Sorjuana ines de la cruz

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695)

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Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz is best known as a major Baroque literary figure of Mexico. However, her insatiable desire to understand everything around her, coupled with her studies in classical and medieval philosophy and her fierce assertion of a woman's right to fullyparticipate in scholastic inquiry mark her as a philosopher as well. According to Mary Morkovsky, Sor Juana's philosophical poetry, (Sueno) indicates a coherent world view, and her critique of the Jesuit sermon reveals her mastery of logic. In addition, in the same decade that England's Mary Astell wrote her argument for the education of women, A Serious Proposal To The Ladies...,in Mexico, Sor Juanawas hotly defending a woman's right to an education and intellectual prowess in Reply to Sor Philothea .

Oh, how much harm would be avoided in our country if older women were as learned as Laeta and knew how to teach in the way Saint Paul and my Father Saint Jerome direct! Instead of which, if fathers wish to educate their daughters beyond what is customary, for want of trained older women andon account of the extreme negligence which has become women's sad lot, since well-educated older women are unavailable, they are obliged to bring in men teachers to give instruction...As a result of this, many fathers prefer leaving their daughters in a barbaric, uncultivated state to exposing them to an evident danger such a familiarity with men breeds.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sor Juana Timeline
1648 November, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz de Asbaje y Ramirez is born in the village of San Miguel Mepantla near Mexico City. She is the illegitimate child of a Spanish Captain, Pedro Manuel de Asbaje and Isabe Ramirez. The father, according to all accounts, is absent from her life. She is baptized December 2 when she is registered onthe Church rolls as "a daughter of the Church" because her parents were not married. She is raised in the country at the home of her maternal grandfather.
1651 (aprox.) At the age of three, Sor Juana follows her sister to a school for "amigas" (girls) and coaxes the teacher into teaching her to read. She then turns to her grandfather's library and is unstoppable in her quest of learning throughstudy of his books.
1654-58. Sor Juana hears of the university in Mexico City and begs her mother to send her there disguised as a boy. Her mother refuses, so Sor Juana continues to conte nt herself with her grandfather's library. She writes a dramatic poem for the Eucharist and inflicts punishments on herself for not learning fast enough. She receives twenty Latin grammar lessons which sheforces herself to learn well by cutting her hai r off everytime she doesn't learn a certain point. She later said, in her Reply to Sor Philothea, "It turned out that the hair grew quickly and I learned slowly. As a result, I cut off the hair in punishment for my head's ignorance, for it didn't seem right to me that a head so naked of knowledge should be dressed up with hair. For knowledge is a moredesirable adornment." (Flynn, 15)
1659 (aprox.) Sor Juana is sent to live with her aunt in Mexico City. By this time, Sor Juana's knowledge and memory is amazing and she becomes known as a prodigy.
1664. A new viceregal couple, Antonio Sebastian de Toledo, Marquis de Mancera, and Leonor Carreto arrive in Mexico City. They hear of Sor Juana and she is presented a t their court. Vicereine Leonortakes the sixteen year-old girl under her wing as a maid-in-waiting. Sor Juana spends five years in the court of the viceregal couple. She continues to develop intellectually and socially. The Marquis later recounted th at he tested Sor Juana's knowledge with a barrage of learned men, theologians, philosophers, mathematicians, historians, poets, and other specialists; the ease with which she...