Guzman.

This is coolbert:

Gender knows no limit as to soldiering? A popular topic quite popular and very controversial.

Most devoted readers to the blog and additionally thos perusing in much more casual manner are undoubtedly at least somewhat familiar with the Disney character of Mulan. First an animation and then a full-length cinema version. Female woman warrior who achieved great fame on the battlefield all the while posing as a man.

Mulan often described as fable/myth/legend. Probably to some extent however based on a real-life person? At least according to Chinese sources this is so?

Read from the "Coffee or Die" webzine an article by Bethaney Phillips women warriors confirmed much than fictional all the while dressing as a man and being accepted as a man.

"MULAN IN REAL LIFE — 4 WOMEN WHO HID THEIR GENDER TO SERVE IN COMBAT"

"Disney’s Mulan is an archetype based on the real phenomenon of women concealing their gender to serve in combat in male-dominated wars."

"Back in the day, before females were allowed to join the military, they paved their own paths in service. If there wasn’t a role for them (other than staying at home or serving as a nurse, that is), they would make their own work."

That list of Bethaney, those women posing as a man on the battlefield to include:

* Joan of Arc.

* Dorothy Lawrence.

* Loretta Janeta Velazquez.

* Mary Seaberry.

Personally I must take exception to the inclusion of Joan of Arc. Joan according to all I know did dress as a man on the battlefield but was understood by all combatants to be a woman gender not concealed.

Rather add to the list and as absolutely appropriate the name of:

* Albert Cashier.

"Albert D. J. Cashier (December 25, 1843 – October 10, 1915), born Jennie Irene Hodgers, was an Irish-born immigrant who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Cashier adopted the identity of a man before enlisting, and maintained it until death"

Consider also and hardly can we forget the case of Inés de Suárez. Her participation in mortal battle against the various American Indian tribes of New Spain undeniable. A woman dressing as a man for battle but understood by her comrades-in-arms to be a woman and nothing other than that.

Nor must we forget the Spaniard Don Alonso Diaz Ramirez de Guzman. The best swordsman in all of New Spain. Don Alonzo the nom de guerre of  Catalina de Erauso. Catalina for a long period a highly respected conquistadore her gender concealed. Only after receiving a wound in a duel and receiving medical care was the guise of Don Alonzo unmasked.

Don Alonzo even receiving special dispensation from the Pope and being allowed to dress as a man for the remainder of her life. Dispensation as a reward undoubtedly for service to the Holy Faith and the Spanish crown.

DON ALONZO WITHOUT QUESTION THAT MOST OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF A WOMAN PARTICIPATING IN COMBAT ALL THE WHILE CONCEALING HER TRUE NATURE!!

coolbert.