Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World by Catalina de Erauso

Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World Reviews

• 
  Stacia

  While a woman dressing as a man is nothing new in the annals of history, reading this straighforward, picaresque autobiography is something fairly different. My Spanish bil confirmed for me that Catalina is indeed a Spanish (folk)hero. Reading of her exploits & adventures provided a fascinating glimpse into her life as a man in the new world, outlining her exploits as a gambler, soldier, and adventurer. Catalina got into enough scrapes that she often relied on the sanctuary of the Church for protection; later in her life, after confessing her true identity, the Church accepted her & the pope gave her a special dispensation to continue dressing as a man. A unique view of a Spanish hero/heroine. Worth a read, especially for the historical value.
  
  FYI, here is a different translation than the one I read, freely available online:
  
  http://mith.umd.edu//eada/html/displa...
• 
  Nicole aka FromReading2Dreaming

  This was an interesting book, as it details the one of the first autobiographies from a female. And one that cross dresses no less. It was a fast read and enjoyable, if you can over look all the murder. I personally do not think Catalina is a good role model, but her story is intriguing.
• 
  Heather

  I read this for a class I am TAing--- it is actually quite dull, no emotion whatsover... it is basically a very long winded timeline.
• 
  Pamela

  Unbelievable.
• 
  Cassy

  this was an interesting and really quick read. i spent more time reading the introductory and translator's notes than the actual memoir because of how quickly the memoir both read and moved along. now whether most of the memoir is actually factual versus fabricated is a whole other topic but i found it to be interesting nevertheless. i read this as my first reading for my chicana lesbian literature class which is interesting bc 1. it is not a piece of chicana literature 2. it can not be confirmed that erauso is even a lesbian. in fact their identity is the subject of much debate so i'm interested to see how my professor will tie this into our course objectives hm
• 
  MM

  Viva la Monja Alférez! This is the story of Catalina de Erauso, a 16th-17th Century "transvestite nun." It's her short autobiography -- first a nun in the Basque region of Spain in the late 1500s, she donned men's clothing and escaped. She passed as male in Spain, working here and there, and then left for colonial travels to South America (Peru mostly, and Chile). There she soldiered, dueled, killed, and adventured. She eventually confessed her transgressions and became legendary. Although the prose is not that interesting (and not at all lurid), the story is fascinating.
• 
  M.M. Strawberry Library & Reviews

  Definitely an interesting read, but given its age, the language can be a bit hard to work through at times. But it was definitely an excellent choice for my Women's History class.
• 
  Adriana Villegas Botero

  Ver comentarios en:
  http://secretodelectura.blogspot.com/...
• 
  Septimus Brown

  The oldest known autobiography of a woman, and at that, a woman living her life as a man. The question remains: was la Monja Alférez cross-dressing for freedom, or was she transgender? Maybe irrelevant, and certainly unanswerable. This picaresque account is so over the top as to be funny. The Lieutenant Nun's story is one of masculine parody. Her bravado is limitless: gambling, murdering, spurning offers of marriage at every turn. Anyone not trying to kill her is enthralled by her. She is always the last one standing, always coming into amazing wealth and then squandering it all.
  
  At first the story is amazing, and I'm sure much of it actually happened, but the narrative snowballs into silliness. She remains a Spanish folk legend after all, and she was a celebrity in her time (there was even a play made about her while she was still alive), but.... there's no way that ALL of this happened, at least without serious embellishment. But who cares... it's an interesting, high-flying tale, and a glimpse into the horrors of Spanish colonialism.
  
  This short book is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in the era, in early memoir, or in the picaresque tradition. Also, the audio book by Audible is well read, though you might want to skip the self-important forward and introduction!
• 
  Greta Rase

  Libros que la facultad me enseña y que me dejan sorprendida por no saber de su existencia. Siendo un texto con un valor más histórico que nada quiero admitir que no encontré nada grandioso en su narrativa. Sin embargo, la historia ha sido interesante y diferente para la época, comenzando con el hecho de que es la biografía de una mujer (sorpresa) escrita supuestamente por ella misma. Se sabe que Catalina de Erauso existió aunque claro, no se tiene por certeza que puede llegar a ser ficticio en la obra. Además de eso se nos revela la historia de una mujer que, escapando de un convento, tiene varias aventuras travestida de hombre, fungiendo como soldado, apostando, asesinando y escapando. Llega a alcanzar el titulo de alférez y es un personaje magnífico para estudios queer pues también se da a entender que es lesbiana. Me pareció fenomenal encontrar algo asi en un escrito de 1829.
• 
  Violeta Laralá

