necessary, before the Intendant of the Province, in Pau, any offender who uttered the following insults: bigots, hoods, lepers, Gahete, gésites, gésitains, etc.. Any offended that compromise, or accommodate itself will not carry his complaint, will be liable to a fine of 500 livres (about 30,000 $ - 25,000 € today)."
Government
The nominal though usually ineffective allies of the Cagots were the government, the educated, and the wealthy. It has been suggested that the odd patchwork of areas which recognized Cagots has more to do with which local governments tolerated the prejudice, and which allowed Cagots to be a normal part of society. In a study in 1683, doctors examined the Cagots and found them no different than normal citizens. Notably, they did not actually suffer from leprosy or any other disease that would justify their exclusion from society. The Parliaments of Pau, Toulouse and Bordeaux were appraised of the situation, and money was allocated to improve the lot of the Cagots, but the populace and local authorities resisted.
It was not until the French Revolution that substantive steps were taken to end discrimination toward Cagots. Revolutionary authorities made clear that Cagots were no different from other citizens, and de jure discrimination generally came to an end. Still, local prejudice from the populace persisted, though the problem at least began to decline.
During the Revolution, Cagots had stormed government offices and burned birth certificates in an attempt to conceal their heritage. These measures did not prove effective, as the local populace still remembered. Rhyming songs kept the names of Cagot families known.
A population condemned
The Cagots living as outlaws and struck taboo , a considerable number of prohibitions dictated by superstition hanging over them: some are oral, but some are transcribed into the "fors" (laws) of Navarre and Bearn of XIII century and fourteenth century centuries. Aucune humiliation ne leur était épargnée, jusqu'au moindre détail. No humiliation was spared not their every detail.
Banned
Put away, victims of a kind of racism people, deeply rooted locally, they were forbidden under the severest penalties of living in towns and villages to be shod and dressed differently than red. Ils vivaient dans des quartiers spéciaux, souvent d'anciennes léproseries . They lived in special quarters, often former leper colonies . They were required to wear a distinctive sign, usually a leg of duck in red fabric cut and sewn on their clothes. At Marmande , in 1396 , the regulation specifies that Gahete will be sewn on their clothing over the left side, a sign of red fabric, along with one hand and three fingers wide.
They went to the village for their most pressing needs and to go to church. In many cases, they were outside by a door size, font special in store for them and they were relegated to the background with seats separated from the rest of the faithful. The sacraments even they were forbidden in some places to the same reason as animals. We got the point their testimony in court , and it was by grace that the custom of Bearn had established that the testimony of seven of them amount to a legal deposition ...
They had no name, only a first name followed by the words "crestians" or "bigot" was found on their acts of baptism , and religious ceremonies that involved generally took place at night. At their death they were buried away somewhere in the cemetery or cemetery apart. They were allowed to marry among themselves.
At Saint-Léger-de-Balson (Gironde), St. Clair source is double, one for the pilgrims, the other for the bigots. ( fév. 2010 ) (February 2010) .Some trades they were banned, those generally regarded as capable of transmitting leprosy, such as those related to land, fire and water, they should take it to the fountains that were reserved. Ils n'étaient donc jamais cultivateurs. They were never farmers. The trades in connection with their food were also banned. They were not carrying any sharp objects, so no weapons or knives, but they are curiously found in occupations such as surgeons and were ready willingly donated healers . Women were often midwives , until the fifteenth century , the bigots even had the total exclusivity of this activity.
They were allowed by cons touch wood, so they were often carpenter or mason , lumberjack or cooper .In cases where instruments of torture were made of wood, which was common in towns and villages, they came to be murderers or carpenters , builders of coffins and gravediggers , functions that do not improve their image among local populations nor therefore their fate. Occupations they exercised more often were those of weaver , of the tailpiece and weaver .Paid in goods, they were not entitled to salary and therefore constituted a labor cheap.
