In 1803 in the colonial South American city of La Plata, Doña
Martina Vilvado y Balverde presented herself to church and crown
officials to denounce her husband of more than four years, Don
Antonio Yta, as a “woman in disguise.†Forced to submit to a
medical inspection that revealed a woman’s body, Don Antonio
confessed to having been MarÃa Yta, but continued to assert his
maleness and claimed to have a functional “member†that
appeared, he said, when necessary. Passing to América is at once a
historical biography and an in-depth examination of the sex/gender
complex in an era before “gender†had been divorced from
“sex.†The book presents readers with the original court
docket, including Don Antonio’s extended confession, in which he
tells his life story, and the equally extraordinary biographical
sketch offered by Felipa Ybañez of her “son MarÃa,†both in
English translation and the original Spanish. Thomas A.
Abercrombie’s analysis not only grapples with how to understand
the sex/gender system within the Spanish Atlantic empire at the
turn of the nineteenth century but also explores what
Antonio/MarÃa and contemporaries can teach us about the
complexities of the relationship between sex and gender today.
Passing to América brings to light a previously obscure case of
gender transgression and puts Don Antonio’s life into its social
and historical context in order to explore the meaning of
“trans†identity in Spain and its American colonies. This
accessible and intriguing study provides new insight into
historical and contemporary gender construction that will interest
students and scholars of gender studies and colonial Spanish
literature and history. This book is freely available in an open
access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph
Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American
Universities, the Association of University Presses and the
Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of New
York University. Learn more at the TOME website:
openmonographs.org.
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