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{{Short description|Mexican writer, philosopher, composer and poet (1648–1695)}}
{{redirect|Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|the telenovela|Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (TV series)|the BRT station|Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Mexibús)}}
{{family name hatnote|de Asbaje|Ramírez de Santillana|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Juana Inés de la Cruz
| image            = Sor Juana by Miguel Cabrera.png
| imagesize        = 250px
| caption          = Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by [[Miguel Cabrera (painter)|Miguel Cabrera]]
| birth_name       = Juana Ramírez de Asbaje
| birth_date       = 12 November 1648
| birth_place      = [[Tepetlixpa|San Miguel Nepantla]],<br />[[New Spain]] <br />(near modern [[Tepetlixpa]], Mexico)
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1695|4|17|1648|11|12|df=yes}}
| death_place      = [[Mexico City]], New Spain
| occupation       = Nun, poet, writer, philosopher, musician composer
| movement         = [[Baroque]], ''[[Culteranismo]]''
| relatives        = 
| signature        = Firma de Juana Inés de la Cruz.jpg
| honorific_suffix = [[O.S.H.]]
| honorific_prefix = [[Nun|Sor]]
| notable_works    = {{ubl|Carta Atenagorica |First Dream|Pawns of a House|Satira Filosofica}}
| language         = Spanish, [[Nahuatl]], [[Latin]]
| years_active     = ~1660 to ~1693
| period           = 17th century [[Nun]]
| resting_place    = Convent of San Jerónimo, Mexico City
| pseudonym        = Juana Inés de la Cruz
| education        = [[Self taught]] until the age of twenty-one. (1669)
| native_name      = Juana de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana
}}

'''Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana''', better known as [[Nun|Sor]] '''Juana Inés de la Cruz'''{{efn|English: Sister Joan Agnes of the Cross}} {{post-nominals|list=[[Hieronymites|OSH]]}} (12 November 1648 – 17 April 1695),<ref name="Gobernación">{{Cite web|last=Gobernación|first=Secretaría de|title=Conoce más acerca de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|url=http://www.gob.mx/segob/articulos/conoce-mas-acerca-de-sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz?idiom=es|access-date=2021-07-01|website=gob.mx|language=es}}</ref> <!-- Some sources indicate a birth date in 1648, but consensus seems to be 1651. Please don't change. -->was a [[Hieronymites|Hieronymite]] [[nun]] and a Hispanic<ref>{{Cite book |last=Donoso Rodríguez |first=Ed. Miguel |title=Mujer y literatura femenina en la América virreinal |publisher=Universidad de Navarra |quote=La poetisa mexicana tuvo una formación académica y bagaje cultural bastante amplio y diverso.}}</ref> writer, philosopher, composer and poet of the [[Baroque]] period, nicknamed "The Tenth Muse", "The Mexican Phoenix",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=Stuart |title=The library: an illustrated history |last2=Davis |first2=Donald G. |last3=Basbanes |first3=Nicholas A. |last4=Booth |first4=Austin |date=2019 |publisher=Skyhorse Pub |isbn=978-1-5107-3332-9 |location=New York, NY Chicago}}</ref> and "The Phoenix of America" by her contemporary critics.<ref name="Gobernación" /> She was also a student of science. She was among the main contributors to the [[Spanish Golden Age]], alongside [[Juan de Espinosa Medrano]], [[Juan Ruiz de Alarcón]] and [[Inca Garcilaso de la Vega|Garcilaso de la Vega "''el Inca"'']], and is considered one of the most important female writers in [[Spanish-language literature|Spanish language literature]] and [[Mexican literature]]. 

Sor Juana's significance to different communities and has varied greatly across time, having been presented as a candidate for [[Catholic saint]]hood; a symbol of [[Mexican nationalist|Mexican nationalism]]; and a paragon of [[freedom of speech]], [[women's rights]], and [[sexual diversity]], making her a figure of great controversy and debate to this day.

