The book “Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun: Transvestite in the New World” by Catalina de Erauso explores the life of a woman named Catalina, who disguises herself with men’s clothing and lives her life as a man. She pulls off this change in gender so well that even her father, mother, uncle and brother don’t even recognize her as she crosses paths with them at times during her life as a man. This suggests that gender identity can be changed and essentially constructed as one desires, and is not necessarily innate. Not only did Catalina change her clothes, but she also essentially created an identity to go with it as she became violent and so ready to kill even over minor things such as insults. For example, Catalina in chapter 9 talks about the attack on the Indian village, saying casually “We carved the boy into ten thousand pieces.” She exhibits aggressive competitiveness and embodies a male persona, which further shows that a biologically assigned gender does not necessarily determine ones gender identity for the rest of their life.
I also thought the scene described in chapter 26 was interesting. When the two women saw Catalina and addressed her as “Señora”, she responded, “My dear harlots, I have come to deliver one hundred strokes to your pretty little necks, and a hundred gashes with this blade to the fool who would defend your honor.” The anger and proclivity toward violence exhibited here is a further example of the gender identity she has created upon dressing as a man, and doing this has also encouraged her to repress all the female aspects of herself so that when she was addressed as a female, it struck a nerve, causing her to react as she did.
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