The First Feminist Manifesto
The Latina poet who took on the patriarchy
Mexican writer, poet, scholar and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is often celebrated as the first feminist in the Americas. An advocate for women’s rights and a national icon in Mexico, Juana consistently rejected the gender expectations placed on her, choosing to pursue a life dedicated to education and the defence of women.
Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana was born around 1648 near Mexico City, the illegitimate daughter of Pedro Manuel de Asbaje, a Spanish captain, and Isabel Ramírez, a Creole (a person of Spanish descent born in Spanish America). At the time of her birth, Mexico had been a multicultural Spanish colony – known as ‘New Spain’ – for over a century, following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Pedro left Isabel while Juana was still young, leaving her mother to raise her and her sisters alone. However, her maternal grandfather owned estates and was able to ensure that his daughter and granddaughters had a comfortable life. Although she was uneducated,
Isabel successfully managed one of her father’s farms for over three decades, setting an example of a strong woman for her daughters.
Juana had an insatiable thirst for knowledge from a very early age and it is said that when she was just three years old she followed her older sister to school and tried to attend the lessons. Using her grandfather’s library she taught herself a variety of subjects including philosophy, arithmetic, science, history and music, and several languages including Latin and Nahuatl – the language of the Aztecs.
Creative and talented, Juana began writing poetry and prose in her adolescence, dealing with topics such as love, feminism and religion. When she discovered that only men were allowed to access higher education, she begged her mother in vain to let her disguise herself as a man so that she could study at university.
When she was 16 years old, news of her intelligence and wit attracted the attention of the Spanish Court in Mexico City. In particular, she intrigued the 2nd Marquess of Mancera, the Spanish viceroy who served as the king’s deputy in New Spain. Even though Juana was not of noble birth,
“At the convent, Juana built up one of the largest private libraries in the New World”
she was appointed as a lady-in-waiting to the viceroy’s wife, Vicereine Leonor del Carretto.
To test her renowned knowledge, the viceroy assembled a panel of 40 scholars to question her on various subjects like science, literature and philosophy. She successfully defended herself during the questioning and her answers left the scholars astounded by her intellect. Juana was, indeed, a prodigy and as a result she would eventually become known as ‘the Tenth Muse’. With the support of the viceregal couple who served as her patrons, Juana wrote several literary works such as plays, poetry and sonnets, for which she was greatly praised at court.
As a woman in a patriarchal society Juana’s education and accomplishments were unprecedented and in the eyes of male conservatives, controversial. But she was still admired and this, coupled with her beauty, led to her receiving several marriage proposals. Yet Juana, whose only desire was to continue her pursuit of knowledge, turned all of her suitors down.
At 19 years old, wanting the freedom to study and to maintain her independence, she chose to leave the court and become a nun, entering the Monastery of St Joseph in Mexico City. Juana did not stay at the convent, where the regime was said to be harsh and restrictive, for too long. However, a year or so later she decided to enter the Hieronymite Convent of St Paula, where she adopted the name by which she is best known today – Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
At the convent, Juana built up one of the largest private libraries in the New World, as well as a vast collection of musical and scientific instruments. With the time to focus on her studies, she wrote religious poetry, music, numerous essays on topics like philosophy and mathematics, as well as plays including dramas and comedies that feature bright and capable female characters. Juana was also able to teach others at the convent and she was even entrusted with managing the convent’s accounts as treasurer.
Despite being cloistered away, Juana still had a lot of contact with the outside world. Her nun’s quarters were transformed into a salon visited by Mexico City’s intellectual elite, from ecclesiastics and scholars to aristocrats, including the vicereine. Her work was also in demand, with Juana commissioned to produce different literary pieces for occasions such as holy days and birthdays.
In 1680, the 3rd Marquess of la Laguna and his wife, Countess Maria Luisa de
“Juana successfully defended herself during the questioning and her answers left the scholars astounded by her intellect”
Paredes, arrived in Mexico to serve as the new Spanish viceregal couple. Juana was commissioned to design the triumphal arch for their entrance into the city, becoming the only woman known to have been asked to create one. The viceroy and vicereine were so impressed that they asked to meet the person who designed the arch, and they quickly became Juana’s new patrons.
Thanks to their favour and support, Juana was able to publish her work in Spain, with the circulation of her writings turning her into a popular literary figure in both Spain and its colonies. She also became close friends with the countess and dedicated passionate poetry to her, which has led to continued speculation about the nature of their relationship, although there is no concrete evidence to prove whether they were lovers or not.
While Juana continued to earn praise for her work, there were those – particularly church officials – who disapproved of what she was doing. After all, she did not conform to the traditional expectations of a cloistered nun, who was expected to dedicate her life to spiritual, not secular, matters. It was during the 1680s that
Juana wrote one of her most famous and outspoken poems, titled You Foolish Men. In it, she strongly criticised the doublestandards and misogyny of men:
“Silly, you men – so very adept at wrongly faulting womankind,
Not seeing you’re alone to blame for faults you plant in woman’s mind.
After you’ve won by urgent plea the right to tarnish her good name,
You still expect her to behave – you, that coaxed her into shame.”
The viceroy and vicereine left New Spain around 1688 and with their departure, Juana lost their protection against those who sought to denounce her. In 1690, she wrote a private criticism of a Jesuit sermon from 1650 that had critiqued the Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine.
Her criticism was subsequently published without her knowledge by the Bishop of Puebla, who titled her critique the Letter Worthy of Athena, triggering accusations that Juana had attacked Jesuit theology. Assuming a female pseudonym, Sor Filotea, the bishop also published a letter chastising Juana and telling her that she should devote herself to prayer rather than spending her time on secular studies.
In response to the bishop, Juana wrote her Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz) in March 1691, an autobiographical defence of women’s right to an education as well as to teach, write and publish their work. She lists several learned women from both the Bible and history, for example, Deborah, Zenobia and Hypatia of Alexandria, who had set a precedent asserting the intellectual ability of women. Meanwhile, to justify her own studies, Juana argued that she needed to learn about the arts and sciences to fully understand and learn the Holy Scriptures.
Juana’s Repuesta has since been frequently hailed as the first feminist manifesto for its defence of female intellect, even though the term ‘feminist’ did not exist in her lifetime. Instead, she should be considered a protofeminist, with her Repuesta held up alongside other works such as Christine de Pisan’s 15th-century The Book of the City of Ladies and Mary Wollstonecraft’s 18th-century
A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Her war of words with the bishop, however, caught the attention of the Archbishop of Mexico, who was angered by her radical arguments that challenged traditional and patriarchal gender roles.
Eventually, Juana ended up selling her huge collection of books and musical and scientific instruments in 1694. The reason why she did this – either in response to pressure from the archbishop and her critics or through her own free will – is still debated. Regardless, she donated the proceeds of the sale to charity and dedicated herself to charitable causes for the poor. She also wrote a reaffirmation of her religious vows, signing “I – the worst of all” in her own blood.
Juana died in 1695 during a plague epidemic while caring for her fellow sisters in the convent. Today, that convent where she lived, died and wrote most of her work for the last 25 years or so of her life has been turned into the University of the Cloister of Sor Juana.
As her work has become known to English-speaking audiences in the last few decades, Juana has become a focus for popular culture, with novels, television series and songs written about her – she even features on the 200 Mexican pesos banknote. Declared as ‘the Phoenix of America’ during her lifetime, Juana stood resolute against criticism and injustice to become one of the biggest champions for women’s empowerment in history.