Such conditions of life were often dependent on charity, especially that of the Church and foundations to meet the needs of lepers income Crusades .The clergy as the aristocracy , however, justify such discrimination sometimes well into the eighteenth century , despite the fact that the bigots were Christians and they have an easy to condemn the excesses committed against these people by the peasants which weighed chores and taxes whose bigots were exempt because the size and even the chore were most often related to work the land. They then bought back, for a fee offset the taxes they were exempted, their "liberation" by royal decree
Popular Prejudices
Unlike discrimination based on race , the religion or language, who have often been echoed by academics and politicians without scruples, the local segregation remained the most arbitrary of birth into a family of bigots was sufficient to establish for the rest of the life condition of bigot.
This population is considered to be physically different, and the outlawing of the medieval and modern first then acting as a scapegoat to ward off the fear of leprosy , a disease of unknown origin and that no one knew not care. They accused the bigots to poison wells, saying they harmful and evil, they are sometimes alleged sorcerers , the damning of all evil and all evil, the decked out flaws such as the absence of ear lobe with (character recessive gene of the human species, it shows some inbreeding), the webbed feet and hands, or to be goitrous . Some of these features are related to fantasy physical sequelae of leprosy, while the goiter was a disease typical of mountain people starved iodine . The isolation and inbreeding finally explain cases of mental retardation in this population, but we can assume that their percentage did not differ from the rest of the local population.
Supposed to smell foul, the bigots are described by certain documents as either small and brown with olive skin, big blue eyes sometimes. No consistent or specific race becomes clear, and nothing distinguishes them from the rest of the population. Doctors were appointed as experts by the parliament of Bordeaux and could only conclude that they were free of any pathology.
History of the phenomenon of bigots
Timeline
The phenomenon is not recorded until the eleventh century it was an order of Louis XIV which ended the clergy persisted in using the term for a large part of the eighteenth century, but since that time, the distinction was almost disappeared everywhere. The term continued to be used, but to describe something else. However, in Navarre, and Spain, the phenomenon survived until 1819 , with even traces the twentieth century .
known dates
1000 : Mention of "chrestiaas' in the cartulary of the abbey of Lucq .
1070 : they are listed as "gafos" in the fuero prepared for Sancho of Navarre Remíriz.
1288 : first mention of the word "bigot".
1514 : The agotes in Navarre are the first to complain of their fate to Pope Leo X .
1580 : the bigots, with the agreement of the consuls and the Rector, build themselves their own chapel dedicated to Saint Sebastian in the valley of Campan .
1691 : intense fire in the valley of Campan.The church is destroyed and will be rehabilitated, as in 1597, by the bigots.
1642 : last act of baptism of the parish of Doazit ( Landes ) stating the term "gesitaing.
1692 : mentioned last burial in the cemetery of the parish of Chrestian Doazit .
In 1764 : the last use of the term "carpenter" in the parish registers of Saint-Savin , a term used thinly veiled hypocrisy by the clergy of Saint-Savin to describe the Cagots.
1819 : law banning discrimination in Navarre.A neighborhood of Madrid remains a ghetto bigot (Nuevo Baztán) which migrate to the United States some of their descendants.At Arizkun (Navarra), the district Bozate would have remained inhabited by descendants of Cagots in the early twentieth century there said Al Agote garrotazo en el Cogotas.
Origins of the phenomenon
The most diverse reasons have been given to explain the phenomenon.Written documentation regarding the Aquitaine before the eleventh century are almost nonexistent, everyone went to his hypothesis, based on the designs of each era and each author.
The traditional explanation is that there were families leprosy . However, Dr. Guy Yves, who had to care for lepers, noted first that the concept (still accepted in the late nineteenth century) to "white leprosy" (hereditary) is invalidated by the contemporary study of this disease .The characterization of hereditary lepers as bigots is a collective fantasy located in the region.To explain the maintenance on the sidelines, after illness, families living in leper colonies in the south-west, some refer to the nearby passes of the Pyrenees, beyond which was an area threatened by the Islam.Like some lewd figures of Romanesque art was supposed to make a divine threat abroad, the situation was locally treat the holders of leprosy carriers of evil abroad (hence their final placing in the gap).
Others were lent their origins: they were sent down and the Goths , the Saracens , descendants of the Normans installed at the time of their first record, and in which the Templars may have been find carpenters for construction of certain cathedrals or Cathars .
