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2. It just goes to show that persistence and hard work can perform miracles, and it happens regularly—especially in the Indies!

This line closes Chapter 10 and summarizes Catalina’s feelings after she is released from the prison where she had been incarcerated for a crime she did not commit and sentenced to ten years of hard labor without pay. Catalina is jailed and released for numerous crimes throughout her memoir, but few seem as miraculous to her as this one, perhaps because in this case she is genuinely innocent. Catalina makes clear that she believes miracles are more likely to occur in the New World than anywhere else. The thrust for colonization was based on the belief that a man, even one with a murky past, could conquer new lands and become incredibly rich, something that would be considered nothing short of a miracle in Spain. Catalina recognizes that the New World has allowed her to live freely as a man and keep her biological gender secret—a feat that would have been unlikely in Spain. Catalina’s ability to conceal her biological gender and evade detection is the result of her persistence and hard work, but underneath Catalina’s bravado, she recognizes how miraculous it is that a fifteen-year-old girl could accomplish such a feat.

This quote also reflects Catalina’s deep religious beliefs. Her beliefs remain deeply ingrained even after she leaves the convent, which isn’t surprising, since she was raised by the nuns since the age of four. She often makes light of her religious feelings, but she reveals her faith in the most emotional lines of her memoir, though it is unclear how much credit she attributes directly to God. These sincerely held, although not openly apparent, religious convictions are the basis for Catalina’s belief in the possibilities of miracles. However, she eventually displays a shift in her attitude toward religion, and as an adult she is more likely to attribute the miracles she sees to persistence and hard work rather than to God, even if she can’t fully discount his influence.

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