Баск монахының ерлік саяхаты немесе «Қыз-лейтенант» тарихы

Basque nun and explorer, d. 1650

Antonio de Erauso, born as Catalina de Erauso (in Spanish) (San Sebastián, Spain, 1585 or 1592 — Cuetlaxtla near Orizaba, New Spain, 1650), also went by Alonso Díaz and some other masculine names, later taking on the name Antonio de Erauso which he went by for the remainder of his life. He is also known in Spanish as La Monja Alférez (The Ensign Nun or The Nun Lieutenant). de Erauso was originally an unwilling nun, but escaped the convent and travelled around Spain and Spanish America, mostly under male identities, in the first half of the 17th century. Erauso's story has remained alive through historical studies, biographical stories, novels, movies and comics. Erauso's parents were Miguel de Erauso and Maria Pérez de Arce Galarraga, where Erauso's mother's cousin, Ursula de Uriza e Sarasti, held the position of prioress. Lacking religious vocation and as a result feeling imprisoned and refusing to take vows, Erauso was detained in a cell and constantly fought with a widowed novice named Catalina de Aliri. At 15, after being beaten by one of the older nuns, Erauso decided to escape. who was married to Erauso's mother's cousin but took Erauso in without recognizing him. Erauso stayed with him for three months, learning some Latin, but when Cerralta became abusive, Erauso left. Disguised as a man by the name of Francisco de Loyola, Erauso served in the court for seven months as a page of the king's secretary, Juan de Idiáquez, until one day Erauso's father came looking for Idiáquez. His father conversed with Idiáquez, , all without recognizing that he had just spoken to that child. Upon arriving, Erauso was unable to find a place to sleep nor a patron. In addition, a group of boys made fun of and attacked him, and when he got into a rock fight and injured one, he was arrested and spent a month in jail. Upon release from prison, Erauso went to Estella, and found work as a page there too, Erauso felt, like many Basques of his time, inclined to venture to the Indies. He spent this time as a man, in masculine dress with short hair, using different names such as Pedro de Orive, Francisco de Loyola, Alonso Díaz [Ramirez] de Guzmán, and Antonio de Erauso. Apparently, his physique was not feminine, which helped him pass as a man. Erauso once said he "dried her breasts" with a secret ointment.

The first place in the Americas where Erauso landed was Punta de Araya, now part of Venezuela, where he had a confrontation with a Dutch pirate fleet which he defeated. From there they left for Cartagena and Nombre de Dios, where they stayed for nine days. Several sailors died there because of the weather. They boarded the silver and once ready to return to Spain, Erauso shot and killed his uncle and stole 500 pesos. He told the sailors that his uncle had sent him on an errand. An hour later, the ship returned to Spain without him. From there he went with an usher to Panama, where he spent three months. In Panama he started working with Juan de Urquiza, merchant of Trujillo with whom he went to the port of Paita (now Peru), where the trader had a large shipment. In the port of Manta (now Ecuador), a strong wind destroyed the ship and Erauso had to swim to save himself and his master. The rest of the crew perished. After a brief time in Paita, he went to Zana, a place full of cattle, grains, fruits and tobacco from Peru. There, his master happily accommodated here gave Erauso a home, clothing and a large amount of money, as well as three black slaves. In Saña he had a fight with a young man who threatened him in a comedy theater. He ended up cutting off the face of the boy who challenged him. He was taken to jail again and through efforts of his master, Juan de Urquiza, and the bishop of that place, he was released on the condition that he married Doña Beatriz de Cárdenas, lady of his master and aunt of the man who had his face cut. He refused to marry. Then he went to the city of Trujillo, where his master opened a store. However, the man who was wounded in the face came to challenge him again accompanied by two friends. Erauso went to the fight with another person, and in the fight the man's friend was killed. He was again imprisoned, and after his master saved him again, he gave Erauso money and a letter of recommendation and sent him to Lima, which was the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru. He gave the letter of recommendation to Diego de Solarte, a very rich merchant and greater consul of Lima, and after a few days Erauso was given his shop. He was responsible for the business for nine months, but was fired when discovered fondling a woman, the sister of his master's wife. After being dismissed, he found a company recruiting, whose aim was the conquest of Chile and, beset by the need to find a new occupation, he enlisted under the command of Captain Gonzalo Rodriguez. Erauso was accompanied by 1600 men from Lima to the city of Concepción. From 1617 19 he worked as a llama driver from Chuquisaca to the great mining center of Potosí, and was then recruited as a soldier.

After marching with his company to Chile in 1619, his army swept through the lands and property of the Mapuches; he showed his aggressive side as conqueror, massacring many Indians. In Chile the secretary of the governor was his brother Don Miguel de Erauso; the secretary welcomed him without recognizing him. He remained there for three years and because of a dispute with his brother, possibly because of a woman, was banished to Paicabí, the land of Indians. There, Erauso fought in the service of the crown in the Arauco War against the Mapuches in today's Chile, earning a reputation for being brave and skillful with weapons and without revealing that he was biologically a woman. and returned to Peru.