  Me ha llevado un buen rato terminarme el libro completo con todos los anexos, pero no es culpa del libro, sino mía.
  La historia en sí es rara, increíble y llena de muertes repentinas, acabé un poco harta. Lo que realmente vale la pena es la fantástica introducción de esta edición que habla sobre la picaresca, la mujer y la virginidad, el travestismo, transexualidad y sexualidad (muy brevemente, sería muy interesante leer más sobre esto), la moralidad y todo el contexto histórico.
• 
  Janik

  This one is tough to review because it was not written to be an exciting story or anything. It's mostly just lieutenant nun brawling and shit talking her way through various towns in South Africa. It's fun tho and like damn what an iconic girlboss who killed way too many people
• 
  Maggie

  Really interesting viewpoint and text for insight into colonial Spain and the intersection (or nonintersection) of gender, nationality, and religion.
• 
  Avery (Book Deviant)

  an assigned reading that i actually enjoyed
• 
  Alexander

  Reading really old books is so interesting cause they will describe the wildest adventures in the most bored voice you've ever heard.
• 
  tilly

  one spanish transmasc’s violent yet hilarious shenanigans and international tomfoolery
• 
  Moloch

  Forse la recensione più efficace, stringata ma azzeccata, di questo libretto la scrive Jesús Munárriz già nelle primissime righe della sua Presentazione: “Non cercare in queste memorie, lettrice o lettore, le raffinatezze della letteratura, poiché mai fu questo il loro proposito. Scopri piuttosto in esse quel che d’insolito, avventuroso ed elettrizzante contengono, che non è poco”.
  
  Storia della monaca alfiere scritta da lei medesima: questa autobiografia è opera di Catalina de Erauso, una giovane basca, figlia più piccola di un cavaliere, nata nel 1592; dall’età di due anni, la bambina viene collocata in convento perché vi passi il resto della sua vita. Solo che, a quindici anni circa, Catalina scappa (nel suo racconto sembrerebbe una decisione d’impulso e non pianificata), si traveste da uomo e da lì cominciano le sue avventure e i suoi viaggi, con nessun altro scopo se non vedere un po’ di mondo e non stare ferma nello stesso posto. Dopo aver girovagato tra paesi baschi e Spagna, imbattendosi anche nei suoi genitori che non la riconoscono, Catalina si imbarca per le colonie americane, vive tra il Perù e il Cile, combatte anche con qualche merito nei frequenti scontri con gli indios (ed ecco perché è la monaca alfiere), e soprattutto gioca, scatena una rissa dopo l’altra, ferisce e uccide i suoi avversari in continui duelli (durante un duello notturno non si accorge di avere di fronte il suo fratello maggiore, e lo uccide), entra ed esce di prigione o corre a rifugiarsi presso le chiese e i conventi per sfuggire alla giustizia, e insomma non sembra esattamente uno stinco di santo, finché un giorno non decide di rivelare la sua vera identità. Diventata “un personaggio”, torna in Europa, in tanti vengono a vederla, viene ricevuta a corte, si reca a Roma dal papa che le concede di continuare a vestirsi con abiti maschili. La sua autobiografia si conclude bruscamente, ma da altri documenti si sa che Catalina tornò in America, stavolta in Messico, e lì morì nel 1650.
  
  Il racconto, dopo le prime pagine (la fuga, l’incontro col padre, i primi scontri), diventa abbastanza monotono e ripetitivo, lo stile è arido. D’altra parte Catalina non voleva scrivere un testo letterario, bensì un memoriale da presentare a corte per ottenere dei benefici: quindi tanti svolazzi non le servivano, meglio privilegiare chiarezza, stringatezza e un’elencazione precisa e minuziosa dei suoi vagabondaggi.
  