The hypothesis is based on the Cathar petition addressed in 1514 to Pope Leo X by Cagots and agotes from many villages north and south of the Pyrenees, and who, tired of harassment which they continued to suffer, appealed to him , the applicants complained that they still the subject of various exclusions and oppressions "(...) because they said their ancestors had lent a hand to Count Raymond of Toulouse in its rebellion against the Holy Roman Church ( ...) " . Applicants are careful not to deny the acts charged, simply continue as follows: "(...) They implore the Holy Father to order, since they have hardened nothing in the conduct of their ancestors, they are given in possession of all that denies them (...) because they are good Catholics and obedient son of Holy Mother Church, (...) ". In addition, the name "crestians" evokes quite accurately the name gave themselves Cathars themselves: "good crestians". In general, this thesis is rejected by historians (for example, De Marca [ref. desired] and Lardizabal ), who note that the first appearing in Languedoc Cathars in 1170 and there has never been in Gascony Cathar Church. The Cathars organized does not in fact exceeded the right bank of the Garonne , while the Cagots are mainly present in regions on the left bank, in Bigorre, Bearn, Gascony, the Basque Country and Navarra even beyond the Pyrenees . However, to explain their presence on the left bank of the Garonne, nothing precludes a number of Cathar , expelled from the Languedoc by the massacres and repression, there are swelled cohort of all excluded, exiled, ostracized, and others that plague medieval society was so much push and remote withhold certain privileges granted to the inhabitants of the ordinary. Then subsumed under the generic term "bigots" they would say good followers of the Church of Rome , for the sole purpose of escaping the ecclesiastical condemnation .
One hypothesis is also social outcasts because of their profession (carpenters) .But sources suggest that this is the trade association that has caused the stigma and that it is contrary to the restrictions imposed on them that led them to adopt certain businesses: the names and topography indicate that the locations were the Cagots characteristics constants are differences, outside walls, called "crestian" (and derivatives) or "spot" (the names are common Laplace) next to points water allocated places to live and practice their trades mainly unclean-wood fire as well as the brick .This relegation was able to generate the professional guilds , as suggested by Rene Descazeaux , but later in the shelving, and mainly for woodworking.
Alain Guerreau, research director at CNRS , analyzed the conditions that allowed a group is stigmatized in this way .For him, it is the reorganization of the feudal society in the south-west France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which created a rigid political and economic context, a category excluded (younger son, without land) living at the margin.Lepers were also rejected by society at the same time, the assimilation would continue thereafter, when their origin was forgotten.
The slow struggle towards integration Cagots
The earliest record of the struggle for freedom Cagots and dignity appeared in Navarre.In 1514 , the bigots are addressed to Pope Leo X , complaining of discrimination in the churches. Leo responded with a bull ordering the "treat them with kindness on the same footing as other faithful" and entrusted the implementation of this bubble to the canon of Pamplona , Don Juan de Santa Maria.But the implementation of these provisions against them provoked interminable trial, despite the support of Emperor Charles V in 1524 .
For over three centuries, the scenario was the same: bullying succeeding against them, trial won by them more often support the higher clergy and princes, but resistance of local authorities and people.
In the sixteenth century , it is estimated they were about ten per cent of the local population. From that time, if still banned, isolation relaxed, and over the centuries that followed they began to gradually integrate into the population so that their family names now listed on the parish registers not the most distinguished, since, with the same surname in a parish some families were bigots and others not.In fact, it is certain that most families in the south-west France and the other side of the Pyrenees in Spain with at least one ascending bigot.
This is the French Revolution which enabled them to finally become full citizens, as well as Jews and Protestants. In the nineteenth century , remained essentially the insult, the term "bigot" by forming one, still used in the southwest of France, no one knows today what is the origin.
The town of Bozate in the town of Arizkun , located in the Valley Baztan in Navarra is famous for being the last enclave known Cagots and Ethnographic Museum of Cagots therein.
An example of discrimination based on fear of ill impure
The history of bigots reflects visceral fear felt by the people vis-à-vis leprosy, the terror inspired by this disease, but especially devastating that fear operates, it creates fantasies and reactions it inspires, its role in the segregation of a portion of the population.
