Key Facts
full title ·
Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun: Transvestite in the New
World
author · Catalina de Erauso
type of work · Memoir
genre · Memoir, historical nonfiction, Spanish picaresque
language · Translated from Spanish by Michele Stepto and Gabriel
Stepto
time and place written · Between 1626 and 1630, location unknown
date of first publication · 1829, by Joaquín de Ferrer, as Historia de la Monja Alférez
Do±a Catalina de Erauso, escrita por ella misma, or “The Story of
the Lieutenant Nun Do±a Catalina de Erauso, written by herself”
publisher · Beacon Press
narrator · Catalina de Erauso
point of view · Catalina writes in the first person.
tone · Catalina's memoir is written after Catalina is publicly acknowledged as
a celebrity, and the tone of her story is boastful bravado.
tense · Simple past
setting (time) · 1585–1626
setting (place) · Catalina's hometown, San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain, and
the New World, including areas of Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. She later returns to
Europe and visits Rome and Naples, as well as returning to Spain.
protagonist · Catalina
major conflict · Catalina struggles to keep her disguise as a man a secret, while at the
same time evading the law.
rising action · As Catalina grows older, her violent behavior becomes more and more
pronounced, as do her brushes with lawlessness.
climax · Catalina is being chased relentlessly by the law, and after nearly
being killed in a battle with the Cid, she confesses to a bishop that she is
really a woman.
falling action · Catalina is given an examination that confirms that she is not only a
woman but also a virgin. She is sent to a number of convents for more than two
years while the Church confirms that she never took her vows as a nun. She is
then free to go, whereupon she receives permission from the Pope to continue
dressing as a man.
themes · The creation of masculinity; the importance of a relationship with God;
the power of disguise
motifs · Picaresque-style memoir; impermanence; violence
symbols · Churches; clothing
foreshadowing · Catalina writes that she tells a priest “all about herself,”
foreshadowing her confession to the bishop about the truth of her biological
gender.
