Historian filling in the blanks to solve mystery of Jackie

Brazilian historian Alberto de Oliveira said Brazil is a country of short memory. And that rings true in the legacy of Brazilian snake dancer Jackie Bailey.

Bailey, also known as Jacqui Japuri, has been a controversial icon in Brazilian culture, but her place in Brazilian history has, for the most part, been forgotten.

Now de Oliveira, 25, looks to revive Bailey’s story in his biography about her, “Do Not Talk to the Woman Fakir.”

Before he completes the book, de Oliveira needs to speak with anyone in Chula Vista who remembers Bailey.

Bailey arrived in Chula Vista in 1970 after a brief stay in Mexico. While in Chula Vista she married American Weldon Jackson Bailey. Soon after her marriage, she moved alone into a trailer park at 568 Palomar St.  In 1985, at age 67,

Bailey died alone in a trailer where she lived at 352 Broadway.

De Oliveira said Bailey’s corpse was found days after her death. He said police broke into the trailer and found Baily dead by what he suspects was a heart attack.

Through his research, de Oliveira believes Bailey catered to people as a fortune teller in her Chula Vista trailer. De Oliveira also said Bailey worked at Tijuana nightclubs.

Other than these few tidbits, de Oliveira said Bailey’s life in Chula Vista remains obscure.

“I almost got to know everything about her life in Brazil,” de Oliveira said.  “Only the last 15 years of her life in Chula Vista, from 1970 to 1985, is a mystery.”

But de Oliveira said he is willing to put the pieces together of Bailey’s life in Chula Vista.

He just wants some help.

“I need to talk to anyone who remembers Jackie,” he said. “A friend, a neighbor, a client. Anyone who’s met Jackie. The owner of a bar she used to go to, a doctor. I want to know any story about Jackie. As she was, as she lived, as were the last 15 years of her life in Chula Vista.”

de Oliveira said Bailey was more than a snake dancer. She sang,  composed, and acted on stage. He said Bailey was known as the Queen of the Amazon and also the Queen of the Reptiles. He said amongst Bailey’s greatest success was her fasting exhibitions. He said she was often locked in a glass urn where Bailey stayed for five or six days without eating. Inside the  glass urn, Bailey wore only a bikini and had the company of huge snakes. de Oliveira said people paid tickets to watch Bailey fast with her snakes.

The title of the book, “Do Not Talk to the Woman Fakir,” comes from Bailey’s fasting exhibitions. He said when Bailey fasted publicly, a sign nailed to the glass coffin warned the public to not talk to her as it would ruin her concentration.

A fakir is a person who fasts in public, lying on a bed of nails with many snakes.

de Oliveria said he is writing about Bailey because upon researching her, he became inspired by her.

“When you are a historian, you fall in love with the characters you search for,” he said. “I became a great admirer of Jackie, of her strength, of how she overcame the difficulties of her life. For me, it’s important to give Jackie a voice, to tell her story to people. And most of all, I want Jackie to take her place in Brazilian history.”

de Oliveira said he hopes his book can revive an important woman in Brazilian history, as well as find some answers about her life in Chula Vista.

“She was forgotten when she left for Mexico and in the years she lived in Chula Vista,” he said.