Chiquita, The Living Doll. Age 27 yrs. Weight, 15 lbs. Height 26 inch. Greatest Attraction of the Age.

Cabinet card, 6.5 x 4.25 inches printed with graphic "Chiquita, Little One." Pencil identification on reverse, "Little women, 27 in high, California, Chiquita." Soil and faint tidemark to reverse, card slightly bent and rubbed around edges. An unusually desolate photograph showing her characteristically fashionable dress and eloquent fan, but foregoing the studio backdrop and props typically used to emphasize her scale.

Alize Espiridiona Cenda del Castillo (1869-1945) was a singer and performer from Cuba. If her advertised age (27) is accurate, this is an early cabinet photo dating from around 1896, when she made her New York debut: "She is said to be a university graduate; she must be a believer in dress reform, for she doesn't wear even a stiff waist under her dainty, modish gowns. She can play, sing, and dance; she is the most graceful little lady imaginable, and she is only two feet in height" ("Tiny Cuban Lady Who Dances," New York Times, 7/24/1896, p5). She became famous at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, hosting receptions in a drawing room style salon where visitors asked questions and marveled at her fine gowns.