==Life==

===Early life===
Juana was born in [[Tepetlixpa|San Miguel Nepantla]] (presently ''Nepantla de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz'') near [[Mexico City]] as the [[illegitimate child|illegitimate]] daughter of [[Don (honorific)|Don]] Pedro Manuel de Asuaje y Vargas-Machuca (1602-1680), a Spanish navy captain from the [[Canary Islands]] involved in colonial transatlantic shipping and trade, and Doña Isabel Ramírez de Santillana y Rendón (1626-1690), a distinguished [[Criollo people|criolla]], whose father leased the ''[[Hacienda]] de Panoayan'', near Mexico City.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kennett|first=Frances|date=May 2003|title=Sor Juana and the Guadalupe|journal=Feminist Theology|volume=11|issue=3|pages=307–324|doi=10.1177/096673500301100305|s2cid=144363376}}</ref>[[File:MainHousePanoaya.JPG|thumb|280x280px|[[Hacienda]] of Panoayan in [[Amecameca]], residence of the '''Ramírez de Santillana''' family.]]There are two different baptism registrations that have been attributed to her, one under the name of "Juana" in 1648, and another one under the name of "Inés" in 1651, still a matter of academic research and debate.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Arenal|first1=Electa|last2=Powell|first2=Amanda|date=1993|title=A Life Without and Within: Juana Ramírez / Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648/51-1695)|journal=Women's Studies Quarterly|volume=21|issue=1/2|pages=67–80 |jstor=40003874}}</ref> There is, nevertheless, agreement that she was one of the three children that Doña Isabel Ramírez de Santillana had out of wedlock with Don Pedro de Asuaje. Since Sor Juana's father left her life at an early age and remained largely unknown to her,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Project Vox Team |title=Sor Juana (1648-1695) |url=https://projectvox.org/sor-juana-1648-1695/ |access-date=2025-02-12}}</ref> Sor Juana's infancy occurred entirely around her mother's family in the ''hacienda'' of Panaoyan, in [[Amecameca]], leased by her maternal grandfather, and home to the ample Ramírez de Santillana family.<ref name="aap">[https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/sor-juana-in%C3%A9s-de-la-cruz "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz", Academy of American Poets]</ref> Among her relatives, several women with the name "Inés" have been noted, including her grandmother Inés de Brenes, her maternal-aunt Inés Ramírez de Santillana,  and her first-cousin Inés de Brenes y Mendoza, married to a grandson of [[:es:Antonio de Saavedra Guzmán|Antonio de Saavedra Guzmán]], the first ever published [[Americas|American]]-born poet.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Cervantes|first=Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de|title=La Fe de bautismo de "Inés hija de la iglesia" de Sor Juana|url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/la-fe-de-bautismo-de-ines-hija-de-la-iglesia-de-sor-juana-774883/html/7661e678-bc4d-467d-ab62-6756ac7edbb0_2.html|access-date=2021-09-21|website=Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes|language=es}}</ref>

Later described as a [[child prodigy]], Sor Juana was educated at home at the ''Hacienda de Papaya'', being exposed to [[Latin]] and [[Nahuatl]],<ref name=townsend/> and learning philosophy, and mathematics. She was given free access to her grandfather's private library, the wide array of which lended itself well to her self-taught studies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=Stuart |title=The library: an illustrated history |last2=Davis |first2=Donald G. |last3=Basbanes |first3=Nicholas A. |last4=Booth |first4=Austin |date=2019 |publisher=Skyhorse Pub |isbn=978-1-5107-3332-9 |location=New York, NY Chicago}}</ref><ref name=":5">Murray, Stuart (2009). The Library: An Illustrated History. Chicago: [[Skyhorse Publishing]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8389-0991-1}}.</ref> 

During her childhood, Inés often hid in the ''hacienda'' chapel to read her grandfather's books from the adjoining library, something forbidden to girls. By the age of three, she had learned how to read and write Latin. By the age of five, she reportedly could do accounts. At age eight, she composed a poem on the [[Eucharist]].<ref name="Appletons" /> By adolescence, Inés had mastered [[Logic|Greek logic]], and at age thirteen she was teaching Latin to young children. For long it was thought that she also learned Nahuatl, an [[Aztec]] language, and wrote short poems in that language as a child, but this has been challenged by more recent scholarship.<ref name=townsend>{{cite journal |last=Townsend |first=Camilla |year=2015 |title=Sor Juana's Nahuatl |journal=Le Verger |volume=VIII |url=http://cornucopia16.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Camilla-Townsend1.pdf |pages=1–11}}</ref>

