Sor Juana
Encyclopedia
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
of the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
school, and nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
. Although she lived in a colonial era when Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
was part of the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
, she is considered today a Mexican writer, and stands at the beginning of the history of Mexican literature in the Spanish language.
Early life
Juana Inés de la Cruz de Asbaje y Ramirez was born in San Miguel NepantlaTepetlixpa
Tepetlixpa is a village and municipality in Mexico State in Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 46.68 km². The municipality is home to Nepantla de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, formerly known as San Miguel Nepantla, the hometown of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.As of 2000, the municipality had a...
—now called Nepantla de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in her honor—near Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. She was the illegitimate child of a Spanish Captain, Pedro Manuel de Asbaje, and a Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
woman, Isabel Ramirez. Her father, according to all accounts, was absent from her life. She was baptized December 2 and described on the Baptismal rolls as "a daughter of the Church." The future poet was raised in Amecameca
Amecameca
Amecameca is a town and municipality located in the eastern panhandle of Mexico State between Mexico City and the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanos of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is located on federal highway 115 which leads to Cuautla, which is called the Volcano Route...
, where her maternal grandfather owned a hacienda
Hacienda
Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...
called Panoaya.
Juana was a devoutly religious child who hid in the hacienda chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
to read her grandfather's books from the adjoining library, something forbidden to girls. She learned how to read and write at the age of three. By age five, she could do accounts, and at age eight she composed a poem on the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
. By adolescence, she had mastered Greek logic, and at age thirteen she was teaching Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
to young children. She also learned the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
language of Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
, and wrote some short poems in that language.
In 1664, at age sixteen, Juana was sent to live in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. She asked her mother's permission to disguise herself as a male student so that she could enter the university. Not being allowed to do this, she continued her studies privately. She came under the tutelage of the Vicereine
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
Leonor Carreto, wife of Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
Antonio Sebastián de Toledo. The viceroy (whom Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography names as the Marquis de Mancera), wishing to test her learning and intelligence (she being then seventeen years old), invited several theologians, jurists, philosophers, and poets to a meeting, during which she had to answer, unprepared, many questions, and explain several difficult points on various scientific and literary subjects. The manner in which she acquitted herself astonished all present, and greatly increased her reputation. Her literary accomplishments soon made her famous throughout New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
.
She was much admired in the vice-royal court, and declined several proposals of marriage. In 1667, she entered the Convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
of the Discalced Carmelites
Discalced Carmelites
The Discalced Carmelites, or Barefoot Carmelites, is a Catholic mendicant order with roots in the eremitic tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers...
of St. Joseph as a postulant
Postulant
A postulant was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a monastery or a convent, both before actual admission and for the length of time preceding their admission into the novitiate...
. In 1669, she entered the Convent of the Order of St. Jérôme
Hieronymites
Hieronymites, or the Order of St. Jerome , is a common name for several congregations of hermits living according to the Rule of St. Augustine, with supplementary regulations taken from the writings of the 5th-century monk and scholar, St Jerome. The principal group with this name was founded in...
.
Scholarship
In Juana's time, the convent was often seen as the only refuge in which a female could properly attend to the education of her mind, spirit, body and soul. Nonetheless, she wrote literatureLiterature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
centered on freedom. In her poem Redondillas she defends a woman's right to be respected as a human being. Therein, she also criticizes the sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
of the society of her time, poking fun at and revealing the hypocrisy of men who publicly condemn prostitutes, yet privately pay women to perform on them what they have just said is an abomination to God. Sor Juana asks the sharp question in this age-old matter of the purity/whoredom split found in base male mentality: "Who sins more, she who sins for pay? Or he who pays for sin?"
The Church
Sor Juana's “thinking out loud” was especially dangerous because the Counter Reformation was raging. Anyone who challenged societal values and ecclesiastical dogmaDogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
could be investigated by the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
on suspicion of heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
.
Matters came to a head in 1690, when a letter was published attacking Sor Juana's focus on the sciences, and suggesting that she should devote her time to soft theology.
However, powerful representatives from the Viceregal Court and the Jesuit Order were her protectors and she was widely read in Spain, being called "the Tenth Muse". She was lauded as the first great poet of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. Her work was also printed by the first printing press in New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
.
In response to her critics, Sor Juana wrote a letter entitled Respuesta a Sor Filotea (Reply to Sister Filotea), in which she defended women's right to education. In response, the Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
of Mexico joined other high-ranking officials in condemning Sor Juana's "waywardness".
By 1693, Sor Juana seemingly ceased writing rather than risk official censure
Censure
A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spiritual penalty imposed by a church, and a negative judgment pronounced on a theological proposition.-Politics:...
. However, there is no undisputed evidence of her renouncing devotion to letters, though there are documents showing her agreeing to undergo penance
Penance
Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants...
. Her name is affixed to such a document in 1694, but given her deep natural lyricism, the tone of these supposed hand-written penitentials is rhetorical and autocratic Church formulae – one signed, "Yo, la peor de todas" (I, the worst/meanest of them all (the women)).
She is said to have sold all her books, then an extensive library of over 4,000 volumes, and her musical and scientific instruments as well.
Only a few writings have survived, which are known as the "Complete Works." According to Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
, Sor Juana's writings were saved by the Viceroy's wife. In April 1695, after ministering to the other sisters struck down by a rampant plague, she is said to have died at four in the morning on April 17.
An early translation of Sor Juana's work into English is Ten Sonnets from Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, 1651-1695: Mexico's Tenth Muse, published in Taxco, Guerrero, in 1943. The translator was Elizabeth Prall Anderson, Sherwood Anderson's third wife, who settled in Taxco after her divorce from Sherwood.
