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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
54, 1996
For the
Bookshelf
by William A. Douglass
Beacon Press has recently published a translation of
the fascinating work by Catalina de Erauso. Entitled
Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun Transvestite in the
New World, this autobiographical account reads like a
picaresque novel. It details the adventures of an
extraordinary woman from San Sebastián/Donostia who,
as a young girl, fled the convent, donned men’s
clothing and made her way to the Spanish frontier in the New
World. There she became a roustabout conquistador whose
behavior landed her a dreaded assignment with the Chilean
expeditionary force (from which few returned) when she was
not fleeing the authorities. Even in the loose climate of
wide-open frontier society she managed to find a seedy side
where she gambled, drank and fought with the worst elements.
With sword and pistol she killed more than a dozen men,
including her own brother. Eventually, fleeing the hot
pursuit of her many adversaries, she took refuge with a
Catholic bishop to whom she revealed her
secret.
A confessed and repentant Catalina returned to Europe
where she was an instant celebrity. She was fawned over,
given a pension by the Spanish king and a dispensation by
the Pope which allowed her to continue to wear male
clothing. After producing her memoirs, she returned to the
New World where she lived the rest of her life as a rather
nondescript mule-skinner, moving cargo between Veracruz and
Mexico City.
Catalina de Erauso’s story is remarkable from
many perspectives. The Beacon Press edition details much of
its significance for understanding the sixteenth-century
Spanish and Spanish-colonial worlds. Of particular interest,
yet undeveloped in the otherwise excellent introductory
essay to the translation, is the insight her story provides
into the workings of a Basque ethnic network within colonial
society. Whenever she needs employment, or simply assistance
in fleeing her pursuers, Catalina turns to her fellow
Basques, seemingly invoking their common ethnic ties. While
certainly not the central theme of the work, its
“Basqueness” makes it a key text for understanding
the dynamics of the Basque presence in both Spain and the
New World during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries.
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