Probably one of the last things you would expect to ever happen in the 17th century, to me at least, was a transgender conquistador. When I read Catalina de Erauso’s summarized life story at the beginning of the reading, I was immediately taken aback. What struck me as even more surprising, however, was the fact that once it became revealed that Catalina had ran away from the covenant, across Spain, and to the Americas, both the Pope and the King of Spain allowed her to go about her ways. Although, that is also understandable since technically she did not violate any “inexcusable” Catholic rule.

On the other hand, it’s also fairly easy to understand the reasons behind her forgiving by the Pope and by the King of Spain. Before it was discovered that the famed conquistador was actually a woman the entire time, she had been conquering lands in the name of the king, and she did do an impressive job at that. As a result, I can see why they “went easy” on her. But I also did find it ironic how this happened in South America during the 1600s, but nowadays, it’s a lot more controversial in the same region. In Brazil, for example, there is a growing rightist movement that is deeply rooted in Christianity, and that preaches highly conservative values, such as homophobia and federal anti-abortion regulations. This might be in part because now people are actually making gender transitions official, which might make it hard for some to comprehend. In the memoir, it did not seem as though Catalina had made a full transition from female to male, since she no longer hid her real gender. Now, when someone transitions from one gender to another, they take on a whole new persona, and aren’t hiding the fact about their transition necessarily.

Overall, the reading did change my perspective on the time period as a whole, and made me rethink how certain concepts were seen back then in different regions (Europe vs. Latin America).

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