Who was Sor Juana, and what was her answer to Sor Filotea?
Sor Juana answers Sor Filotea
Sor Juana escribe la Respuesta a Sor Filotea
March 1691. Juana Inés de Asbaje, born at Nepantla near Mexico City in 1648 or 1651, shone at the viceroy's court from 1663 and in 1669 entered the convent of San…
Where: Mexico, The whole Spanish-speaking world, Mexico City
What happened
Juana Inés de Asbaje, born at Nepantla near Mexico City in 1648 or 1651, shone at the viceroy's court from 1663 and in 1669 entered the convent of San Jerónimo, where she could read, write and keep a library. Her poems were printed in Madrid in 1689 as Inundación castálida. In 1690 the bishop of Puebla published her critique of a famous sermon, the Carta atenagórica, with a letter signed 'Sor Filotea' telling her to leave learning for piety. Three months later, in 1691, she replied with the Respuesta a Sor Filotea, a defence of a woman's right to study, drawn from her own life. Under pressure she gave up her books in 1693 and died nursing her sisters in the plague of 1695. She is Mexico's 'Tenth Muse' and the last great poet of the Baroque.
Say it
Sor Juana defendió el derecho de las mujeres a estudiar.
Sor Juana defended women's right to study.
Why it matters
Sor Juana is the first major writer of the Americas in Spanish and a founding voice of women's writing in the language; her face is on Mexico's 200-peso note.
Read about it
Connected
- The Siglo de Oro (c. 1492–1681)
- The Viceroyalty of New Spain is created (1535)
- Don Quixote is published (January 1605)
- Before: Bernal Díaz writes his True History
- After: The Bourbon reforms
Sources
- Cronología de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1534-1663) — Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
- Cronología de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1664-1861) — Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
- El virreinato de la Nueva España (ficha de clase) — Secretaría de Educación Pública (México), Nueva Escuela Mexicana