Sor Juana: Biography Of A Rebel

The life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is truly fascinating, surprising. Those who know her will know what I mean and, if you still don’t know her, surely, her story will catch you and surprise you. Literature, like the arts or any other type of knowledge, remained for a long time only within the reach of men ; and not of all men, only of a few.

It takes more than knowing how to write for a literary work to become something meaningful, something that lasts over time. And if we add to this that, for centuries, illiteracy reigned and very few women had access to education, we are faced with a literary production dominated by men. Although, as in everything, there are always exceptions. Exceptions that, on numerous occasions, have not interested critics, history, education or whatever … and, as a consequence, we still have an educational system that continues to reward men today.

By this I do not mean that there are no outstanding men in literature, on the contrary, we have countless great male authors who deserve to be read and studied. But throughout our academic life, there are few women we have met and there are many who deserve a place in the history of literature. Sor Juana was not only a woman of letters, but her desire for knowledge led her to excel in countless skills. In addition, her life was anything but traditional, she broke the barriers that her time imposed on her for the simple fact of being a woman and rose as a truly intelligent woman.

Sor Juana: early life

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was born in 1651 in the town of San Miguel de Nepantla (New Spain, present-day Mexico), she was the daughter of a Spanish captain and a Creole. His mother, Isabel Ramírez, had six children from different relationships, declared herself as a single woman, something more than atypical at the time. Sor Juana’s mother decided not to marry, which gives us a very significant clue of her character.

Sor Juana’s interest in literature and studies appears early ; At the age of 8 he composed a Eucharistic Prayer and, a few years later, after discovering that there is a university in Mexico, he decided to study there. However, in the middle of the seventeenth century in New Spain, women could not go to university, so Sor Juana came up with the idea of ​​dressing as a man in order to study.

This idea, finally, will not be carried out and Sor Juana will become self-taught. Deeply attached to her grandfather, she began to study on her own in his library. Sor Juana is spoken of as a brilliant young woman, with a prodigious intelligence; he learned Latin in just 20 lessons and they even took a sages test. Sor Juana was also a really demanding woman with herself; if he failed to learn a lesson, he would cut a lock of his hair.

From a very young age, they begin to ask him to compose verses, most of his poetic production is commissioned. Sor Juana’s fame increased until it reached the ears of the Marquises of Mancera, who became her patrons. Being in court, Sor Juana finds herself in an environment that favors her desire for knowledge, she has books, she can study and learn.

Sor Juana’s progress

At court, you will learn to play instruments and will be interested in all kinds of knowledge. In addition, it has a wide theatrical production mainly composed of: praises, comedies and autos sacramentales. Finally, in 1667, Sor Juana decides to change the court for the convent, she becomes a nun.

We should not take the convent as a confinement, but what Sor Juana wanted was to be able to live alone, have a space to study and, in the seventeenth century, the closest thing to that was a convent. Sor Juana had a space reserved for her library and to keep the gifts that powerful people sent her, in turn, she could have instruments and enjoyed a certain position within the convent. Sor Juana kept the accounts and had maids, in this way she could dedicate herself fully to study.

Life in the convent was not as smooth as one might expect. She received criticism from the other nuns because she was very different and, on one occasion, they even prohibited her from studying. Sor Juana was not a typical nun, she wrote constantly and, at times, her own texts brought her problems. She defended her personal freedom and, ultimately, that of women; he demanded that they have access to education and knowledge.

Speaking of feminism in Sor Juana is somewhat contradictory, since this concept dates back to the seventeenth century. However, it is true that Sor Juana itself embodies the values of feminism: the struggle for equality, access to knowledge, freedom of women, etc. Break the schemes with his theatrical production, female roles were associated with beauty or discretion; but Sor Juana adds to the discreet woman the value of understanding.

He criticizes the role of men, those men who, in the face of a woman’s beauty, set out to conquer her. Sor Juana saw that men seduced women and, when they got tired, abandoned them and dishonored them. It demanded equality between men and women; for example, in The Pawns of a House a man appears dressed as a woman as a staging of the change of roles. .

It also claimed the place of Indians and blacks in society. In his courtly poetry, he declared himself to be a neutral being, love is separated from the body and is of a spiritual nature. Male bodies are not relevant either, since it extols the feminine. His poetry is very philosophical, he reflects on his own portrait and, in love poetry, the main theme will be absence.

Last stage and silence

Sor Juana was a rebel, a woman who lived beyond the impositions of her time. She became a nun out of rebellion, to be able to live alone and embark on a path to knowledge. She was very critical of men and inequalities and dared to question the voice of the influential Portuguese Jesuit Antonio Vieira with his Carta Atenagórica .

This was a real scandal in its time. Later, he wrote Response to Sor Filotea de la Cruz , a text in which the autobiographical component is present. Loaded with scholarship, it is a text that vindicates the rights of women and the importance of access to education.

After its publication, Sor Juana is forever silent. What we do not know is whether this silence was of his own free will or was it an imposition. There were certain confrontations between the church and Sor Juana, who continued to demand her rights as a woman in the face of the men’s refusal. Finally, she dedicated herself to caring for the nuns of the convent and passed away at the age of 43.

Octavio Paz himself went so far as to assure that Sor Juana “became a nun to be able to think. ” Sor Juana did not lack suitors, but like her mother, she did not want to marry and her eagerness to study led her to take up the habits. Without a doubt, a complete rebel in a world of men and women complicit with the established order.