  E non c’è molto altro da aggiungere. Anche il fatto che la protagonista sia in realtà una donna finisce per essere per buona parte del racconto quasi irrilevante, davvero, quasi lo si “dimentica”: a parte rari episodi, o gli accenni fugaci alle avventure sentimentali (Catalina probabilmente era lesbica, e il fatto che si facesse passare per castrato le dava ampie possibilità di avvicinare donne sposate e non), e il momento della rivelazione finale, la stessa autrice non dedica neanche una riga a questa scelta del cambio di genere. Un documento curioso, una biografia movimentata, una lettura velocissima, nulla più.
  
  3/5
  
  
  http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2014/0...
• 
  V

  Old timey memoirs were the best. No showing off how many books the author's read, just action, action, action. Catalina de Erauso was a 15 year old Spanish girl in a convent who, after being beaten by some of the nuns, sees a chance to escape and takes it. She disguises herself as a boy and takes on a clerical job, but after committing a couple murders, flees to the new world, where she becomes a solider and commits even more murders. I lost track of the bodies fairly quickly.
  
  Details in this book are scarce, but even still we get a hint of her sense of humor. Like when she is trying to escape the law when she comes across two constables in the dark, and "then they ask for my name and I say (what I shouldn't have said), 'The Devil.'"
  
  Other than these little jokes, we don't get much sense of her personality, but she must have some charisma because powerful people are always trying to help her avoid murder charges and women are always trying to marry her to their daughters.
  
  Some people may wonder how Catalina conceived of her gender or sexuality, but I'm more curious how she managed to use the bathroom without revealing her sex, since relieving oneself wasn't exactly a private act during the Renaissance.
• 
  Sandra

  my friend had found this book laying around in his apartment building's basement. picked it up and read it on a whim. thought it was interesting and sent it my way after he was done.
  
  well, there is A LOT packed in that tiny book. fascinating story to say the least. not terribly well written and i wonder just how much was her story is embellished and well, factual. nonetheless, not terrible and a very, very quick read. oh, and the pacing of the story is most amusing to me. seriously, it's like, ""Oh, you know, i rain away from the convent and all and then this theology professor took me in and let me stay for a few months. Turns out he's married to one of my aunts. ANYWHO, he liked me a whole lot and wanted me to stay and be his student for the long haul but I thought otherwise so then he beat me. . ." lulz.
• 
  Joan

  My goodness, what an interesting life! I suppose my only frustration is that De Erauso was writing a confession, not a memoir, and so I was left very hungry for more. Just how she was able to get through situations such as being stripped and nearly racked without being revealed as a woman is something I'd really like to know. This is very much a "Perils of Pauline" story, and quite an interesting look at 16th-century Latin America and the Spaniards who settled there.
• 
  Kimberly

  The story in & of itself is crazy, but the memoir is merely a record of that story. It's literally like reading a non-stop monologue of someone's wild-but-true story of her life as a man in a time when that was pretty much illegal/frowned upon/but she got away with it for pretty much her whole life so fascinating, only, really, because of that.
• 
  Anne

  The title leaves out the best part: this is a transvestite lieutenant nun from the 1500s!! A true story swash buckling tranny who kills lots of people and is addicted to gambling and stealing her (his) brother's mistress. It's addicting, you'll finish it in a day.
• 
  Benjamin

  read it for a college class,
• 
  JLSchmidt Schmidt

  Women & Gender Roles Explored
  
  Taking on this book was part of an assignment for a course in Women's History at my local college. I wasn't sure what I was in for considering the length and breadth of the Forward and the Introduction.
  
  This book about the adventures of Catalina de Erauso gives us a glimpse into the 1600's and what it was like in the Americas for men. While Catalina dresses as a man to escape a sure ending to her freedom, what comes next is a life of adventure and at times a transient existence. The book gives us pause to look at what the expectation of women was, but then not to dwell on it, but to see what adventure could await women of that time. Catalina was gambled, a soldier and like it or not a killer. Her misadventures in the world of men are both fascinating and sometime repugnant given the violence she deals in. In the end, her life is an incredible story of making something of a future that is different that what would be expected of someone in her position, in the position of a woman. Her story is not only exciting at times but sad. While the book tells you upfront that it is a "good" translation of her story, it is somewhat easy to tell that either the story has been lost over the years, that the translation is sometimes lacking as English cannot do justice to somethings, and the perhaps Catalina herself, in relaying the story wasn't very forthcoming about some things. Either way, it's a good quick read and great if you are looking for history of the time period.
• 
  Lucero Sarahí

