Presenting Author - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

[Prof. Gustavo Flores]

The second book of my Summer Reading Challenge is Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (Reply to Sister Filotea), so I’m going to present the author, which happens to be a very important one for Mexican history and culture.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Main Genre: Poetry
Main Audence: Academic/Scholar

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is one of my favorite authors, not only because of the perfection of her poetry, but also because of what she represents. She is a writer from the Baroque period, and I admire her because of all the obstacles she had to face in order to achieve what she desired the most: knowledge.
During that time, women weren’t allowed any kind of intellectual activities, but Sor Juana had a curious mind and she learned to read at a young age. When she found out that she wouldn’t be able to attend university due to her condition as a woman, she even asked her mother to dress her as a man and send her to university, but that was a crazy idea and never happened. When it was time to decide her future, Sor Juana knew that she didn’t want to get married and lead a home life that would tie her to a husband and all kind of domestic chores, so instead she became a nun, thinking it would give her enough time to continue studying and writing.

Sor Juana is mostly known by her poetry, particularly by her sonnets, which I particularly like because of their cunning and witty style, and also because of the perfect metric and rhyme all of them have.

The book I read Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (Reply to Sister Filotea de la Cruz), however, is not a poetry book. It is written in prose, and basically it is more like a long essay. It is very interesting because a bishop wasn’t happy with Sor Juana and maybe he was even jealous of her, so he wrote a letter to Sor Juana hiding his identity under the pseudonym of Sister Filotea. In this letter he accuses Sor Juana of not following her religious duties and of being distracted by her books and her constant pursuit of knowledge, something that shouldn’t happen because she was a woman! Sor Juana was very smart, so she knew that Sister Filotea was actually the bishop, so she wrote him back defending herself and her right to achieve knowledge.

The good points: Everything! In this reply to Sister Filotea we get to learn a little bit more of Sor Juana’s life, which is very interesting, but most importantly, it is truly a treasure to read all of her arguments and why she had the right to know. In her reply we can see that she was a learned woman, who had read many books and knew quite a lot. Her arguments are faultless and they flow one after another.
The bad points: The language can be a little bit complicated, but other than that, it is a jewel.