The family fed up with being called 'wolves' (PHOTO)

As a child, the thick, dark hair that covers his entire face quickly earned Aceves the nickname "The Little Wolf". He grew up in the small town of Loreto in north-west Mexico where, as a result of his appearance, his family was shunned by the local community, BBC News reports. By the age of 12 he had started travelling from city to city to work at fairgrounds. One summer he sold tickets for a Ferris wheel, another year he ran a stall where people popped balloons to win prizes. It was there that a circus owner spotted him. "My life in the circus started when I was 13," Aceves says in Eva Aridjis's film,Chuy the Wolf Man. The circus owner asked if any other family members had the same condition - and by this time Aceves' two younger cousins, Larry and Danny, had also been born with hypertrichosis. "The man said he'd pay us well and said he wanted all of us. He said he would house us and there'd be money. I said, 'Yes.'" The three boys were signed up by the circus and spent several years travelling around Mexico where they used to greet the audience and have their picture taken. Accompanied by Aceves's mother, they always had somewhere comfortable to stay and plenty of food to eat but there was one thing that he didn't like. "We were always locked up. They were presenting us as attractions so we couldn't be seen on the street. I didn't like that, being locked up so people wouldn't see us." As a young child, Aceves had wanted to hide away. He didn't like going outside and at school he was bullied by other children, who pulled his facial hair and called him names. But his self-esteem grew stronger as he grow older. Now, even at the age of 41, he has conflicting emotions of shame and pride in being who he is. He says doesn't regret having worked in circuses. "It's not a bad place where you make money doing something bad. It's a decent job. As an artist you entertain people and make them laugh," he says.

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