Ruarí Morrison

Harley Erdman

Theater 321

25 October 2017

The Mountain Man?

Luis Velez de Guevara’s play, The Mountain Girl from La Vera, features a rather striking

protagonist, who seems to not fully identify with her own given gender at birth. Gila, the

“mountain girl,” actually identifies as a man several times in the first act, even saying “I am a

woman in dress only” (29). Through her gender nonconforming identity, Gila is relatable in

many ways to some female protagonists of other Spanish plays that we have read. I do find her

to be similar to Laurencia from Fuente Ovejuna, in that she is very outspoken and does not

hesitate to put men, even those in positions of power, in their place. For example, Gila’s taunts

toward Andrés and Gerónimo, calling them “a pair of hens,” is similar to how Laurencia

addresses the community of men of Fuente Ovejuna to stop just sitting around and actually do

something about the commander (31). Further, I believe Gila’s character has resemblances to

Doña Juana from Don Gil of the Green Breeches in terms of their flirtation. Though they are

different in that Juana is a woman who dresses like a man to win back a man’s affection, while

Gila dresses like a woman but feels like a man, they both at some point do flirt with women,

showing that perhaps neither of them are definitively heterosexual characters. Finally, I believe

there is a connection between Gila and Life is a Dream’s Rosaura, as they are both women who

are firmly driven to take for themselves what they feel is right, and are not willing to be pushed

around. Gila addresses the threat of the Captain head on, warning him “Come back to my
house, or our town, and you’ll be punished” (16). It is with a similar determination that

Rosaura gets Clotaldo and Segismundo to work with her throughout that work. However, with

the final two acts still unknown, I must wonder: will the character of Gila further stray from

gender norms of the time, or will she return to being what she is “supposed” to be?