One musical work attributed to Sor Juana survives from the archive at Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
Cathedral. This is a 4 part villancico
Villancico
The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...
, "Madre, la de los primores".
Legacy
Margaret Sayers Peden
Margaret Sayers Peden is an American translator and Professor, being a Missouri native and born in about 1920.-Career and Achievements:She returned to college to obtain her graduate degrees in later life...
, 1989), is a work contemplating Sor Juana's poetry and life in the context of the history of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
, particularly focusing on the difficulties women then faced while trying to thrive in academic and artistic fields.
Octavio Paz describes how he had been drawn to her work by the enigmas of Sor Juana's personality and life paths. Why did she become a nun? How could she renounce her lifelong passion for writing and learning? Paz knew that such questions could be answered only in the context of the world in which she lived, and so he begins his study with a portrayal of the cultural, political, and ideological forces of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
, wherein the subjugation of women was absolute.
In his book, Paz makes a thorough analysis of Sor Juana's poetry and traces some of her influences to the Spanish writers of the Golden Age
Spanish Golden Age
The Spanish Golden Age is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise and decline of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. El Siglo de Oro does not imply precise dates and is usually considered to have lasted longer than an actual century...
and the Hermetic tradition, mainly derived from the works of Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology, and medicine...
. Paz analyses Sor Juana's most ambitious and extensive poem, "First Dream" (Primer Sueño) as largely a representation of the desire of knowledge through a number of hermetic symbols
Hermeticism
Hermeticism or the Western Hermetic Tradition is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus...
, albeit transformed in her own language and skilled image-making abilities. In conclusion, Paz makes the case that Sor Juana's oeuvre was the most important body of poetic work produced in the Americas until the arrival of XIXth century figures such as Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
and Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
.
Just as Paz illuminates Sor Juana's life by placing it in its historical setting, he situates her work in relation to the traditions that nurtured it. Paz singled out the qualities that distinguish her work and mark her uniqueness as a poet. For Octavio Paz, Sor Juana's writings, like her life, epitomize the struggle of the individual, and in particular the individual woman, for creative fulfillment and self-expression, for integration of soul, spirit, and mind, not just as a contemplative, but in real ways in the real world.
In contemporary life
- Sor Juana is pictured in the front of the 200 pesos bill issued by the Banco de Mexico.
- There is a restaurant in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen called "La Decima Musa" (the Tenth Muse)
- Karen Zacharias' 1999 play "The Sins of Sor Juana"
- The convent in Mexico City in which she lived the last 27 years of her life and where she wrote most of her work is today the University of the Cloister of Sor Juana in the historic center of Mexico City.
- María Luisa Bemberg wrote and directed the movie "Yo, la peor de todas" (I, the Worst of All) in 1990 about the life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
- Alicia Gaspar de Alba's historical novel, Sor Juana's Second Dream (1999)
- Jesusa RodríguezJesusa RodriguezJesusa Rodríguez is a Mexican director, actress, playwright, performance artist, and social activist.Her "espectáculos" do not necessarily adhere to traditional genre classification: they can reflect elite styles or popular; draw on Greek tragedy, cabaret, pre-Columbian, operatic traditions; take...
has produced a number of works concerning Sor Juana, including Sor Juana en Almoloya and a Striptease de Sor Juana based on Juana's poem "Primero Sueño." - Scientists from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAVCINVESTAVThe Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute is a Mexican non-governmental scientific research affiliated to the National Polytechnic Institute and founded by president Adolfo López Mateos on 17 April 1961, initially planned...
) will attempt to extract DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
from bones discovered at the Universidad del Claustro in Mexico City in 1978. In March 2011, Cinvestav got DNA samples of living members of her family, Ramirez España and Iliana Troncoso Olaguibel, descendants of Sor Juana's sister, who live in Mexico. “The genetic sequencing procedure of Sor Juana and from her descendants will be repeated at least three times in order to ensure correct results. At the end, a comparison will be made to determine if there is a relationship,” said María de Lourdes Muñoz, who studies genetics and molecular biology at Cinvestav.
Sources
- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana/The Juana Inés de la Cruz Project Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
] Retrieved: 2010-05-09. - http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/cruz.htmlSor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695) Oregon State UniversityOregon State UniversityOregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
] Retrieved: 2010-05-09. - Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana Retrieved: 2010-08-03.
Further reading
- Merrim, Stephanie. Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Wayne State University PressWayne State University PressWayne State University Press , founded in 1941, is a university press that is part of Wayne State University. It publishes under its own name and also the imprints Painted Turtle and Great Lakes Books....
, December 1999.
External links
- Sor Juana, the Poet: The Sonnets from EDSITEment! The Best of the Humanities on the Web
- Sor Juana, la poetisa: Los sonetos from EDSITEment! The Best of the Humanities on the Web
- The Imperfect Sex: Why Is Sor Juana Not a Saint? by Jorge MajfudJorge Majfud-Life:He was born in Tacuarembó, Uruguay. He majored in and in 1996 graduated from the in Montevideo. He travelled extensively to gather material that would later become part of his novels and essays, and was a professor at the of Costa Rica and at , where he taught art and mathematics.In 2003...
- The Sor Juana Bibliography Online by Luis M. Villar
- The Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Project
- Academic resource on the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
- On-line facsimile edition of Sor Juana's Fama y obras posthumas
- Six sonnets in Spanish with English translations
- Mexican Writers on Writing featuring Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Edited by Margaret Sayers PedenMargaret Sayers PedenMargaret Sayers Peden is an American translator and Professor, being a Missouri native and born in about 1920.-Career and Achievements:She returned to college to obtain her graduate degrees in later life...
(Trinity University Press, 2007).