Generalizing from La Peor de Todas: Her personal history was made of the same perpetually fluctuatin

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Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, The Traps of Faith,
Octavio Paz

• Generalizing from La Peor de Todas Her
  personal history was made of the same perpetually
  fluctuating substance as the history of her
  world.--Paz.
• On film and history Behmberg is no Stone.
• Intellectual life in the Indies
• Inquisition a much over-publicized and
  misconceived institution.
• Sor Juana, first feminist of the New World
• The traps what, why, and how.

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Historical generalization and Sor Juana Ines de
la Cruz

• Intellectual life in the Indies
• confined to cities, particularly capitals
• 17th century seasoning from chronicles to
  literature, and peninsular to creole
• intellectual expression exuberant intricacy,
  formalism, allegory, allusion to authorities
• Inquisition a much over-publicized and
  misconceived institution.
• Books circulated more freely
• Institution was widely supported
• Repression was rare in 250 years, 30 executions
  in Lima.

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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1651-95

• on love
• Who thankless flees me,I with love pursueWho
  loving follows me, I thankless fleeTo him who
  spurns my love, I bend the knee.
• on gender If Aristotle had done some
  cooking, he would have written more.
• a rationalist passion for knowledge ...just
  to see if by studying, I might grow less
  ignorant.
• on method ...the expositors are like an open
  hand and the ecclesiastics like a closed fist.

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First feminist of the New World

• Course text, 238-39 reason and emotion,
  science and revelation, fame and envy
• Paz emphasizes feminism, as well
• a nun, an intellectual, a woman
• misogyny of church authorities
• reason, observation, and science
• Reason If a trained hand does not prevent the
  foliage of the tree from becoming too dense, its
  wild tangle will rob the fruit of its substance.
• Gender (to St. Catherine of Alexandria)
  There in Egypt, all the
  sages by a
  woman were convinced
  that gender is not the essence
  in matters of
  intelligence.

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Marquis de Mancera, Viceroy of New Spain, 1660-64

• First (of 6) viceregal patron of Sor Juana
• Sponsored public exam of Sor. Juanas genius by
  40 men of letters
• Marchioness of Mancera, the first of 5 vicereinas
  to support Sor Juana
• Friend of Sor Juanas confessor (-1695)

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Archbishop Fray Payo Enriquez de Rivera, Viceroy
1673-80

• Crown and clergy united in same person
• Arranged commission for Sor Juana to write
  Allegorical Neptune for triumphal arch (1680)
• Sor Juana enjoyed vice-regal patronage, 1660 -
  1693 (during terms of 8 viceroys)

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Conde de Paredes, Viceroy of New Spain, 1680-86
(d. 1693)

• Crown vs. clergy Viceroy Paredes vs. Archbishop
  Aguiar y Seijas
• secular entertainments
• protocol
• Sor Juana to her patron, Countess of Paredes
• To women you bring great esteemto learned men,
  acute offense,by proving gender plays no partin
  matters of intelligence.
• With his death in 1693, Sor Juana lost her most
  important ally

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First Book

• Published 1689 in Madrid
• Dedicated to Condesa de Paredes, patroness of 2nd
  vol. (Seville, 1692).
• Continued their correspondence at least until
  1693
• Circles of women were important.

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Antonio Nuñes de Miranda, S.J. (d. 1695),
confessor to Sor. Juana1660s-1683 (!), 1693-95

• Censor to the Inquisition for 32 years
• humble, chaste misogynist dressed like a pauper
  thankfully near-sighted (so as not to see women)
• Mortification scourged himself ...73 times in
  reverence for the 73 years of the Blessed
  Virgins life

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Archbishop Francisco Aguiar y Seijas, 1681-1698?

• Noted for his religiosity, piety, charity,
  prudery mortifications, and misogyny.
• and then he burned the books of plays.
• he tried to avoid even a glimpse of a womans
  face.
• Why, people do you persecute me so?In what do I
  offend, when but inclinedwith worldly beauties
  to adorn my mind,and not my mind on beauty to
  bestow?-- SJIC

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Conde de Galve, Viceroy 1688-1696

• Condesa de Galve also supported Sor Juana
• Conde--authority weakened by riot of June, 1692
• Fearful of divine retribution, acquiesced to
  Aguiar y Seijas reforms

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Sor. Juanas signature in her own blood, 8 Feb.
1694

• I, the worst of all--a common form of
  self-vilification in 17th c.
• And as a sign of how greatly I wish to spill my
  blood in defense of these truths, I sign with
  it.
• silver jubilee of her profession, not the
  renunciation of her studies or thinking

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Traps of Faith What, Why, How

• Bishop of Puebla on Sor Juana What a pity that
  so rich a mind should so debase itself in petty
  matters of this world.
• Why the defect of being a woman
• How
• The Reply
• The Riot
• Loss of patronage
• Did she recant? Or just give away the library?

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Don Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora

• Creole savant
• Intellectual companion of Sor. Juana
• The name and fame of Mother Juana Inés de la
  Cruz will only end with the world.

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End