In 1664, at the age of 16, Inés was sent to live in Mexico City. She asked her mother's permission to disguise herself as a male student so that she could enter the university there, without success. Without the ability to obtain a formal education, Juana continued her studies privately. Her family's influential position had gained her the position of [[lady-in-waiting]] at the colonial [[viceroy]]'s court,<ref name=":5" /> where she came under the tutelage of the [[Viceroy|Vicereine]] ''Donna'' [[:es:Leonor Carreto|Eleonora del Carretto]], a member of one of Italy's most prominent families, and wife of the Viceroy of New Spain Don [[Antonio Sebastián de Toledo]], [[Marquis of Mancera]]. The viceroy Marquis de Mancera, wishing to test the learning and intelligence of the 17-year-old, invited several theologians, jurists, philosophers, and poets to a meeting, during which she had to answer many questions unprepared and explain several difficult points on various scientific and literary subjects. The manner in which she acquitted herself astonished all present and greatly increased her reputation. Her literary accomplishments garnered her fame throughout New Spain. She was much admired in the viceregal court, and she received several proposals of marriage, which she declined.<ref name="Appletons" />

After joining a [[nunnery]] in 1667, Sor Juana began writing poetry and prose dealing with such topics as love, women's rights, and religion.<ref name="A&E Television Networks">{{cite web |title=Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Biography |url=http://www.biography.com/people/sor-juana-in%C3%A9s-de-la-cruz-38178 |access-date=11 March 2017 |website=Biography.com |publisher=A&E Television Networks}}</ref><ref name="mexonline.com">{{cite web |title=Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz, famous women of Mexico |url=http://www.mexonline.com/history-sorjuana.htm |access-date=11 March 2017 |website=Mexonline.com}}</ref> She turned her nun's quarters into a [[Salon (gathering)|salon]], visited by New Spain's female intellectual elite, including ''Doña'' Eleonora del Carreto, Marchioness of Mancera, and ''Doña'' Maria Luisa [[House of Gonzaga|Gonzaga]], Countess of Paredes de Nava, both [[Vicereine|''Vicereines'']] of the New Spain, among others.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stephanie |first1=Merrim |title=Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sor-Juana-Ines-de-la-Cruz |access-date=11 March 2017 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Her criticism of [[misogyny]] and the hypocrisy of men led to her condemnation by the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Puebla de los Ángeles|Bishop of Puebla]],<ref name=":18" /> and in 1694 she was forced to sell her collection of books and focus on charity towards the poor.<ref name=":10" /> She died the next year, having caught the plague while treating her sisters.<ref name=":1" />

== Religious life and name change ==
[[File:Claustro de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz DSC 1099 (33088891783).jpg|thumb|Inside the Hieronymite cloister where Sor Juana spent much of her life.]]
[[File:A piece of Juana’s work..jpg|alt=Manuscript page from "Libro de professiones y elecciones de prioras y vicarias del Convento de San Gerónimo", 1586–1713, which Sor Juana signed in ink and her own blood.|thumb|Manuscript page from ''Libro de professiones y elecciones de prioras y vicarias del Convento de San Gerónimo'', 1586–1713, which Sor Juana signed in ink and her own blood.]]
In 1667, Inés entered the [[Monastery]] of St. Joseph, a community of the [[Discalced Carmelites|Discalced Carmelite nuns]], as a [[postulant]], where she remained but a few months. Later, in 1669, she entered the monastery of the [[Hieronymites|Hieronymite nuns]], which had more relaxed rules, where she changed her name to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, probably in reference to [[Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez|Sor Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez]] who was a Spanish nun whose intellectual accomplishments earned her one of the few dispensations for women to preach the gospel. Another potential namesake was [[John of the Cross|Saint Juan de la Cruz]], one of the most accomplished authors of the Spanish Baroque. She chose to become a nun so that she could study as she wished since she wanted "to have no fixed occupation which might curtail my freedom to study."<ref name="Biography" />

In the convent and perhaps earlier, Sor Juana became intimate friends with Don [[Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora]], who visited her in the convent's locutorio.<ref name=":1" /> She stayed cloistered in the Convent of Santa Paula of the Hieronymite in Mexico City from 1669 until her death in 1695, and there she studied, wrote, and collected a large library of books. The Viceroy and Vicereine of New Spain became her patrons; they supported her and had her writings published in Spain.<ref name="Biography" /> She addressed some of her poems to paintings of her friend and patron [[María Luisa Manrique de Lara y Gonzaga]], daughter of [[Vespasiano I Gonzaga|Vespasiano Gonzaga]], Duca di Guastala, Luzara e Rechiolo, and Inés María Manrique, 9th Countess de Paredes, whom she also addressed as Lísida.{{fact|date=October 2025}}

