Lieutenant Nun: The True Story of a Cross-Dressing, Transatlantic Adventurer Who Escaped From a Spanish Convent in 1599 and Lived as a Man

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This text presents the extraordinary story of a 17th-century cross-dresser who became a hero of the Spanish-speaking world, a darling of the Pope and a conquistador in Chile and Peru. Catalina de Erauso was born in 1585 in the Basque city of San Sebastian, and after fleeing a convent aged 15, she spent the rest of her life dressed as a man. A soldier by the age of 18, she inadvertantly killed her brother in a duel, gambled and brawled her way through the Andes, and only revealed her secret 20 years later, when she became a legend in her own time and for subsequent generations. Her memoirs shed light not only on the Spanish conquest of America, but on the life of a woman who challenged the foundations of society, while remaining committed to its service.

Reviews

A rollicking, swashbuckling tale. -Los Angeles Times

"The frontier nun's rascally tale [is] a fascinating puzzle to decipher." -Angeline Goreau, The New York Times Book Review

"A mesmerizing adventure!" -Tama Janowitz

"[Catalina de Erauso] dared to steal the quest narrative from the roving men of her time and, miraculously, survived to tell the tale. An essential work for recovering the roots of women's autobiography and women's remaking of identity through encounters with otherness, not only in society but in the self." -Ruth Behar, author of The Vulnerable Observer

"The Steptos' translation, without betraying the original, turns this memoir into compelling literature in English." -Roberto Gonzlez Echevarra, Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literatures, Yale University

Author Bio

Catalina de Erauso was born in Spain in either 1585 or 1592, according to disputed records, and died in 1650. Raised and educated in a convent, de Erauso refused to conform to the strict nature of the environment and, disguising herself in men's clothing, escaped in 1600. As a fugitive, she then traveled to various countries and joined the Chilean military, climbing the ranks. Her story is told in Lieutenant Nun- Memoirs of a Basque Transvestite, which was originally wrote or dictated, and eventually published, in Paris in 1829.