Transcript El Archivo Historico de la Municipalidad de Hidalgo del Parral

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,
The Traps of Faith, Octavio Paz
• Generalizing from “La Peor de Todas”:
“Her personal history was made of the same
perpetually fluctuating substance as the
history of her world.”--Paz.
• On film and history: Behmberg is no Stone.
• Intellectual life in the Indies
• Inquisition: “a much over-publicized and
misconceived institution.”
• Sor Juana, “first feminist of the New
World”
• The traps: what, why, and how.
Historical generalization
and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
• Intellectual life in the Indies
– confined to cities, particularly capitals
– 17th century seasoning: from chronicles to
literature, and peninsular to creole
– intellectual expression: exuberant intricacy,
formalism, allegory, allusion to authorities
• Inquisition:
“a much over-publicized and
misconceived institution.”
– Books circulated more freely
– Institution was widely supported
– Repression was rare: in 250 years, 30
executions in Lima.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1651-95
• on love:
“Who thankless flees me,
I with love pursue;
Who loving follows me,
I thankless flee:
To him who spurns my love,
I bend the knee.”
• on gender:
“If Aristotle
had done some cooking,
he would have written more.”
• a rationalist passion
for knowledge:
“...just to see if by studying,
I might grow less ignorant.”
• on method: “...the
expositors are like an open
hand and the ecclesiastics like a
closed fist.”
“First feminist of the New World”
• Course text, 238-39: “reason and emotion”,
“science and revelation”, fame and envy
• Paz emphasizes feminism, as well:
– a nun, an intellectual, a woman
– misogyny of church authorities
– reason, observation, and science
• Reason:
“If a trained hand does not prevent the
foliage of the tree from becoming too dense, its
wild tangle will rob the fruit of its substance.”
• Gender:
(to St. Catherine of Alexandria):
“There in Egypt, all the sages
by a woman were convinced
that gender is not the essence
in matters of intelligence.”
Marquis de Mancera,
Viceroy of New Spain, 1660-64
• First (of 6) viceregal
patron of Sor Juana
• Sponsored public
exam of Sor.
Juana’s genius by
40 men of letters
• Marchioness of
Mancera, the first
of 5 vicereinas to
support Sor Juana
• Friend of Sor Juana’s
confessor (-1695)
Archbishop Fray Payo Enriquez
de Rivera, Viceroy 1673-80
• Crown and clergy
united in same person
• Arranged commission
for Sor Juana to write
Allegorical Neptune
for triumphal arch
(1680)
• Sor Juana enjoyed
vice-regal patronage,
1660 - 1693 (during
terms of 8 viceroys)
Conde de Paredes, Viceroy of New
Spain, 1680-86 (d. 1693)
• Crown vs. clergy:
Viceroy
Paredes vs. Archbishop
Aguiar y Seijas
– secular entertainments
– protocol
• Sor Juana to her patron,
Countess of Paredes:
“To women you bring great esteem
to learned men, acute offense,
by proving gender plays no part
in matters of intelligence.”
• With his death in 1693, Sor
Juana lost her most
important ally
First Book
• Published 1689 in
Madrid
• Dedicated to
Condesa de
Paredes, patroness
of 2nd vol. (Seville,
1692).
• Continued their
correspondence at
least until 1693…
• Circles of women
were important.
Antonio Nuñes de Miranda, S.J.
(d. 1695), confessor to Sor. Juana
1660s-1683 (!), 1693-95
• Censor to the Inquisition
for 32 years
• humble, chaste
misogynist: dressed like
a pauper; thankfully
near-sighted (so as not to
see women)
• Mortification: scourged
himself “...73 times in
reverence for the 73
years of the Blessed
Virgin’s life…”
Archbishop Francisco Aguiar y
Seijas, 1681-1698
• Noted for his religiosity,
piety, charity, prudery
mortifications, and
misogyny.
• “…and then he burned
the books of plays.”
• “…he tried to avoid
even a glimpse of a
woman’s face.”
“Why, people do you persecute me so?
In what do I offend, when but inclined
with worldly beauties to adorn my mind,
and not my mind on beauty to bestow?”
-- SJIC
Conde de Galve,
Viceroy 1688-1696
• Condesa de Galve also
supported Sor Juana
• Conde--authority
weakened by riot of
June, 1692
• Fearful of divine
retribution, acquiesced
to Aguiar y Seijas’
“reforms”
Sor. Juana’s signature
in her own blood, 8 Feb. 1694
• “I, the worst of all”--a
common form of selfvilification in 17th c.
• “And as a sign of how
greatly I wish to spill
my blood in defense of
these truths, I sign with
it.”
• silver jubilee of her
profession, not the
“renunciation” of her
studies or thinking
Traps of Faith: What, Why, How
• Bishop of Puebla on Sor Juana:
“What
a pity that so rich a mind should so
debase itself in petty matters of this
world.”
• Why: the “defect” of being a woman
• How:
–The Reply
–The Riot
–Loss of patronage
• Did she recant?
library?
Or just give away the
Don Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora
• Creole savant
• Intellectual
companion of Sor.
Juana
• The name and fame
of “Mother Juana
Inés de la Cruz will
only end with the
world.”
End