  La mujer de este siglo no tenía mucha variedad de opciones: sólo podían casarse con un hombre o casarse con Dios, tal como le pasó a Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Al tener esto en cuenta, evidentemente nuestra Monja Alférez tomaría un camino diferente. Logró cambiarse de género liberándose de un gran problema social, pero a partir de esa transición, su yo espiritual, fue un hombre de batalla. No una mujer jugando a ser hombre.
  
  Para mí es una metáfora de roles de género que debía ser respetado, o por otro lado; una especie de rebeldía para un impacto social. Lo que se podría justificar con un argumento feminista, buscando la libertad para encaminar su futuro con decisiones propias. En las investigaciones que encontré acerca del tema, estaban muy centrados en el feminismo. Sin embargo, no creo que sea el tema principal y mucho menos la homosexualidad; sobre todo si consideramos que en nuestra actualidad al cambiarse de género, la atracción hacia las mujeres sería heterosexual (porque ya para este punto sería considerado un hombre). Esto lo vuelve muy confuso, porque la autobiografía se trata a sí mismo de ambos géneros según el tiempo de la historia. Aún así, hay que tomar en cuenta que nunca negó ser mujer, sino que confesó su identidad oculta, por lo que esta ambigüedad permite al lector interpretar y fantasear como desee. Yo no considero que sea una rebeldía al 100%; una parte es liberación y otra parte es un recorrido de autodescubrimiento, aunque sin duda fue una lectura muuuuuy interesante.
  
• 
  Melissa Helton

  Like The Travels of Marco Polo, this autobiography offers no arc, no character development, no personal reflections on the happenings. It's like a brief travelogue of names and battles and journeys. It's a good look into the brutality of Spanish colonization of this hemisphere. To what extent the exploits are true (there are a lot of conflicts in the account) it's a good look into the brutality of the men's sphere, killing each other over a card game or insult and other ridiculous things. In thinking about de Erauso's identity, we need to pause before assigning modern sensibilities. Without words like transgender or nonbinary, we can't say with certainty who de Erauso was. The autobiography uses "she" to talk about herself and declares she's a woman, and also switches back and forth in male-gendered or female-gendered adjectives in the original Spanish (so says the translator's notes) and used a male name until she confessed being a woman- To pass into a life with more options? Because she identified as male? Would she have just been a really butch woman if she'd been allowed to? How would she have identified if she had our modern words? We shouldn't say. .... Interesting, quick, and brutal read that raises more questions than it answers.
• 
  Aiden

  Fascinating, definitely worth reading and I would read it read it again.Very grateful for the introduction, forward, and translator's notes.
  
  I understand that translation is complicated and yet I'm still troubled by the decision to use English personal pronouns to refer to Catalina when, according to the notes, Catalina never used feminine articles/word endings for themselves, instead using the masculine. The way that Catalina lives as a man upholding traditional gender roles and advancing Spanish empire is the most interesting part of this narrative. On Catalina's part there is no introspection or context, which is why I appreciated and enjoyed the introductions so much - to add nuance and flavor.
  
  I didn't so much care for the story or for Catalina, but it's fascinating for the historical info and modern implications.
• 
  Michelle Arostegui

  Amazon review: One of the earliest known autobiographies by a woman, this is the extraordinary tale of Catalina de Erauso, who in 1599 escaped from a Basque convent dressed as a man and went on to live one of the most wildly fantastic lives of any woman in history. A soldier in the Spanish army, she traveled to Peru and Chile, became a gambler, and even mistakenly killed her own brother in a duel. During her lifetime she emerged as the adored folkloric hero of the Spanish-speaking world. This delightful translation of Catalina's own work introduces a new audience to her audacious escapades.
  
  From the "Introduction" by translator Michele Stepto: "Sometime between 1626 and 1630 -- that is, between the visit to Naples, which concludes her memoir, and her return to the Americas -- she wrote down in manuscript or dictated to an amanuensis an account of her life."