Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648 - 1695) was a Mexican Hieronymite nun who had a reputation for being something of a cranky hermit. Sneaking some education from the side, Juana, a girl with scholarly ambitions, was disheartened to learn that the formal education afforded to boys her age would be barred to her. As a result, this intrepid young woman entered the convent.

Having attended intellectual salons with some of the elite of Mexico City, Juana, whose intellect soared over her peers, decided to take the veil for the purpose of continuing her studies without the interruption and annoyance of people.

From Child Prodigy to Sister

Taking on the name Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz (her birth name Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana), the nun took her books and herself to the convent. Her collection of books and instruments, musical and scientific, was massive. She began holding similar literary salons in her quarters, where she would converse with some of Mexico City’s greatest minds.

She wrote poetry, shipped off letters to Isaac Newton, and moved to another convent where the rules were not as strict. Her talents were many, and her literary contributions essential to Mexican literature, and Spanish literature as a whole.

But it was her criticism of the Catholic Church and its patriarchal hierarchy that got her in deep water.

“Sor Filotea” and a Fiery Epistolary Exchange 

While Sor Juana rose to minor celebrity status during her time among the elite in Mexico City, it was her proto-feminist views that got her into hot waters with the powerful Catholic Church and its hierarchy.

A poet and philosopher, Juana remembered her time sneaking into her family home’s chapel and studying, having to do so surreptitiously because she was not allowed the scholarly materials and instructors open to her male counterparts. She wanted to pursue the intellectual life in the way that was open to men, but not to women.

As a result, this sister began writing in favor of education for girls and women, and in doing so, questioning the authority of the Church. This did not go down well with her superiors, who very soon started shutting that–and her–down.

One of these superiors, a certain Bishop Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, decided to publish some of her work without her permission. When she voiced her displeasure, he wrote a letter as “Sor Filotea,” telling her that she needs to stay in her lane, do the silent prayer thing, and leave off the intellectual pursuits. As a supposed fellow nun (and of course to disguise himself), he used this letter as a form of rebuke.

The worst part of this? He had had the initial writing published so he could use it in his theological smackdown with the Jesuits. He agreed with a lot of the points that Juana made, but he did not love the fact that she made these as a woman, and moreover, was pulling against his authority as a bishop, and as a man.

In response, Juana penned a saccharine sweet, sarcastic, and savage letter in response to “Sor Filotea,” throwing more shade than the leafiest of trees.

Lambasting the “nun,” Sor Juana writes:

The Diminishing of the “Tenth Muse” and Her Legacy

Unfortunately, the result of this letter did not go well. After a time, Sor Juana was censured by the Church. The salons ceased and her books were sold off, under the accusation that she was not doing anything charitable through her scholarly work.

Watching her thousands of books get carted off, Sor Juana fell into an obscurity for the rest of her life, which would be curtailed as she fell victim to plague from helping to tend to other sick sisters. A light which had been so vibrantly bright was quickly snuffed into obscurity.

During her time, Sor Juana was called the “Tenth Muse” because of her inclinations toward poetry and philosophy. Running head to head with the higher powers of Mexico at the time did not end well for her, but created a legacy that is strange and varied.

Sometimes shopped out as a candidate for sainthood, Sor Juana is still, in certain places, honored in the Catholic Church. The convent in which she lived and learned no longer houses nuns, but is, fittingly, a part of a university.

Conversely, Sor Juana is also hailed as an LGBTQ+ icon. Her love poems, written in honor of her patroness, the wife of a viceroy, have long been heralded in the queer canon of literature. 

In Mexico, Sor Juana is lauded among legends like Frida Kahlo, women who didn’t just sit back and take it. Her commitment to gender equality and educational reform, as well as the magnitude of her literary works, continue to echo long after her rather premature death.

You can recognize Sor Juana from the other nuns of the time from her blinged out medallion, with which she is painted over and over in her portraits. Surrounded by books, this fiercely intelligent woman reminds us that what we currently take for granted was fought for at a price.

Education: Keep It Open for All

Having attended the first college in the world to grant degrees to women, I sometimes consider why it took until the 1830s in the state of Georgia, of all places, for women to start earning bachelor degrees. I then consider how women of color also had to fight for this right, and how long it took for colleges and universities to open their doors to women as well as men.

A few days ago, the world celebrated the birthday of Ruby Bridges, a brave young girl who was the only African American kid to be integrated into an all-white school in Louisiana, a place where Black kids going to school with white kids was severely frowned upon. In 1960, angry white adults hurled rocks at the little girl as she tried to enter the school under armed guard.

What they don’t tell you is that only one teacher took her on as a student, and she was the only student in this teacher’s class for a year. And that she was escorted to class by US marshals for a long time. And that she is still alive, and only 71 years of age.

Sor Juana, Ruby Bridges, and others remind us that we should never, ever take education for granted. Being able to go to school should never be a privilege. And it is so, so important to take this seriously, as others have had their books ripped from them, and rocks thrown at them so that we could all seek knowledge.