Lieutenant Nun

Content Warning: This section discusses violence, murder, and anti-Indigenous racism.

Catalina de Erauso begins her autobiography by stating that she was born in the town of San Sebastian, in the Guipúzcoa province, in 1585. Her parents, native-born residents of the town, raised her with her siblings until she was four. At that point, she was sent to a Dominican nunnery, where she was to be trained as a nun. When she was 15, she became dissatisfied with the life in the convent, having quarreled with, and been beaten by, a nun named Doña Catalina de Aliri. On March 18, 1600, she stole the convent’s keys, scissors, a needle, thread, and some cash. She used the keys to escape and removed her nun veil as soon as she was outside.

Not knowing where to go, Erauso walked until she found a chestnut grove. She stayed there for three days while using the scissors, needle, and thread she had taken to change her clothes into masculine ones and cut her hair. From that point on, Erauso traveled in the guise of a man.

Erauso walked until she found the village of Vitoria, where she stayed with her uncle, who did not recognize her in her disguise.