LAST 100

There are few memoirs that read as if they were a work of fiction. Catalina de Erauso’s is one of them. After escaping the dominican convent where she was a nun, Erauso, fled the Basque country, traveled Spanish territories, and ended up in the New World. Erauso then returned to Spain, where she was granted an appointment with Spanish monarch Phillip IV where he awarded her a life pension for her services to the crown. She presented herself to Pope Urban the Eighth, who gave her an appointment to grant her a papal disposition to continue dressing as a man provided she remained a virgin. She then disappeared? returned to South America? Stayed in Spain? No one knows for sure, but it is said that she was seen last in Mexico running mules.

So many questions arise after reading the story of La Monja Alferez. What where her motivations? Why dress like a man? Why didn’t she reveal herself to family when she encounter them? Why choose such a solitary lifestyle? What does her story reveal about the Spanish society of the 17th century?… I could keep on going but I’d just succeed in boring you.

Catalina de Erauso’s memoirs are not only interesting because of her Tomb Raider-esque adventures, or the fact she cross-dressed in a time where it was not only, frowned upon, but dangerous to do so, but because she embodies the exemplary conquistador. She was a real manifestation of what Spaniards believed to be the life of a migrant to the new world. In other words, the 1600’s “American dream”. Erauso became a traveling soldier, merchant, muleteer, gambler, murderer and conquistador. She returned to Spain where she was honored by the king. Talked to the Pope. Was granted a disposition to cross-dress. But, she was a woman in a time where women had little to no rights.

The curious thing is, as Michele and Gabriel Stepto (translators of Erauso’s memoir) put it,

“Catalina’s focus was on being a Spanish man, a soldier. It would be a misreading to see her as anything other than the perfect colonialist, manipulative, grasping, and at moments out and out bigoted. To align Catalina, as a cross-dressing “other,” with the victims of colonialism is to miss the truth that the rewards of her transformation were gained almost wholly at their expense.”

Catalina did not see herself as a woman dressed as a man, but as a conquistador. And I guess, that’s the way we should look at this memoir. Not the memoir of a cross dressing nun, but that of a conquistador’s adventures in the new world.

When reading Christopher Columbus’ journal documenting his first voyage of discovery, I found myself thinking: “If I was reading this in the 15th century, I would think this was all fiction”.

Columbus starts documenting his journey aboard the Santa María the 3rd of August, 1492 after crossing the bar of Saltés and setting a course south by west from Islas Canarias, having set sail in Palos de Frontera, municipality located in the south of Spain. The first few entries document his time on the Santa María, his progress (distance-wise), the decisions he has to take as captain of the expedition, and minor day-to-day events aboard the caravels. Throughout the journey, Columbus logs daily distance entries into his journals. He often logs one distance, but gives his crew a totally different one. He always notes this in his journal.

I found this practice very interesting. I wonder whether Columbus was logging exaggerated numbers into the journal on purpose, just for the eyes of his sponsors.

Turns out, Columbus had wildly miscalculated the distance it would take to circumnavigate half of the globe in order to reach the West Indies. He’d given these numbers to his financiers. Columbus had a preference for the calculations of Greek geographer Marinus of Tyre, over Ptolemy’s more accurate ones, which led Columbus to believe his journey would take less time than what it really did. The noted difference in his journal might suggest that Columbus knew he had made a mistake and was trying to hide it from his sailors to avoid the risk of them bailing out on him halfway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When Columbus arrives on the newly discovered “West Indies”, he starts logging everything he sees. He writes about the flora, the fauna, the natives, the geography, the colours, and the possibilities. The hunt for gold, and the possibility of converting natives to Christianity become recurring theme throughout the rest of his journal. Everything Columbus sees and interacts with emanates an air of fantasy. The fertility of the soils, the fabulous fruit trees, the friendliness of the natives, the clearness of the waters. Everything Columbus writes is meant to be read. Meant to impress.

It seems as if Columbus logs the stuff that matters the most to his sponsors back in Spain. Columbus is trying to sell his discovery. After all, we know, his interests were more than just documenting this new world.

Columbus’ First Voyage

Magical Realism

The Lieutenant Nun

The Voyage of Columbus