The biography of Juana Inés de la Cruz is truly fascinating and surprising, anyone who knows her knows what I mean, and if you don’t already know her, I’m sure she’ll be involved in your story.
Literature, like the arts or any other kind of knowledge, has long been reserved for men, and not all, only to a few.
- It takes more than knowing how to write for a literary work to become something meaningful.
- Something that lasts in time.
- Added to this is the fact that.
- For centuries.
- Illiteracy has prevailed and few women have access to education.
- We find ourselves before a man.
- -dominated literary production.
However, there are always exceptions. Exceptions that, on countless occasions, have not interested criticism, history, education or any other reason, so we still have an education system that continues to reward men.
I do not mean that there are no eminent men in literature; on the contrary, we have countless great male authors who deserve to be read and studied.
But throughout our university life, few women we know and many deserve a place in the history of literature.
Joan was not just a woman of letters; her thirst for knowledge has led her to excel in countless abilities. Besides, his life was anything but traditional. She broke down the barriers her time imposed on her simply as a woman and she grew up as a truly intelligent woman.
“Dumb men who accuse women for no reason, not seeing that you are the occasion of the same one you blame. “- Sister Joan-
Juana Inés de la Cruz was born in 1651 in the city of San Miguel de Nepantla (New Spain, today Mexico), the daughter of a Spanish captain and a Creole.
Her mother, Isabel Ramarez, had six children from different relationships and declared herself single, which was very unusual at the time. Joan’s mother has decided not to get married, which gives us a very significant clue about her personality.
Joan’s interest in lyrics and studies became apparent soon; At the age of 8 he composed a Eucharistic loa and, a few years later, after discovering that there was a university in Mexico, he decided to study there.
However, in the mid-17th century in New Spain, women could not go to university. That’s why Sóror Juana had the idea of dressing up as a man to study.
This idea did not work and Joan became self-taught, deeply attached to her grandfather, began studying alone in her library.
Sóror Juana is mentioned as a bright young woman of prodigious intelligence; he learned Latin in just 20 lessons and even administered an intelligence test. She was also a very demanding woman with herself; if he couldn’t learn a lesson, he’d cut a lock of hair.
From an early age, they began to ask him to compose verses and most of his poetic production was commissioned. Soror Juana’s fame grew to the ears of the Marquis of Mancera, who became his patron.
In court, Joan was in an environment that fostered her desire to know, have books, be able to study and learn.
“I no longer treasure treasures or riches; Is that why I am always happier to put wealth into my thoughts and not my thoughts on wealth?. – Soror Juana-
In court, he learns to play instruments and is interested in all kinds of knowledge. In addition, he had a large theatrical production consisting mainly of loas, comedies and sacramental acts.
Finally, in 1667, Juana decided to move from the court to the convent, where she became a nun.
We should not take the convent as contention, but Joan intended to live alone, have a space to study and, in the seventeenth century, what was coming the most was a convent.
Juana had a space reserved for her library and to store the gifts that the powerful sent her, she could have instruments and enjoyed a certain position within the convent, she kept accounts and had employees to be able to dedicate herself fully to studying.
Life in the convent was also not as quiet as you would expect, other nuns criticized it for being very different and, on one occasion, forbade her to study.
Joan was not just any nun; he wrote constantly and sometimes his own texts caused him problems. She defended her personal freedom and, ultimately, that of women; said they could have access to education and knowledge.
Talking about feminism in Juana is somewhat contradictory, because this concept dates back to the seventeenth century, however, it is true that Joan incorporates the values of feminism: the struggle for equality, access to knowledge, women’s freedom, etc.
He broke the plans with his theatrical production. Female roles were associated with beauty or discretion, but Joan added the value of understanding to the understated woman.
She criticized the role of men, those men who, in the face of the beauty of a woman, set out to conquer her. Joan saw that men seduced women and, when they were tired, abandoned and dishonored them. Equality between men and women is necessary.
He also claimed the place of the Indians and blacks in society. His poetry is very philosophical, he reflects on his own portrait and, in love poetry, the main theme will be absence.
Joan was a rebel, a woman who lived beyond the impositions of her time, became a religious woman of rebellion, so that she could live alone and embark on a journey to knowledge.
He was very critical of men and inequality and dared to question the voice of the influential Portuguese Jesuit Antonio Vieira with his letter Atenarica.
It was a real scandal back then. Later, he wrote Response to Suror Filotea de la Cruz, a text in which the autobiographical component is present. Loaded with erudition, it is a text that vindicates women’s rights and the importance of access to education.
After its publication, Joan remained silent forever, what we do not know is whether this silence was decided by itself or was an imposition, there were some clashes between the Church and Joan, who continued to claim her rights as a woman in the face of rejection of men.
Eventually, she devoted herself to the care of the nuns of the convent and died at the age of 43, like her mother, she did not want to marry and her desire to study led her to use this habit. Undoubtedly a rebel in a world of men and women complicit in the established order.