Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz could be considered one of the most careless rhetoricians of all time. Careless comes off as negative, but in this context careless is meant to be positive. Sor Juana de la Cruz' path in life seems that of a fairytale for a girl from her time. How she wasn’t murdered for her writing and public feministic views is still a mystery? But nonetheless, her story is one of the greatest. 

Sor Juana was born out of wedlock to her parents in 1651; something that in those days would have been considered unfortunate. But lucky for Sor Juana her natural intellect from a very young age led her parents to sending the child to live with her family in Mexico City. During her time with her extended relatives, she gained the eyes of many important people in the city. The Viceroy noticed Sor Juana’s knowledge and eventually asked her to be the lady in waiting. She agreed and began her stay with the viceroy. He had Sor Juana’s knowledge tested by over forty scholars, but when it came time for the marriage, she pleasantly declined stating “She did not want to lose her freedom to study” and began her path in becoming a nun.

Sor Juana became a nun at the Convent of Santa Paula in Mexico City where she took her vows and began work. This was the perfect setup for Sor Juana and was exactly what she wanted- it provided her with everything she needed to continue her studies in peace. Sor Juana was able to write and publish her work in Spain during this time and her work was phenomenal. Sor Juana's works were all writings that in her time were thought of as "voodoo" to be coming from a female. She wrote about hard topics from feministic viewpoints, making her works not only rare but dangerous. The power of her writing was immense as she wrote honestly, while also being respectful. In reading these, it invokes a sense of adrenaline to think of the time these words were thought out. Many women thought these things, but no one had the courage to speak them like Sor Juana. Most of her work was far out in theory for women at this time causing Sor Juana to leave the school. Shortly after, a bishop wrote a critique of her work. This infuriated Sor Juana and in defense, she wrote a response to the bishop with largely feminist views. The pressure and eyes were on Sor Juana at this point causing her to sell all of her work and go back to the school to renew her vows. Sor Juana worked as a nun until an epidemic flooded the country causing her death in 1695.