In 1623 Erauso was arrested in Huamanga, Peru, because of a dispute. To avoid execution, he begged Bishop Agustín de Carvajal for mercy, and confessed that he was a woman who had been in a convent. Following a review in which a group of matrons determined that Erauso was a woman and a virgin, the bishop protected him and he was sent to Spain. In 1625–1626, Erauso petitioned the Spanish Crown for financial reward for services as a soldier in the New World, presenting a relación de méritos y servicios (account of merits and services). In addition to seeking reward for time at war, Erauso also sought compensation for money lost while traveling to Rome. This document includes accounts from "witnesses" or others who knew Erauso. However, many of the accounts contradict each other, and some witnesses do not know what to make of Erauso's predicament, for several reasons, most prominently that the witnesses all knew Erauso by different names and for different accomplishments. They may have known "Alonso Díaz de Guzmán", one of the names Erauso used as a man, but they did not know Catalina de Erauso. Scholars disagree on whether or not Erauso met Pope Urban VIII, but his Account of Merits and Services was filed in 1625 or 1626 in the Archivo General de Indias and the Real Academia de la Historia of Madrid, which would match up with accounts of him being in Rome at that time. However, there is no documentation that can demonstrate the exact date and place of death.

Antonio de Erauso (under the name Catalina de Erauso) wrote or dictated the autobiography which remained in manuscript form until it was first published in Paris in 1829 at the request of Joaquín María Ferrer, a second time in Barcelona in 1838, and for the third time in 1894 in Paris, with illustrations by Spanish artist Daniel Vierge. Then his account was translated into several languages and versions of the theme, as idealized by Thomas De Quincey, entitled The Ensign Nun in English. In addition to these editions, a series of reprints of this autobiography after 1894, and writings about Erauso's return to Spain, a comedy was released by Juan Pérez de Montalbán, Comedia famosa de la Monja Alferez (1625). Currently, there is debate among researchers about the authorship of this autobiography, which some researchers have branded as apocryphal and without any basis for engaging in some chronological inaccuracies and contradictions. However, given the existence of baptism certificates and testimonies from others about Erauso's life and works, there is strong evidence for the historical existence of this person. Some have wanted to see a relationship between Erauso's extraordinary life, and the Baroque taste for portraying marginal and / or deformed or abnormal characters, as the main reason for the fame he gained throughout the Hispanic world on his return from America. Erauso also mentions once being surprised by a hostess "touching between her legs," and also acknowledges having taken advantage twice of being 'disguised' as a man to get gifts from a future fiancée who did not know Erauso's sex. Other scholars, such as Sherry Velasco, have also written on the subject of gender and sexual identity. Velasco and others argue for viewing Erauso as transgender, and Velasco also argues for viewing Erauso as lesbian, saying that, over the years since the first printings of Erauso's memoirs, there have been many different retellings and exaggerations in an effort to "de lesbianize" Erauso through the invention of different heterosexual relationships as well as downplaying Erauso's relationships and behavior with other women.

Despite the existence of autobiographical memoirs probably written around 1626, Erauso ended up disappearing from most known historical records, specifically in the period running between returning to Spain in 1624 and returning to the Indies, until the eighteenth century. At the end of the century, states Sonia Pérez Villanueva, one Domingo de Urbirú had in his possession a manuscript copy of Erauso's memoirs, which was duplicated by a friend, the poet and playwright Cándido Maria Trigueros. One of the copies made by Trigueros ended up in the hands of the academic Juan Bautista Muñoz, who was writing the History of the New World and included a mention of Erauso in his work. Eventually, the copy was used as a reference by Muñoz finished in the hands of the Royal Academy of History in 1784, and later was rediscovered in the early nineteenth century by the politician Felipe Bauzá, who persuaded his friend, the astronomer and merchant Joaquín María Ferrer for publishing. Finally, the manuscript was published in 1829 in Paris by Jules Didot with the title La historia de la Monja Alférez, escrita por ella misma ("story of The Nun Lieutenant, written by herself"), and a few decades later was republished by Heredia in 1894, making this version of the autobiography the revival of interest and research into Erauso's life. The character of The Nun Lieutenant was, and remains today, a source of inspiration for writers, playwrights, filmmakers and artists (most notably a 1630 portrait, attributed to Juan van der Hamen). In the nineteenth century, the work of Thomas De Quincey stands out, who turns Erauso into a typically romantic character, victim of fate and immersed in a series of adventures. Also in the nineteenth century is the novel by Eduardo Blasco Del claustro al campamento o la Monja Alférez. And similarly it has been a source of inspiration for many analyses and academic papers trying to explain Erauso's complex personality. In the twentieth century the Monja Alférez hit the screens and became more popular through several film versions, as in La Monja Alférez, directed by Mexican Emilio Gómez Muriel (1947). At present, this character is attractive to the poststructuralist critique, as a clear example of instability and relativity of the notion of gender in the construction of the identity of an individual. In 2019 textual analysis concluded that a 17th century play called La Monja Alférez whose authorship had not been known had in fact been written by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón.