colonial experience

I think it’s important to recognize the diversity of Latin America and it’s incredibly complex history of immigration. Keeping this in mind, to recognize where some of the sensualization or fetishization of these stories comes from; the story of Catalina de Erauso, or the Lieutenant Nun being a perfect example. One of the major draws of this memoir, besides it being nearly 400 years old, is the fetishization of the transsexual, transgender or cross dressing young Erauso. This young person was raised in a granted, less than ideal setting for anyone, yet almost idealistic for any other woman of this era was afforded, had the opportunity to escape, which they promptly took at the age of 15 as they started onto a journey only bringing benefit to themself.
By no means would I think Erauso particularly worse then any other European colonizer of the 1600’s, nor somehow exempt of their acts of violence they alone committed, what I would argue is that Erauso did what they believed they had to do in order to survive. This is not an argument on their gender identity or their gender presentation, nor sexuality, but rather a statement of facts, Erauso went beyond their personal safety to insulate themselves and become who they had to be in order to feel safe. From the stealing to the lying to the murders and even considering the sexuality, these things all present a desperate desire to feel safe, successful and desired.
At the end of the day, Erauso was not a great person, a terrible icon for any community (LGBT2SQ+, trans, women, colonial, or otherwise), recognizing the main reasons for their claim to fame through literature are frankly unremarkable. Their depictions of life details events they held important, things that iff others were as educated or whose families held these relics in such condition may have rendered this account less then amazing leaving the only draw of their “un-explainable” sexuality or gender presentation to account for their sudden rise in popularity nearlu 200 years ago. There are numerous reasons why this documentation holds valuable historic information, but less about why this account in particular if it were to be written by another.