[[File:Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Juan de Miranda).jpg|thumb|220px|First known extant portrait of Sor Juana ({{ca|1713}}), by Juan de Miranda ({{ca|1667}}–1714). This is believed to be the second of two similar portraits, the first version (now lost) dated {{ca|1700}}.<ref name="austin">{{cite web |url=https://notevenpast.org/hidden-in-plain-sight-1/ |title=Hidden in Plain Sight: Reflections On A Mexican Baroque Enigma |first1=Susan |last1=Deans-Smith |first2=John W. |last2=Smith |date=2021-10-13 |accessdate=2025-10-24 }}</ref>]]
In November 1690, the bishop of Puebla, [[Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz]] published, under the pseudonym of Sor Filotea, and without her permission, Sor Juana's critique of a 40-year-old sermon by [[Father António Vieira]], a Portuguese [[Jesuits|Jesuit]] preacher.<ref name=":18">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1072584/Manuel-Fernandez-de-Santa-Cruz|title=Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz, bishop of Puebla|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2016-04-15}}</ref> Although Sor Juana's intentions for the work, called ''[[:es:Carta atenagórica|Carta Atenagórica]]'' are left to interpretation, many scholars have opted to interpret the work as a challenge to the [[Hierarchy of the Catholic Church|hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Routledge research companion to the works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz |last1=Bergmann |first1=Emilie L. |last2=Schlau |first2=Stacey |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-4724-4407-3 |oclc=1011112232 }}</ref>

Along with ''[[:es:Carta atenagórica|Carta Atenagórica]]'', the bishop also published his own letter in which he said she should focus on religious instead of secular studies.<ref name="Biography">{{Cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/sor-juana-inés-de-la-cruz-38178|title=Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Biography|website=Biography.com|publisher=A&E Television Networks|access-date=2016-04-15}}</ref> He published his criticisms to use them to his advantage against the priest, and while he agreed with her criticisms, he believed that as a woman, she should devote herself to prayer and give up her writings.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart|title=Library : an illustrated history.|date=2012|publisher=W W Norton|location=New York|isbn=978-1-61608-453-0|page=139}}</ref>

In response to her critics, Sor Juana wrote a letter, ''Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz'' (''Reply to Sister Philotea''),<ref>{{cite web|title=Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|url=http://www.ensayistas.org/antologia/XVII/sorjuana/sorjuana1.htm|website=www.ensayistas.org}}</ref> in which she defended [[Education for women|women's right to formal education]].<ref name=":13" /> She also advocated for women's right to serve as intellectual authorities, not only through the act of writing, but also through the publication of their writing.<ref name=":13" /> By putting women, specifically older women, in positions of authority, Sor Juana argued, women could educate other women. Resultingly, Sor Juana argued, this practice could also avoid potentially dangerous situations involving male teachers in intimate settings with young female students.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=Stuart |title=The library: an illustrated history |last2=Davis |first2=Donald G. |last3=Basbanes |first3=Nicholas A. |last4=Booth |first4=Austin |date=2019 |publisher=Skyhorse Pub |isbn=978-1-5107-3332-9 |location=New York, NY Chicago}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart A.P.|title=The library : an illustrated history|date=2009|publisher=[[Skyhorse Pub.]]|location=New York, NY|isbn=9781602397064|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr}}</ref> In 1691, she was reprimanded and ordered to stop writing after the exposure of a private letter in which she wrote of the right of women to education.<ref name=":5" />

In addition to her status as a woman in a self-prescribed position of authority, Sor Juana's radical position made her an increasingly controversial figure. She famously remarked by quoting an Aragonese poet and echoing St. [[Teresa of Ávila]]: "One can perfectly well philosophize while cooking supper."<ref>{{cite web|title=Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Mexican poet and scholar|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sor-Juana-Ines-de-la-Cruz#ref959|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=26 February 2024 }}</ref> In response, [[Francisco de Aguiar y Seijas]], [[Archbishop of Mexico]] joined other high-ranking officials in condemning Sor Juana's "waywardness." In addition to opposition she received for challenging the [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] structure of the [[Catholic Church]], Sor Juana was repeatedly criticized for believing that her writing could achieve the same philanthropic goals as community work.<ref name=":13" />

