Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Self-taught Scholar and Poet

Untold Story of Latin America’s First Feminist

I want to honor an amazing (and too-little-known) feminist, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, who was an early modern, seventeenth-century philosopher, poet, and thinker. She was born in 1648 in Mexico. I’m in awe of her unending determination to be educated in a time when women didn’t often have the chance to be.

In 1690, Sor Juana critiqued a famous sermon given by Antonio de Vieira. The Bishop of

Mexico, pretending to be impressed by her, asked Sor Juana to put her critique in writing. Without her knowledge, the bishop published the critique and included a letter condemning her intellectualism as a woman. In a brave act of defiance, Sor Juana responded by publishing her most famous text, “The Reply to Sor Philothea” (La Respuesta) In it, Sor Juana defended the the rights of women to have access to education, and condemned the Church for helping to keep women uneducated.

Juana wrote passionately against the systematic exclusion women encountered from education. Though the letter’s tone is superficially humble, she forcefully insists that women have a natural right to the mind, and if given the opportunity, they have capability and determination, no less than that of men. Her use of biblical evidence to support her call for educated women is downright clever.

Right

Juana defends her right to develop intellectual pursuits as a woman, besides knowing needlework and sewing skills. Never would Juana be satisfied, until she and all other women could enjoy the same rights and privileges that educated men enjoyed. She highlights that creating knowledge is celebrated (in men’s fraternity), and not in the case of women.

Capability and Talent

Juana had uncanny abilities and amazing curiosity to learn. Before she was three, she had learned to read by accompanying her elder sister to class. So assiduous was the young Juana in her studies, that she learned Latin in 20 lessons. When her mother refused to allow her to study at a university, she chose to self-direct study of the books in her grandfather’s library! Juana’s intellectual appetite was voracious, as she reveals upon attempting to excuse her forays into non-sacred learning. For example. she discovered many secrets of nature while in the kitchen, noting how an egg keeps together when fried in oil but disintegrates in syrup. She quips “What is there for us women to know, if not bits of kitchen philosophy?

Determination

Juana had an unending determination to be educated. As a child, she refuses to eat cheese for fear it will cause stupidity and also cuts off her hair every time she makes a mistake in Latin. Eventually, she becomes a nun to pursue her lover for learning, since that offers independence not possible for women in the outside world. “How hard it is to study from lifeless books, lacking a teacher’s live voice and explanations; Still, I happily put up with all those drawbacks for sheer love of learning.” When she was temporarily forbidden by an ingenious prelate to read the books, which caused her to study instead “everything that God has created, all of it being my letters.” Juana famously remarked.

Historical Evidence

As evidence of a woman’s natural inclination and right to think, Juana lists several women from religious history in whom the Catholic community sees learning and wisdom as a virtue. Juana truly shows the breadth of her intellect, and widespread knowledge of historical women. Juana’s reply is truly a magnificent treatise of a woman who rebelled to deny women the right to pursue learning. It is heartfelt response from a humble nun, a proto-feminist manifesto, a rhetorical masterpiece,’ and a theological criticism.

Aftermath: For daring to stand up to the patriarchal and misogynist policies of the Church,

Sor Juana was officially censured. She was no longer allowed to publish her work. Church also forced to give away her library of books. She died after ministering to other nuns stricken during a plague, on 17 April 1695.

I salute Juana’s fearless commitment to intellectual rights for women.