Content warning for transphobia, interphobia, violence, slavery

“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

Eleno de Céspedes was born into slavery in Grenada in 1545. Due to his mother being a slave, he was not given a name at birth and a brand was burned onto his face when he was still young. While he never had a relationship with his father, who most likely was the slave owner, he was able to stay with his mother for their time in slavery. It was after the death of one of their slave owners that Eleno was released from slavery and given the name of the dead slave owner.

He was then able to move in with his mother and began to learn sewing to make money, in that time he married a man, got pregnant, and was soon after separated from his husband. He would later say the separation was caused by their inability to get along, and he would receive news that his husband had died before he gave birth to their son.

Eleno would later recall that his change in genitals began when he gave birth, the physical exertion and tearing revealing an aspect of his body that he had not previously known about. He would go on to care for the change in his genitals and from that point began a transition into existing publicly as a man and understanding himself as such.

He would leave his son with a person in the town and take on jobs that were expected to be performed by men at the time, working as a tailor initially and beginning to go under the name Céspedes. It was around this time that he was attacked by a man and sent to jail for defending himself by stabbing his attacker. After his release, he began going by Eleno and dressing in traditionally masculine clothing, making his way to Spain.

Joining the army, he fought in the Grenada war and was known by other soldiers as someone who was neither a man nor a woman. After his time in the military, Eleno moved to Madrid and met a surgeon, who let him read his medical books and study surgery after Eleno realized how much it paid.

In 1577 Eleno earned a surgeon's license and worked with the royal family, making him a successful surgeon. It was at this time he met the woman who would become his wife, María del Caño. When applying to be married his body was inspected, as a lack of facial hair had made some people in the town suspicious of his stated gender identity, but the four men who inspected his body found there to be no issue and signed off on the marriage.

Years later, after the couple had settled down, a townsperson again brought up accusations regarding his genitals. These allegations were taken very seriously by the courts, which were known as the most strict tribunal within the Spanish Inquisition. He was sent to isolation, as they didn’t want to put him with either men or women.

While the charges were initially sodomy, other charges were added after the original case looked like it wouldn't stick. The trial was a long one, and it was complicated by genitals that didn’t "fit" what people expected of him. Elon said that shortly before being jailed he had damaged his genitals during a horse ride and eventually the damage became a permanent change. There were witnesses who, while initially saying his genitals were "normal," changed their mind upon seeing them again. They accused Eleno of casting a spell on them with the help of the devil.

They were unable to make the accusation of a pact with a devil stick and instead began pursuing the charge of bigamy. Even though he had followed the societal norms and married a man, when the situation of his gender later changed he married a woman.

In the end, it was his first marriage that tripped him up, as he did not have the proper documentation to prove his first husband had died. He was punished with two hundred lashes, forced to wear women’s clothing, had his marriage annulled, and was charged with working at a hospital for ten years as a surgeon without wages.

Because of his situation, the hospital would soon ask the tribunal to send Eleno somewhere else as people were specifically seeking him out, believing him to have magical powers. He lived the rest of his life in relative obscurity and is now known as Spain’s first “female” surgeon.

There is a general acceptance that one's gender can be determined by three parts: the physical, the social, and the internal. In the case of Eleno, it is clear how imprecise and unreliable these signs can be. With physical, Eleno was likely intersex, and because of this experienced a range of traditionally gendered experiences: his pregnancy, the testimony of women with whom he slept, the witnesses who examined him, and their later change of mind.

With the social category, Eleno existed in ways that women were not believed to be capable of. Though now it seems a simple thing to say that women can be surgeons and soldiers, the fact remains that at the time women were believed to be incapable of it. This makes the tribunal’s decision to allow Eleno to continue to be a surgeon either an accidental validation of Eleno’s gender identity or a clear agreement that women were capable of being surgeons, though neither implication was addressed. Eleno also did something fairly interesting, following the gender his genitals were assigned to and living fully in his new role—marrying a man because that was what someone with a vagina would do, then later when he had a penis marrying a woman.

The final category is the most difficult to pin down, but also the most reliable indicator of gender that currently exists—internal. From almost every quote and action it seems clear that for a time Eleno thought of himself as a woman, then later he viewed himself as a man, though there is some indication that a stretch of time was spent in a more nebulous in-between state. The clearest thing being his pronouns, which tribunal transcripts make clear was he/him/his.

Eleno’s story from the 1500s makes it clear that the lines dividing gender—biological, social, and internal—are not as clear as people would like them to be. Eleno attempted to follow some of the gendered expectations of him, but they weren't deemed good enough. The question then becomes what would have been acceptable for him to do? To marry another man would mean being punished when he wasn't what his husband expected. To not marry at all would mean to take jobs intended for women, jobs which did not pay well. In the end, what society wanted was for people like Eleno not to exist. It’s clear that no matter the gender expectations, without ample room for variance there will be thousands of people whose stories and lives are ignored or punished because they dare to exist.

[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material]

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