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5. At one point during the afternoon, I found myself chatting with three cardinals, one of whom, Cardinal Magalón, told me that my only fault was that I was a Spaniard. To this I replied, “With all due respect, your Holiness, that is my only virtue.”

This is the last line of Chapter 25, and it appears after Catalina receives permission from the Pope to dress in men’s clothing. Although the memoir has one more short chapter, this line serves as an appropriate ending. Catalina has renounced her conventional Christian and female identities, but she has not made any attempt to rid herself of her heritage, namely her identity as a Spaniard and a Basquero. Catalina attempts to deny her past at all possible turns, yet when asked where she comes from, she readily says she is Basque, although she falsifies the names of her parents. Each time she admits her Basque heritage, she is rewarded with favors and camaraderie from other Basqueros. Catalina makes clear that her Basque and Spanish heritage trumps all other affiliations, including gender identification or the sworn duty to uphold the law. As Catalina readily abandons her identity and her past, what she holds onto—her heritage—becomes increasingly important.

In this quotation, Catalina minimizes the importance of her Basque identity to her. The Basques are technically Spaniards, so Catalina is including her Basque self when she talks about her national identity as being her only virtue. However, to the Basque people, self-identification as a Basquero is of the utmost importance and supersedes all other loyalties—Basques identify as Basques first and as Spaniards second. Growing up as a Spanish Basque, Catalina had ample opportunity to feel marginalized and oppressed, as she also felt as a woman. However, her connection with her cultural identity proves to be much stronger than that with her sex, for she is willing to abandon her identity as a woman but not as a Basque. Catalina’s Basque and Spanish identity both defines her as a person and is responsible for saving her life on many occasions. Strangers who know nothing about Catalina except her cultural background believe her Basque identity trumps any crimes she may have committed, thus encouraging her to believe that perhaps her only virtue is her heritage.

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