Although their plight can be compared to that of excluded groups in many societies ( pariahs and fillies in India or burakumin Japan), the peculiarity of bigots in the history of discrimination is to be a relegation hereditary and socio-economic vernacular not justified by religious or political structure to the difference of caste systems, the Jewish ghettos or banished. It is not concerned with the disappearance or conversion: there is no trace of pogroms or pyres for bigots to their capacity as part of this community. It is a discriminatory process around the fear of disease impure and / or genealogically transmitted in a socio-economic exclusion on the local villagers.
Only with the rise of central power normalizer that the phenomenon disappears for the case of bigots in the late seventeenth century . But discrimination of sub-classes for reasons often artificial, ever attempted, was still practiced, even in the most advanced societies: thus including Travellers are located and treated sometimes in conditions very similar to those hypocrites. There is currently a leper colony in Romania in which there are lepers who live there with their offspring, it "leaves" to small services (Tichilesti).
Modern status
Today the Cagots no longer form a separate social class and have largely assimilated into the general population. Very little of Cagot culture still exists, as most Cagots have desired not to be known as Cagots.
There was a distinct Agote community in Navarre up to the early 20th century, with the small northern village called Arizkun in Basque (or Arizcun in Spanish) being the last haven of this segregation, where the community was contained within the neighborhood of Bozate.
Due to the main identifying mark of the Cagots being the restriction of their trades to a few small options, they have been compared to the Caste system in India.
Other websites about the Cagot : The independent
French : chez-alice
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Lizzie Velasquez
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Lizzie Velasquez
Because of her syndrome Lizzie Velasquez is not able to gain weight. She is 21 years old right now and only weighs about 60 lbs. She has zero percent body fat as well. She is also blind in one eye and has limited vision in the other. It is so rare that it is -to this day- undiagnosed. There are only 3 people in the world including Lizzie who have it. Some researchers believe that there may be a link between Lizzie's syndrome and Amy Winehouse Disease but so far this work remains speculative.The latest suggestions from the medical world is that she is suffering from a rare form of progeria.
The Texas State University student has a condition that is so rare, there are only three known cases in the world. It prevents her from gaining weight even though she eats up to 60 small meals a day.
She cannot do many things regular humans can; because of her syndrome. One thing she can do, unlike most regular humans, is post on /b/. And so, on December 26th, 2008, Lizzie came out of the closet and spoke to the masses on /b/.
She consumes between 5,000 and 8,000 calories a day but her weight has never tipped over 4.3 stone.
'I weigh myself regularly and if I gain even one pound I get really excited,' 5ft 2ins Lizzie said.
'I eat small portions of crisps, sweets, chocolate, pizza, chicken, cake, doughnuts, ice cream, noodles and pop tarts all day long, so I get pretty upset when people accuse me of being anorexic.'
Lizzie was born four weeks prematurely weighing just 2lb 10oz. Doctors found there was minimal amniotic fluid protecting her in the womb.
'They told us they had no idea how she could have survived,' said Lizzie's mother Rita, 45, a church secretary.
'We had to buy dolls' clothes from the toy store because baby clothes were too big.'
Doctors could not make a diagnosis so they prepared Lizzie's parents for the worst.
'They told us she would never be able to walk, talk or have a normal life,' said Rita who has two other children with Lizzie's father Lupe, 44. Lizzie's siblings Chris, 12, and Marina, 15, are both of average height and weight.
Born with two brown eyes, when Lizzie was four the right began to cloud and change hue. Doctors then discovered she had gone blind in that eye.
'They still don't know why it happened but now I have one blue and one brown eye.'
Lizzie was taken to see genetic experts but they still could not diagnose her.
At the age of six, Lizzie's doctors began encouraging her to eat plenty of fat, carbohydrates and sugar.
'They told me to 'just go for it' with anything I wanted at any time,' said Lizzie, who carries food in her handbag and keeps a big stash under her bed in her flat.
In high school Lizzie made friends and gradually came to accept her appearance.
'I started to think: 'Well this is me, like it or lump it,'' said Lizzie.
'I was always the one at the top of the pyramid during cheerleading,' she added.
Lizzie has a weak immune system and has been in hospital many times after catching numerous illnesses.