By 1693, Sor Juana seemingly ceased writing to avoid risking official [[censure]]. Although there is no undisputed evidence of her renouncing her writing, there are documents showing her agreeing to undergo [[penance]].<ref name=":10">{{Cite web|url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/enlightenment-revolution/a/cabrera-portrait-of-sor-juana-ins-de-la-cruz|title=Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|website=Khan Academy|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}}</ref> Her name is affixed to such a document in 1694, but the tone of the supposed handwritten [[Penitential psalm|penitentials]] is in rhetorical and autocratic, in contrast to her normally lyrical style. One is signed "''Yo, la Peor de Todas''" ("I, the worst of all women").<ref name=":10" /> She is said to have sold all her books,<ref name="Appletons">{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Cruz, Juana Inés de la|year=1900}}</ref> then an extensive library of more than 4,000 volumes, as well as her musical and scientific instruments. Other sources report that her defiance toward the Church led to the confiscation of all of her books and instruments, although the bishop himself agreed with the contents of her letters.<ref name="Murray 2009">{{cite book|last=Murray|first=Stuart|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|year=2009|publisher=[[Skyhorse Publishing]]|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-8389-0991-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr}}</ref>

Of more than one hundred unpublished works,<ref name=":16">{{Cite book|title=Nepantla as her place in the middle : multilingualism and multiculturalism in the writings of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|last=Gomez, Nicole Lynn|oclc=974910460}}</ref> only a few of Sor Juana's writings have survived, which are known as the ''Complete Works''. According to [[Octavio Paz]], her writings were saved by the [[vicereine]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Sor Juana, Or, The Traps of Faith|last=Paz|first=Octavio|date=1988|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674821064}}</ref>

On {{start date and age|1695|4|17|df=y|paren=y}}, at the age of just 46, Sor Juana died after ministering to other nuns stricken during a [[plague (disease)|plague]]. Sigüenza y Góngora delivered the eulogy at her funeral.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Baroque Times in Old Mexico: Seventeenth-Century Persons, Places, and Practices|last=Leonard|first=Irving A.|orig-date=1959|date=1966|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=9780472061105|edition=12th|pages=191–192|language=en}}</ref><section end="Modern" criticism="" of="" the="" catholic="" church="" transclusion="" />

==Works==
[[File:Libro de obras poéticas de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1693) en el MIB (1).jpg|thumb|''Libro de obras poéticas de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz'' (1693) in the Museo Internacional del Barroco]]

=== Poetry ===

====''First Dream''====
''First Dream'', a long philosophical and descriptive ''[[Silva (Spanish strophe)|silva]]'' (a poetic form combining verses of 7 and 11 syllables), deals with the shadow of night beneath which a person falls asleep in the midst of quietness and silence.<ref>In the final verse we come to know the person is Sor Juana herself because she uses the first person, feminine.</ref> There night and day animals participate, either dozing or sleeping, all urged to silence and rest by Harpocrates. The person's body ceases its ordinary operations,<ref>Sor Juana is inspired by Fray Luis de Granada's ''Introducción al Símbolo de la Fe'', where an extended verbal description of physiological functions is the closest match to what is found in the poem.</ref> which are described in physiological and symbolical terms, ending with the activity of the imagination as an image-reflecting apparatus: the [[Pharos]]. From this moment, her soul, in a dream, sees itself free at the summit of her own intellect; in other words, at the apex of a pyramid-like mount, which aims at God and is luminous.<ref>It must be understood that this light of intellect is Grace given by God. [https://poemascortosweb.com/ poemas cortos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820004133/https://poemascortosweb.com/ |date=2018-08-20 }}</ref>

There, perched like an eagle, she contemplates the whole creation,<ref>This pinnacle of contemplation is clearly preceded by Saint Augustine (''Confessions'', X, VIII, 12), who also inspired Petrarch's letter about the contemplation of the world created by God from the summit of a mountain (in his letter ''Familiares'', IV, 1)</ref> but fails to comprehend such a sight in a single concept. Dazzled, the soul's intellect faces its own shipwreck, caused mainly by trying to understand the overwhelming abundance of the universe, until reason undertakes that enterprise, beginning with each individual creation, and processing them one by one, helped by the [[Categories (Aristotle)|ten categories of Aristotle]].<ref name="ru.ffyl.unam.mx">Olivares Zorrilla, Rocío. "The Eye of Imagination. Emblems in the Baroque Poem The Dream, by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz", [http://ru.ffyl.unam.mx:8080/handle/10391/1405 ''Emblematica. An Interdisciplinary Journal for Emblem Studies'', volume 18 (2010): 111–61: 115–17.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061353/http://ru.ffyl.unam.mx:8080/handle/10391/1405 |date=2016-03-04 }}</ref>

