Catalina de Erauso

Catalina de Erauso was a cross-dressing Basque woman that gained fame in Spain for her adventures in the New World during the start of the seventeenth century. She went by the alias of Francisco de Loyola. At four years old, de Erauso was placed into a convent by her parents where she stayed until fifteen. She ran away after she received a beating by the hands of her large older sister. She did well as a cross dresser. She got jobs and even tricked her father, brother and uncle. She also encountered her mother when she decided to hear mass at the convent she used to be in. Even her mother evidently did not recognize her.

De Erauso became a soldier under her brother’s command. As a soldier she fought side by side with him without being discovered. She eventually killed her brother while participating in a duel. Symbolically this represents how Catalina de Erauso proved that women can succeed in a man’s world.

After she killed a man during a fight over a card game, she confessed her true self to a bishop and went through a medical examination that proved that she was truly both a woman and a virgin. The Bishop assisted her in safe passage back to Spain. Pope Urban VIII granted de Erauso permission to continue dressing as a man since she had garnered so much fame for the events that she lived while in the New World. Her memoirs are preserved as a book entitled Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World.

Catalina de Erauso knew that if she looked like a woman on the outside, her opportunities would be vastly limited as opposed to someone that was perceived to be a man. She did kill a number of men and succeeded in what most would consider manly activities. She stands as a icon of woman ingenuity and success. On top of everything that she did, the most impressive thing that she accomplished was being granted permission to live the way that she wanted to live, even though everyone eventually knew that she was a woman. She embodies perseverance and resolve.

By Marcos Herrera