At 16 Lizzie almost died when her appendix ruptured and at 19 she had a massive blood transfusion because her blood cells were not multiplying properly and she was critically anaemic.
'I was so weak I couldn't get out of bed,' she said.
'My doctors had no idea how I was still alive. I only had half the normal amount of blood in my body but after my transfusion I felt like a new person, it was great.'
She attends Texas State University, so if any of you failures reading this see her on campus, be sure to yell "EAT A BURGER"
Lizzie's case has fascinated doctors all over the world and she is part of a genetic study run by Professor Abhimanyu Garg, M.D. at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Professor Garg and his team now believe Lizzie may have a form of Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome (NPS) which causes accelerated ageing, fat loss from the face and body, and tissue degeneration. People with PRS often have triangular and prematurely aged faces with a pointy nose.
The Maury Show
Lizzie appeared on The Maury Show in season three in an episode titled "I'm Only A Kid...Please Don't Stare." At the time, she was 11 years old and 50 pounds. You cannot find a video of the episode because nobody cares and it would be flagged as shocking or disgusting content. Lizzie's dream is to whore herself on Oprah.
From Lizzie her self
The syndrome that I am living with is so rare that it is to this day undiagnosed. There are only 3 people in the world including myself who have it. Amanda, the oldest of the three is in her 30's and lives with her husband Richard in England. Abigail the youngest is 13 and lives in Austin as well. I've seen many different research doctors throughout my life and there just aren't any answers. What the syndrome causes is that I'm not able to gain weight. I'm 19 years old right now and only weigh about 60 lbs. I have zero percent body fat as well. I'm also blind in one eye and have limited vision in the other.
I eat whatever I want all day long and just can't keep the pounds on. The syndrome is so puzzlng because it fits characteristics of different syndromes but doesn't fit it to the point where I can be diagnosed with a certain one. For example, one of the big ones is progeria. I have a lot of the same physical features as kids with progeria. Like the pointed nose, small mouth, and appearing with aging skin. The difference is that progeria is terminal and has a lot more complications. My only thing is the characteristics that I just listed.
The small amount of information that I just wrote about is literally the only information my doctors know about my syndrome. It's just one big mystery and hopefully one day there will be a miracle and an answer to all our questions.
We did in the past a story about progeria.
Other websites about Lizzie Velasquez : Personal website
Source : Encyclopediadramatica
Jessica Cox
Jessica Cox on Ellen
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Jessica Cox Female Pilot without arms.
Jessica Cox suffered a rare birth defect and was born without any arms. None of the prenatal tests her mother took showed there was anything wrong with her. And yet she was born with this rare congenital disease, but also with an amazing spirit.
Jessica believes that by combining creativity, persistence, and fearlessness, nothing is impossible..She is a phychology graduate can type 25 words a minute ,use computers,brush her hair and talk on to her phone simply using her feet.She has a no-restrictions driving license,She is from the USA and is also a former dancer and double black belt in Tai Kown-Do.
She is so adept at using her feet, she is even able to insert her contact lenses and apply makeup using only her feet. In her role as a motivational speaker, Jessica has inspired audiences across the United States.She has become the first pilot licensed to fly using only her feet. With one foot manning the controls and the other delicately guiding the steering column, Cox, 25, soared to achieve a Sport Pilot certificate. Her certificate qualifies her to fly a light-sport aircraft to altitudes of 10,000 feet.
“She’s a good pilot. She’s rock solid,” said Parrish Traweek, 42, the flying instructor at San Manuel’s Ray Blair Airport.
Parrish Traweek runs PC Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Services and has trained many pilots, some of whom didn’t come close to Cox’s abilities. “When she came up here driving a car,” Traweek recalled, “I knew she’d have no problem flying a plane..”
The plane she is flying is called an Ercoupe and it is one of the few airplanes to be made and certified without pedals. Without rudder pedals Jessica is free to use her feet as hands. She took three years instead of the usual six months to complete her lightweight aircraft licence, had three flying instructors and practiced 89 hours of flying, becoming the first pilot with no arms.
