Amante de la verdad, de la sabiduría y de las letras. Pero sumamente incomprendida, envidiada, juzgada y perseguida....”En alma maligna, no entrará la sabiduría”...”A éstos hace daño el estudiar...porque es poner espada en manos del furioso”...”mientras más estudian, peores opiniones engendran”...
Por varones así, fue juzgada...
Una mujer diferente, única. Mucho más que una poetiza.
Conocemos y entendemos una mínima parte de la grandiosidad de este ser, de esta mente universal...
-“Sólo he querido estudiar, para ignorar menos”
¡Sublime!...para leerla infinidad de veces... The Answer / La Respuesta Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was a self-taught student in the mid-seventeenth century at a time when the education of women was not encouraged or socially accepted. From an exceptionally young age she would read books from her grandfather's library, and according to the introduction to the book, followed her older sister to her school and tried to trick the teacher in teaching her as well with good results. She entered a convent at a reasonably early age, realizing from the start that it would be the only way for her to be able to seclude herself and devote herself to her personal studies and public writings. La Respuesta is her response to the backlash and attacks she received for her actions. Think A Room of One's Own but written in the seventeenth century during the Spanish Empire.
Her poetry, some of which is included in this volume, is about freedom, particularly the freedom of a woman's mind and spirit. While in the convent she was questionably in relationships, though whether with men, women or both is still uncertain. Her self-education is evident in her writing and specifically in the encouragement for all women to surpass what society expects of them - sort of to say, Look what I did - if I can do it, so can you.
This had been recommended to me several years ago, and I'm not sure why I've put it off so long. Once I found a copy in a bookstore I should just have sat down then to read it, instead of having it sit on my pretty bookshelf since then. And now that I've read it, despite my initial plans of selling books I've read, I don't know if I can separate from this yet. Sor Juana's writing is about as fantastic as Mary Wollstonecraft's, and infinitely superior to that of Virginia Woolf, even though all three women preached the same thing.
Highly recommended, and not even just for granola-eating, feminist-spouting hippie chicks. Sor Juana's words should resonate in the mind of any reader. The Answer / La Respuesta Es increíble todo lo que contienen estas pocas páginas. Sor Juana responde a Sor Filotea (seudónimo del obispo de Puebla) por causa de una carta denominada Atenagórica que fue publicada por el mismo obispo pero que después la amonesta por dedicarse a estudios que están fuera de lo teológico. Sor Juana en La respuesta a sor Filotea expone una defensa de su afición por las letras y de su condición de mujer. Tengamos en cuenta que en el Siglo XVII las mujeres no tenían acceso fácil a la educación. La respuesta además contiene datos muy interesantes con respecto a su vida y de cierta forma es una ventana que nos permite mirar cómo vivía una mujer inteligente, valiente, elevada, en aquella época. Ella se las ingenió para hablar sobre los derechos que debía tener la mujer para estudiar y para poder emitir una opinión. Algo habrá logrado. Hoy podemos leer su obra. The Answer / La Respuesta Me ha encantado. Que bien escribía Sor Juana, se nota su inconformidad con la nula equidad de género. Es un texto corto pero cargado de mucha información. The Answer / La Respuesta A must for all women of Mexican descent; considered one of the first feminist documents in the Americas. Be not fooled by the excessive erudite language; it's an intense work but well worth the reading of it :) The Answer / La Respuesta
Sor Juana In&ecute;s de la Cruz (1648/51-1695), a Mexican nun, wrote this essay which is a defense of the right of women to be engaged in intellectual work. Her writings brought her into conflict with the Church. The Answer / La Respuesta
Más estrellas le daría si las hubiera. 84 páginas de genio, agudeza y manejo exquisito del español. Una inteligencia proverbial que reivindica su derecho al conocimiento y al descubrimiento de la verdad. The Answer / La Respuesta This lengthy epistle, dated March 1, 1691, written by the nun Sor Juana (Sister Joan), considered the greatest poet and most important writer of New Spain (colonial Mexico) as a defense against being told by her superior (a bishop) that she must not engage in secular intellectual exercises (he was ticked off that she disagreed with his favorite religious writer on a particular sermon), is itself an intellectual exercise.
Though educated at a very young age when she followed her older sister to school, Sor Juana was mostly an autodidact. Here, she uses a tight logic, backed up by quotes, in Latin and Greek, from the Bible, religious scholars and Classical mythology, to make her case that women should be educated, and educated properly (positing that older women should become learned in order to teach young girls) in order to understand theology, if nothing else.
She writes of a mind (hers) that is always learning as she views the world— about scientific perspective, about the chemistry of cooking— even when books are taken away from her. She states that her mind works in verse, and notes that much Scripture is written as such, and that it was a chore for her not to write this particular letter in verse. It is written respectfully to a superior, with the proper forms of the time, but I do not believe for a second Sor Juana’s self-deprecations. At its end, she says she will pass along all of her writings to the Bishop for him to censor, but she has not backed down—she does not promise she will stop reading, studying and writing.
*
I read this in English in preparation for a program I will be attending next weekend.
The Answer / La Respuesta Lo he disfrutado una barbaridad y eso que reconozco que hay algunas cosas que no entiendo porque esta mujer era una erudita impresionante. Eso si, las referencias que he pillado y las notas a pie explicativas han sido de esas que me gustaría recordar para toda la vida. Lo recomiendo. The Answer / La Respuesta It was five thirty in the morning and you had rumbled on for eighteen pages... FRONT AND BACK The Answer / La Respuesta Espíritu Indómito
Only a century ago the gentler sex was encouraged to lead more simple and elegant lives free from study and occupation where they were expected to devote themselves to beauty, grace, family, and home. In seventeenth century New Spain, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz sought enlightenment through the convent, where she taught herself to read, write, and reason. Though frowned upon by the Catholic Church, which was, ironically, her artistic and intellectual refuge, with the keen observations of a skilled scientist, she dared to invoke the power of past influential women including Abigail, Esther, Rahab, Anna, Queen of Sheba, and Deborah. Sor Juana herself would later inspire the likes of Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf. She considered women formidable alchemists who worked their magic and science in the kitchen, understanding the basics of chemistry through their cookery and sustaining countless generations through their knowledge and experience. While many of her peers in Ciudad de México, at the time, were undernourished in intellect and imagination, Sor Juana strove to feed her sisters' feeble minds and weakened souls with the fruit of knowledge, enriching their lives with the savors of poetry, philosophy, and science. In her writing, La Repuesta we realize just how starved both sexes are for a fierce indomitable spirit and the fortitude that Sor Juana embodied. Here's her recipe for concocting an indomitable spirit:
(serves all)
Ingredients:
1 pinch of ingratiating and feigned humility
1 bunch of all purpose Latin
1 bunch of all purpose Greek
1 fine quality library, use generously
- heaps of stimulating discussions with intellectual equals
- heavy and frequent doses of time alone to read, think, and write
6 or 7 stalks of coarsely chopped barbs to stick to your detractors
3 or 4 small lightly crushed infatuations, to steel the heart and color the mind
1/2 pound of religious piety to keep the higher ups at bay
1 (28oz) can of suffering
Snugly secure mind, heart, and soul in a caring and warm environment; leave room for growth and enlightened maturation; separate doubts from thoughts and discard the former. Shell vain preoccupations such as worries concerning the style and fashion of the day; stir together intellectualism and spirituality so they bond in symbiosis; add faith until its evaporated, bring to a boil to scald opposition; season with humor and serve immediately. The Answer / La Respuesta