The soul cannot get beyond questioning herself about the traits and causes of a fountain and a flower, intimating perhaps that his method constitutes a useless effort, since it must take into account all the details, accidents, and mysteries of each being. By that time, the body has consumed all its nourishment, and it starts to move and wake up, soul and body are reunited. The poem ends with the Sun overcoming Night in battle between luminous and dark armies, and with the poet's awakening.<ref name="ru.ffyl.unam.mx" />

==== Love poetry ====
Sor Juana's first volume of poetry, {{lang|es|Inundación castálida}}, was published in Spain by the Vicereine Maria Luisa Manrique de Lara y
Gonzága, Countess of Paredes, Marquise de la Laguna.<ref>Juana Inés de la Cruz, Joan Larkin, and Jaime Manrique. (2003) Sor Juana's Love Poems. University of Wisconsin Press. 9–11.</ref> Many of her poems dealt with the subject of love and sensuality. Colombian-American translator [[Jaime Manrique]] described her poetry thus: "her love poems are expressions of a complex and ambivalent modern psyche, and because they are so passionate and ferocious that when we read them we feel consumed by the naked intensity she achieves."<ref>Juana Inés de la Cruz, Joan Larkin, and Jaime Manrique.(2003) Sor Juana's Love Poems. University of Wisconsin Press. 9–11.</ref> One of Sor Juana's sonnets:

{| cellpadding="5" style="margin:1em auto;"
|-
! Soneto 173 !! Sonnet 173 in [[Edith Grossman]]'s 2014 translation<ref name="Grossman">{{Cite book|title=Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Works|last=Grossman|first=Edith|year=2014|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-3932-4607-0}}</ref> 
|-
| <poem> <div style="text-align: center;">''Efectos muy penosos de amor, y que no por grandes se igualan con las prendas de quien le causa''</div>
¿Vesme, Alcino, que atada a la cadena		
de Amor, paso en sus hierros aherrojada,		
mísera esclavitud, desesperada		
de libertad, y de consuelo ajena?		

¿Ves de dolor y angustia el alma llena,	 
de tan fieros tormentos lastimada,		
y entre las vivas llamas abrasada		
juzgarse por indigna de su pena?		

¿Vesme seguir sin alma un desatino		
que yo misma condeno por extraño?	 	
¿Vesme derramar sangre en el camino		

siguiendo los vestigios de un engaño?		
¿Muy admirado estás? Pues ves, Alcino:		
más merece la causa de mi daño.</poem> 
| <poem> <div style="text-align: center;">''The very distressing effects of love, but no matter how great, they do not equal the qualities of the one who causes them''</div>
Do you see me, Alcino, here am I caught
in the chains of love, shackled in its irons,
a wretched slave despairing of her freedom,
and so far, so distant from consolation?

Do you see my soul filled with pain and anguish,
wounded by torments so savage, so fierce,
burned in the midst of living flames and judging
herself unworthy of her castigation?

Do you see me without a soul, pursuing
a folly I myself condemn as strange?
Do you see me bleeding along the way

as I follow the trail of an illusion?
Are you very surprised? See then, Alcino:
the cause of harm to me deserves much more.
</poem>
|}

=== Hombres Necios (Sátira Filosófica) or You foolish men (Philosophical satire) ===
[[File:Retrato de sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Convento de Santa Paula (Sevilla).jpg|thumb|220px|Convent of Santa Paula ([[Seville]])]]Sor Juana's ''Hombres Necios (Foolish men)'', written in the 1680s, is among the first [[Feminist literature|proto-feminist literary works]] in the Americas that explores the [[double standard]]s of men while also accusing men of trying to diminish a woman's honor.<ref name="nyhistory.org">Loggans, Regan. [https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/juana-ines-de-la-cruz-feminist-poet-of-new-spain "Teaching Women's History: Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz, Feminist Poet of ..."], ''Teaching Women's History: Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz, Feminist Poet of New Spain'', 22 May 2018.</ref> During seventeenth-century Mexico the society was heavily patriarchal, but Sor Juana managed to publish this work, which added to the backlash she would eventually face from the Church.<ref name="nyhistory.org" /> Yet Sor Juana was driven by a conviction for women's education and was determined to apply her writing to challenge those who believed a woman's intellectual abilities were irrelevant.<ref name="nyhistory.org" />

