Lieutenant Nun

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1997

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-19

Chapters 20-26

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 16-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 Summary: “She Leaves for the City of Cuzco”

Erauso describes Cuzco as a city as grand as Lima in terms of both riches and people. Erauso also notes that it has a cathedral and describes the clerical structure in the area. After a few days in Cuzco, Erauso got into more controversy; she insists that “whatever you may have heard” (51), she was entirely blameless.

In this case, the sheriff was murdered by a man named Carranza over personal grievances between the two, but Erauso was blamed for it. For five months, she was kept prisoner until the truth came out. Once she was released, she left the city.

Chapter 17 Summary: “She Moves on to Lima, Joins the Sea Battle Against the Dutch, Is Cast Overboard, and Is Rescued by the Dutch Fleet Which Leave Her on the Coast of Paita, Whence She Returns to Lima”

Her next destination was Lima, which was being blocked by eight Dutch ships at that time. Erauso joined one of the five Spanish ships sent to break the blockade. The attack went well at first, but the Dutch managed to sink the Spanish flagship, the ship that Erauso was on. Only three were able to escape from the ship, and they were soon picked out of the water by the Dutch. The remaining Spanish ships returned to port.

Erauso remained in Dutch custody for 26 days, thinking that they would take her back to Holland. Instead, they dropped her and the other prisoners off on the coast, 100 leagues away from Lima. After several days of hardship, a traveler took pity on them, giving them supplies and pointing them in the direction of Lima.

Erauso stayed in Lima for seven months, where she bought a cheap horse. One day, the mayor and two soldiers demanded to see her since the soldiers claimed that she had stolen the horse. To prove her innocence, Erauso made the soldiers tell her which eye the horse was blind in. They each gave separate answers before agreeing that it was the left eye. Erauso then revealed that the horse was not blind at all. The accusing soldiers were arrested, and Erauso left Lima to go to Cuzco.

Chapter 18 Summary: “In Cuzco, She Kills the New Cid and Is Herself Wounded”

Finding herself in Cuzco again, Erauso stayed at the house of her friend, the treasurer Lope de Alcedo. One day, she visited another friend’s house to gamble. During the gambling, “a dark, hairy giant of a man sat down next to [her]” (55), and he identified himself as “The Cid.” When Erauso won a hand, he took some of her winnings and walked away. Before long, he came back and loitered near her winnings. When he tried to grab them again, she stabbed a knife through his hand, which caused a sword fight to break out.

The Cid’s friends rushed to help him while two Basqueros (people from Erauso’s home province of Basque) went to assist her. The battle spilled out onto the street, and The Cid was able to stab a dagger through Erauso’s left shoulder, while Erauso was unable to harm him because of his armor. As Erauso collapsed from the wound, the rest of the combatants fled. However, she was able to stand back up and stab The Cid through a gap in his armor.

The sheriff and his soldiers then arrived to arrest them, but priests interceded, saying that both would die soon. The Cid did die, while Erauso was taken to the treasurer’s house to be operated on and to give a confession in case she died. The priest that came to take her confession was called Luis Ferrer de Valencia, and fearing for her life, she confessed her true identity to him. He absolved her of her sins and then stayed by her while she was operated on. Erauso claims that she had divine assistance in recovering.

She was then taken to a monastery to recover and avoid punishment from the law. Knowing that she would face either legal punishment or an attack by The Cid’s friends, she decided to leave. Her friends gave her money, mules, enslaved persons, and weapons and then sent her off to Guamanga with two other Basqueros.

Chapter 19 Summary: “She Leaves Cuzco for Guamanga, Crossing the Bridge Near Andajuailas, and Passing Through Guancavélica”

From Cuzco, she made it to a bridge, where a constable and friends of The Cid were waiting for her. A constable tried to arrest her, and a gunfight broke out, in which two of her party died and three of the arresting group also died, including the constable. The rest fled. Erauso crossed the bridge, leaving her companions as she went.

She passed through the city of Andajuailas and then went to Guancavélica, where a constable and an enslaved person tried to arrest her. She killed both, stole the mayor’s horse, and rode off to Guamanga. As she crossed a river, she rested and saw three people approach. They said that they would arrest her, but when she prepared to fight, they decided to leave her be.

Chapters 16-19 Analysis

Erauso’s initial stay in Cuzco, her time in Lima, and then the events surrounding her return to Cuzco are an essential part of the stages of her time in South America. The most important event that happened during this time period was her fight against, and killing of, The Cid. While this was, on the surface, yet another battle due to gambling, it is marked by its danger for Erauso and its consequences going forward. A clear hint of the special danger that The Cid poses is his name. The legendary Spanish warrior of the Reconquista, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known to most as The Cid, is a key figure in Spanish folklore and famed for his martial prowess. That this man went by it would be a warning to Erauso’s audience of his skill. Also, his description as a “giant of a man” (44), who did not engage in the usual arrogant bragging that Erauso’s other foes did, is notable.

Throughout her autobiography, Erauso makes a point of showing herself easily humbling a series of boastful or argumentative opponents. Through these descriptions, Erauso mocks men who vaunt their own strength without the skill to back up their claims. However, unlike her previous opponents, The Cid was almost entirely silent and then managed to grievously wound her. She paints him as a different type of combatant, both because she appears to have had a genuine respect for his skill in swordplay and because this makes her own eventual triumph over him even more impressive. Erauso shows the danger of this battle to prove her own supremacy among fighters; she, like her many opponents, placed a high value on her own prowess but was also eager to prove that her pride was justified. Thus, the theme of Personal Identity Versus Societal Roles was a factor in her battle, as Erauso continued to celebrate the values of the masculinist culture.

The consequences of her battle against The Cid were important going forward and eventually led to Erauso’s confession about her identity in Guamanga. Erauso’s reveal of her identity to Luis Ferrer de Valencia, the priest that came to take her last confession in case she died of the wounds that The Cid gave her, is presented as the first time she told anyone. It is possible that people during her adventures (especially those that she seems to have had sexual relations with) knew the secret, but this reveal to the priest is the first time that Erauso chooses to include her identity being revealed in her autobiography. This private confession hints to the reader that her personal identity would not remain a secret for much longer. While no one suspected her, the possibility of her confession is brought up and builds tension for her later reveal. Furthermore, her continual struggle to avoid the law following her killing of The Cid also adds to the feeling that her social status as an outlaw may have been coming to an end. In this way, Erauso demonstrates that she was in the final stages of her South American adventure at this point.

It is also worth noting that the confession that Erauso made was to a member of the clergy, as would be her later one. Similarly, in both cases, she also claims divine intervention, here stating that she “had some divine assistance” in surviving after her confession and absolution (57). These details hint at The Role of Religion in Early Modern Life. Erauso’s flight from the nunnery evidently did not damage her trust and respect for the clergy at large, as she entrusted them first and foremost with her secret. She, and presumably all her contemporaries, also held strongly to the belief in an active God within the world. Her reference to “divine assistance” for herself can thus be viewed as her presenting the case for her own morality—if God helped her, she implies, then her actions were surely not morally incorrect.