Jessica's greatest challenges are not the ordinary daily tasks required for her to live independently. Putting in contact lenses, washing and brushing her hair, and fixing breakfast in the morning are all tasks that come second-nature to her as they would to anyone else. Her greatest triumph in life stands far above any physical feat. It is her unrepentant regard for herself a whole person, her high degree of self-acceptance that gives her the freedom and power to insist that society accept her, too, just as she is.
Jessica Cox quotes
“Handicaps are mindsets, whatever it is that stands in the way of achieving something, that's when it's a handicap. I prefer them as obstacles or challenges. This is how I've been my whole life, I don't know any different. I just live my life through my feet.”
“My message is that disabilities are not limited to physical. They shouldn't stand in the way of success, there's no handicap to success.”
“I think it does make a point and got me for a second, and I looked around.”
A truly amazing young women with a giant personality "The Salt of the Earth".
Other website about Jessica Cox : Personal website
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Liew Thow Lin a.k.a. Magnet Man.
Liew Thow Lin of Malaysia is known as the "Magnet Man", or "Mr. Magnet"because he has the ability to stick metal objects to his body.
Lin has performed in many charity events showing his ability. He can make metal objects, weighing up to 2kg each, up to 36 kg total,stick to his skin. He has also pulled a car using this ability.
Lin's ability is not due to any source of magnetism. Scientists from Malaysia's University of Technology found no magnetic field in Lin's body, but did determine that his skin exhibits very high levels of friction, providing a "suction effect". The trait appears to be genetic, appearing in Lin's three grandchildren.
Lin was featured on the second episode of the Discovery Channel's One Step Beyond.
How it is possible
Following deep medical study,at the Universiti of Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) lecturer Nasrul Humaimi Mahmood said this ability was probably associated with "suction properties in his skin." Professor Dr. Mohamed Amin Alias, from UTM's electrical engineering faculty in Johor, agreed.
After seeing Liew perform, the professor did research on the matter, and decided, "His skin has a special suction effect that can help metal stick to it." "These powers are not an illusion," he said, "That is why his two sons and two grandchildren also have the magnetic-like ability.
They have his genes." Dr. Atsusi Kono, former chief physician at the Djo Si Idai Hospital in Tokyo, was so impressed with a Russian he saw doing this stunt, that he commented: "There is absolutely no doubt that the objects stick as if their bodies were magnetic."
Dr. Friedbert Karger of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, in January 1997, investigated another "magnetic man" named Miroslaw Magola who was born in Poland in the 1960s, and was able to demonstrate the ability "to pick up a cup from the floor without touching it, and to control its suspension in mid-air."
Other website about Liew Thow Lin : Discovery
Liew Thow Lin a.k.a. Magnet Man
Miroslaw Magola a.k.a. Magnetic Man
Armless Pianist Liu Wei
Armless Pianist Liu Wei
Heartening tales of overcoming adversity are typical fodder on "Got Talent" and other reality shows, but the shocking saga of "China's Got Talent" contestant Liu Wei makes this season's batch of "America's Got Talent" sob stories look like the pampered brats on VH1's "You're Cut Off." And this is a true sob story--seriously, if you watch the video below and don't get at least a little bit misty-eyed, you clearly have no soul..
Liu, now 23 years old, lost both of his arms in a freak accident when he was 10, after he touched an electrified wire while playing hide-and-seek. However, these tragic circumstances did not stop Liu from pursuing his dream of becoming a pianist--teaching himself how to play with his feet at age 18, after one piano teacher told him he would never succeed. And it turns out, Liu has more talent in one of his pinky toes than most four-limbed piano players have in both of their hands..
"For people like me, there were only two options. One was to abandon all dreams, which would lead to a quick, hopeless death. The other was to struggle without arms to live an outstanding life," Liu explained to the judges on "China's Got Talent." Thankfully, Liu chose the latter option.
When he was 18, Liu decided to follow his dream to become a professional musician and taught himself to play the piano in secret. His first piano teacher quit, saying it was impossible for anyone to play with their toes
The Beijing teen agreed there were pieces he could not play because he was not able to press keys across octaves.
But eventually he developed his own style of playing with his toes.
My Quote: "Do not concentrate on what you can't do anymore,concentrate on what you can do !"
Source : Yahoo
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