Erin Elizabeth details how Sor Juana structured the poem to be centered on accusations onto men that elevate the meaning behind the poem.<ref name=":19" />  Sor Juana emphasizes the male irrationality with a man's ability and behavior to harm a woman by deeming her as "impure" by ruining her honor and reputation.<ref name=":19" /> Sor Juana does this by casting the blame on men arguing that they are the root cause of their mistakes and create problems for women to avoid their own mistakes.<ref name=":19" /> Elizabeth argues that by utilizing impurity and the concept of [[Fall from grace (disambiguation)|"fall from grace"]], ''Hombres Necios'' implores the double standards men use on women that creates a path for women leaving them in situations they cannot win.<ref name=":19">Elizabeth, Erin. "Timeless Feminist Resistance Defying Dominant Discourses in Sor Juana's 'Hombres necios' and Margaret Atwood's 'A Women's Issue{{'"}}. ''The Oswald Review''. 2010</ref> While also including the names of [[Thaïs (saint)|Thais]] and [[Lucretia]] along with the concept of prostitution  to add on how men use women and leave them helpless with nothing but the blame and hatred.<ref name=":19" />

Hombres necios explored the idea of why women were frequently held guilty for the sins that men incited onto them.<ref name="sites.lsa.umich.edu">"Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz (Mexico, 1648–1695) - University of Michigan". ''Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz (Mexico, 1648–1695)'', David Fyre, https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/davidfrye/wp-content/uploads/sites/281/2015/07/Sor-Juana-sample.pdf .</ref> Sor Juana expresses her voice through the use of the [[Baroque]] literary style, which was prevalent at her time, in a manner that can be understood.<ref name="sites.lsa.umich.edu" /> Today it is often seen as a pro-feminist love letter, and even in a [[Machismo|"machista"]] Latin American society it has been popular among the population.<ref name="sites.lsa.umich.edu" />
{|
!Hombres Necios, Satira Filosofica Poema 92<ref name="Fyre">{{Cite web |last=Fyre |first=David |date=2023-03-07 |title=Poema 92. Sátira filosófica |url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dfrye/SORJUANA.html |access-date=2023-03-07 |website=www-personal.umich.edu}}</ref>
!You mulish men, Philosophical Satire Poem 92
Translated by David Frye<ref name="Fyre" />
|-
|Hombres necios que acusáis
a la mujer sin razón,

sin ver que sois la ocasión

de lo mismo que culpáis:

si con ansia sin igual

solicitáis su desdén,

¿por qué queréis que obren bien

si las incitáis al mal?

Combatís su resistencia

y luego, con gravedad,

decís que fue livianidad

lo que hizo la diligencia.

Parecer quiere el denuedo

de vuestro parecer loco,

al niño que pone el coco

y luego le tiene miedo.

Queréis, con presunción necia,

hallar a la que buscáis,

para pretendida, Thais,

y en la posesión, Lucrecia.

¿Que humor puede ser más raro

que el que, falto de consejo,

él mismo empaña el espejo,

y siente que no esté claro?

Con el favor y el desdén

tenéis condición igual,

quejándoos, si os tratan mal,

burlándoos, si os quieren bien.

Opinión, ninguna gana;

pues la que más se recata,

si no os admite, es ingrata,

y si os admite, es liviana.

Siempre tan necios andáis

que, con desigual nivel,

a una culpáis por cruel

y a otra por fácil culpáis.

¿Pues cómo ha de estar templada

la que vuestro amor pretende,

si la que es ingrata, ofende,

y la que es fácil, enfada?

Mas, entre el enfado y pena

que vuestro gusto refiere,

bien haya la que no os quiere

y quejaos en hora buena.

Dan vuestras amantes penas

a sus libertades alas,

y después de hacerlas malas

las queréis hallar muy buenas.

¿Cuál mayor culpa ha tenido

en una pasión errada:

la que cae de rogada,

o el que ruega de caído?

