#butchheroes

[dapperxdyke]

Butch heroes of today

[harvardfineartslib]

Ria Brodell’s “Butch Heroes” series offers portraits of heroic figures whose stories are seldom told. They are individuals who were assigned female at birth but whose gender presentation was more masculine than feminine, who did not want to enter into heterosexual marriage, and who often faced dire punishment for being themselves. Brodell (they/them) is a non-binary trans artist based in Boston.

Here’s one example from Brodell’s “Butch Heroes” series.

Image: D. Catalina “Antonio” de Erauso, 1592-1650, New Spain, 2011 Gouache on paper, text, 11 x 7 in.

Biography of Catalina de Erauso (Edited version)

Catalina de Erauso was born in San Sebastián, Spain, to a noble Basque family and was raised in a convent from an early age. Before taking her vows, she fled dressed in men’s clothes and assumed the name Francisco de Loyola. Francisco worked as a page for a few years before deciding to seek adventure in the New World, sailing to Panama as a cabin boy. After arriving in New Spain, Francisco enlisted in the Spanish army under the name Alonso Díaz Ramírez de Guzmán and became a successful soldier. However, Alonso got embroiled in much trouble, including trouble with women. After deserting the army, Alonso was pursued by authorities for various offenses and eventually wounded in a duel. On the verge of death, Alonso revealed that he was a woman. Alonso recovered and was examined by midwives who confirmed that she was a woman and a virgin. Eventually, Catalina de Erauso became a celebrity known as the “Lieutenant Nun.” She petitioned King Philip IV for a military pension and visited Pope Urban VIII with a request to be allowed to continue to dress as a man. She was granted both requests. Drauso returned to New Spain as Antonio de Erauso and retired as a mule driver and merchant.

Queer holdings : a survey of the Leslie-Lohman Museum collection Edited by Gonzalo Casals and Noam Parness. Munich : Hirmer Verlag, 2019 HOLLIS number: 99154382110903941

[antidee]

#ElenoDeCéspedes was born in 1545 Granada, Spain to a Moor mother & free Christian(possibly slave owner) father. Nameless at birth & branded, then freed upon the death of his slave master, & named after the slave owner’s wife Elena. He married at 16 & got pregnant only to leave his first child with family, traveling Spain to find work. Jailed after stabbing a pimp then freed, Elena changed his name to the masculine form Eleno, wore men’s clothing, flirted with women then married one. After a complaint from a neighbor thus becoming involved in the Spanish Inquisition for being intersex, Eleno was punished by 200 lashes & 10yrs of public service to a hospital. Eleno was a soldier, tailor, farmhand, healer, & considered Spain’s first female surgeon. “Since I found I had a man’s member and could have relations with women as a man, and since I’d gone around with so many women, I wanted to leave off sin and marry, and not have relations with anyone but my wife. It was because of this that I married. I didn’t think I’d erred, but rather that I’d married in God’s service.” – Eleno de Céspedes #ButchHeroes https://www.instagram.com/p/CBKVWsnDUSd/?igshid=i6hnqqm832fk

[antidee]

#OkuharaSeiko was a #Nanga Literati Artist born into the Samurai class during the early Meiji period in Edo, Japan. Her given name was #OkuharaSetsuko but she changed it to a gender neutral name Seiko meaning “clear lake”, took to wearing men’s clothing, & wore her hair short similar to men at the time. Seiko was privately trained in painting, calligraphy, poetry, & martial arts, becoming the first female artists to gain an audience with the Empress. In 1870, Seiko opened a coed school & lived with her former student/apprentice & painter #WatanabeSeiran for more then 40 years. #ButchHeroes https://www.instagram.com/p/CBH8Of9DN7Z/?igshid=8pxbqr19zfab

[antidee]

June 28, 1969 #StormeDeLarverie aka Sylvia Rivera threw the first punch at the Stonewall Uprising after cops raided & attacked The Stonewall Inn. DeLarverie was an Activist, Drag King, & Protector of New York’s Queer community til her 80s. Fondly remembered as the Rosa Parks of the LGBTQ+ community. “It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience— it wasn’t no damn riot.” – Stormé DeLarverie #ButchHeroes https://www.instagram.com/p/CA_Kljqj7mk/?igshid=lqc227x3e9cn

[antidee]

#RalphKerwineo aka Cora Anderson in a small town in Indiana, 1876 was born to a Native American Mother & African American Father. Kerwineo is known for getting arrested & going to trial in 1914 after “Eugenic Marriage Law” went in to effect requiring all males undergo med exam for venereal disease in order to get a marriage license. “In Milwaukee, Kerwineo consistently presented self as a South American (often Bolivian) of Spanish ancestry. It appears claiming an identity as an immigrant was deliberate and enabled Kerwineo to use racial ambiguity to blend into Milwaukee racial makeup consisting of a very small black population, but with a large portion of immigrants who were considered "not quite white" but were better positioned socioeconomically than the city's African Americans.” #ButchHeroes https://www.instagram.com/p/CA-87J4jxo6/?igshid=ichjltq77axl

[bgsqd]

Today at 4: Pre-Lambda Awards Reading of Queer Nonfiction, featuring @barriejeanborich @sandragaillambert #zahrapatterson Lammy finalists in Lesbian Memoir/ Biography and in LGBT Nonfiction. @lambdaliterary #lesbianbooks #queerbookstagram #lesbianmemoir #butchheroes (at Bureau of General Services-Queer Division) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByN3EC1F3MT/?igshid=17m0foavrzu75

[bgsqd]

#butchheroes a book of portraits by @riabrodell now @bgsqd #queerhistory #butchhistory (at Bureau of General Services-Queer Division) https://www.instagram.com/bgsqd/p/BwU5HwslLvO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qswdnblmfm8i