Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz---"The Tenth Muse"

Seventeenth-century Mexican culture was dominated by the patriarchal Roman Catholic Church (much more orthodox in New Spain than in Spain itself), and it was generally disparaging of intellectual women. Despite the barriers placed in her way by church and society, however, Juana Inés de Asbaje y Remirez became one of the greatest poets and dramatists of colonial Mexico. Nicknamed "The Tenth Muse," she was a proponent of educational opportunities for women and was centuries ahead of her time.

Her drive and intellect were apparent early in life. Accounts of Juana Inés's childhood indicate that she persuaded a local schoolteacher to teach her to read at the age of three. By the age of five she was writing and embroidering. At six or seven, she begged to be sent to the University of Mexico. When her pleas failed--girls could not attend university--she contented herself with her grandfather's library. She learned Latin by the age of eight in order to understand the classics. Juana Inés's thirst for knowledge was so intense that she would punish herself when she did not satisfy her own high standards. She would cut her hair when she felt she was not learning quickly enough. "[I]t didn't seem right to me," she wrote later, "that a head so naked of knowledge should be dressed up with hair. For knowledge is a more desirable adornment."

At the age of eight or so, Juana Inés was sent to Mexico City to live with her mother's sister. She continued her studies there, immersing herself in literature, philosophy, mathematics, and theology. Impressed with Juana Inés's ability, her aunt and uncle took her to the court of the viceroy. Vicereina Doña Leonor Carreto, the marquise de Mancera, was especially interested in the girl and took her into her palace as a maid-in-waiting. During her four years there, Juana Inés was frequently asked to write poetry for official events. She earned a reputation for her erudition, wit, and beauty.

Despite her success at court, however, Juana Inés entered the Convent of the Order of Saint Jerome at the age of 19. She apparently thought the cloistered life was more suitable to the continuation of her studies. She took the veil under the name Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the name by which she is now commonly known. Her religious duties were light, and convent rule fairly liberal. Sor Juana continued to write and studied music and painting. She amassed a library reputed to be the largest in Mexico, and had many visitors to her " salon." 

Over the next two decades, Sor Juana composed religious and secular songs, poems, and plays. But it was her critique of a controversial 40-year-old sermon that eventually put an end to her career. Her letter criticizing the sermon was published without her knowledge or consent by the bishop of Puebla under a feminine pseudonym. It aroused the anger of the archbishop of Mexico, a confirmed misogynist. He criticized her for her intellectual pursuits and lack of religious commitment. Sor Juana responded by defending her studies. She believed that girls have the right to be educated by female tutors. She was also convinced that intellect, whether male or female, was a gift from God. This was a radical idea in the late 1600s. In response, the church pressured Sor Juana into discontinuing her studies. She bowed to authority. She turned over to the archbishop all her books and instruments to be sold for the benefit of the poor. She also submitted to rigorous penance for past religious transgressions. Nursing her sister nuns through an epidemic, she herself contracted the plague and died in April 1695 at the age of 43.