Erauso

Erauso was born Catalina in San Sebastián (Spain) at the end of the 16th century and died Antonio in Cotaxtla (Mexico) in the mid-17th century. His autobiographical work, Vida y sucesos de la Monja Alférez [The Life of the Lieutenant Nun], was published in 1829. Catalina was never a nun, but a novice in the Basque convent where her parents placed her at the age of four. In her adolescence, she escaped and lived as a man for the rest of her life. He crossed the Atlantic several times and took part in the conquest of Chile. Although Erauso alternates between male and female grammatical genders, his Life does not portray an androgynous character but rather a hyper-masculinized one. This second lecture will centre on the first Spanish transgender person, who, not satisfied with identifying solely as male, even mirrored the actions of Cortés and Pizarro.