Eleno de Céspedes

Eleno de Céspedes, also known as Elena de Céspedes was a Spanish surgeon in the 16th XVI century.

Life before the trial

He was born Elena, in Granada, 1545. Born as either a slave or the daughter of slaves, she was free by the time she married, at the age of 15. From this first marriage, she got pregnant and had a child. Shortly after she escaped her home and husband and started a new life as a male under the name Eleno. As such he served as a soldier in Andalucia, a tailor, and finally as a surgeon in Yepes. His story became known in 1587 when, at the age of 40, he tried to marry María del Caño and was denounced by the priest to the Spanish Inquisition. The priest did not know his sexual condition, and denounced the marriage as unnatural believing that Eleno was " lampiño o capon". In other words, a cis heterosexual male that due to hormonal problems or mutilation of the testicles is sterile and knows it. During the trial, Eleno's true identity was revealed. This added to the charges of unnatural marriage the charge of bigamy-since there was no proof of his previous husband's death-sodomy-since sex would be not reproductive-and lesbianism. This strange trial is proof of the view on homosexuality and marriage of 16th century Spain. At the time, marriage and sexual relationships were concerned with reproduction mainly, and gender or sex considerations were secondary. While a marriage between members of the same sex would be "unnatural" and illegal since it would not be able to produce offsprings, so was unnatural and illegal any marriage between members of different sexes that clearly couldn't reproduce for whatever reason. The main point of the trial was not to determine Eleno's gender but to determine if he was a widower and if he could or could not impregnate Maria. The strangeness of the case drew attention all through Toledo.

Trial

The trial was conducted by inquisitor Lope de Mendoza. During his trial, he claimed that he grew a penis after childbirth (a story that was not that rare in Spain at the time and was treated with surprising normality by religious institutions, due to the Neoplatonic view on nature and gender of 16th century Spain). On a second declaration, he stated that he had "always been both fully female and fully male", and declared that he had fully functional organs of both sexes and could impregnate his wife just like he had been capable of childbirth. The tribunal ordered a physical exam conducted in private by a urologist to determine whether this was the case. The doctor of King Philip II, Francisco Díaz de Alcalá, was in charge of the first exam and determined that he indeed had male reproductive organs. The tribunal showed its scepticism. A second exam by the same doctor aided by the local doctor of Yepes, Juan de las Casas, was ordered. This second exam determined that Eleno was not hermaphrodite but fully female without a trace of a penis. Embarrassed, Francisco Díaz de Alcalá declared that he had been tricked by "devilish arts" in his first exam, which added charges of witchcraft to Eleno. These charges were quickly dismissed by Lope de Mendoza as unfounded, and the trial continued. Throughout the trial, Eleno maintained his initial version of being both male and female from birth.

Conviction

After long deliberations, he was found guilty of unnatural marriage, since he was determined unable to impregnate a woman, and of bigamy, since no proof of his first husband's death was found. Even though the sentence does not specify this, the punishment decreed suggest that the Spanish Inquisition accepted his version of being both male and female up to some extent, or at least accepted that he believed so: He was condemned to 200 lashes and 10 years of service in a public hospital as a surgeon. 200 lashes and 10 to 15 years of unpaid labour for the crown was the standard penalty for male bigamy. He received no specific penalty for unnatural marriage, even though he was considered guilty of it. He was also declared female, but not found guilty of lesbianism.

There is no more information about him after he entered the hospital he was meant to work in. The date of his death is unknown.

Sex and Gender

Eleno's sexual identity is debated, and the only information regarding it is his testimony during his trial. The most current thesis suggest that he was a transsexual man, and suggest that his claims to being "hermaphrodite" were his attempts to explain his gender dysphoria without a specific word for it. Previous views considered that he was actually a lesbian woman who adopted male clothes and identity to acquire more social freedom. A third hypothesis, the oldest and less supported now, focuses in how unlikely it is for a skilled doctor like Francisco Díaz de Alcalá to make such a mistake and sustain that Eleno was indeed hermaphrodite, as he claimed during his own trial.