Espiridiona Cenda

Alize Espiridiona Cenda del Castillo (14 December 1869 – 11 December 1945), known on stage as Chiquita, was a Cuban dwarf singer and performer.^[1]

Cenda as sketched by Marguerite Martyn for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, published January 5, 1910

At 26 inches tall, she had built for her by C. Francis Jenkins what was in 1901 then the smallest automobile ever built.^[2][3]

Cenda was married and had one child, which weighed no more than two pounds and died at an early age.^[4]

Cenda spoke Spanish, Italian and English.^[4]

Cuban author Antonio Orlando Rodríguez won the Premio Alfaguara for his 2008 novel Chiquita, based on the life of Espiridiona Cenda.