¿O cuál es más de culpar,

aunque cualquiera mal haga:

la que peca por la paga,

o el que paga por pecar?

Pues ¿para qué os espantáis

de la culpa que tenéis?

Queredlas cual las hacéis

o hacedlas cual las buscáis.

Dejad de solicitar,

y después, con más razón,

acusaréis la afición

de la que os fuere a rogar.

Bien con muchas armas fundo

que lidia vuestra arrogancia,

pues en promesa e instancia

juntáis diablo, carne y mundo.
|You mulish men, accusing
woman without reason,

not seeing you occasion

the very wrong you blame:

since you, with craving unsurpassed,

have sought for their disdain,

why do you hope for their good works

when you urge them on to ill?

You assail all their resistance,

then, speaking seriously,

you say it was frivolity,

forgetting all your diligence.

What most resembles the bravery

of your mad opinion

is the boy who summons the bogeyman

and then cowers in fear of him.

You hope, with mulish presumption,

to find the one you seek:

for the one you court, a Thaïs;

but possessing her, Lucrecia.

Whose humor could be odd

than he who, lacking judgment,

himself fogs up the mirror,

then laments that it's not clear?

Of their favor and their disdain

you hold the same condition:

complaining if they treat you ill;

mocking them, if they love you well.

A fair opinion no woman can win,

no matter how discreet she is;

if she won't admit you, she is mean,

and if she does, she's frivolous.

You're always so stubbornly mulish

that, using your unbalanced scale,

you blame one woman for being cruel,

the other one, for being easy.

For how can she be temperate

when you are wooing after her,

if her being mean offends you

and her being easy maddens?

Yet between the anger and the grief

that your taste recounts,

blessed the woman who doesn't love you,

and go complain for all you're worth.

Your lover's grief gives

wings to their liberties,

yet after making them so bad

you hope to find them very good.

Whose blame should be the greater

in an ill-starred passion:

she who, begged-for, falls,

or he who, fallen, begs her?

Or who deserves more blame,

though both of them do ill:

she who sins for pay,

or he who pays for sin?

So why are you so afraid

of the blame that is your own?

Love them just as you have made them,

or make them as you seek to find.

Just stop your soliciting

and then, with all the more reason,

you may denounce the infatuation

of the woman who comes to beg for you.

With all these arms, then, I have proved

that what you wield is arrogance,

for in your promises and your demands

you join up devil, flesh, and world.
|}
''<ref name="sites.lsa.umich.edu" />''

==== Dramas ====
In addition to the two comedies outlined here (''House of Desires'' [<nowiki/>[[House of Desires|Los empeños de una casa]]]) and ''Love is but a Labyrinth'' ([Amor es mas laberinto]), Sor Juana is attributed as the author of a possible ending to the comedy by Agustin de Salazar: ''The Second Celestina'' (La Segunda Celestina).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|last=Kirk Rappaport|first=Pamela|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|year=1998|isbn=978-0826410436|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sorjuanainesdela00kirk}}</ref>  In the 1990s, [[Guillermo Schmidhuber]] found a release of the comedy that contained a different ending than the otherwise known ending.  He proposed that those one thousand words were written by Sor Juana.  Some [[Literary criticism|literary critics]], such as [[Octavio Paz]],<ref>Paz, Octavio. «¿Azar o justicia», ''La segunda Celestina'', ed. Guillermo Schmidhuber. México: Vuelta, 1990, págs. 7–10.</ref> Georgina Sabat-Rivers,<ref>Georgina Sabat-Rivers, "Los problemas de La segunda Celestina" (Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 40 (1992), pp. 493–512.</ref> and [[Luis Leal (writer)|Luis Leal]]<ref>Buenos Aires: Biblioteca de textos universitarios, 1995, págs. 76–105</ref>) have accepted Sor Juana as the co-author, but others, such as [[Antonio Alatorre]]<ref>Alatorre, Antonio. «''La Segunda Celestina'' de Agustín de Salazar y Torres: ejercicio de crítica». ''Vuelta'', 46 (diciembre de 1990), págs. 46–52.</ref> and José Pascual Buxó, have refuted it.

=== Comedies ===
[[File:Claustro de Sor Juana.jpg|thumb|350px|The former [[Convent]] of [[St Jerome]] in [[Mexico City]].]]Scholars have debated the meaning of Juana's comedies. Julie Greer Johnson describes how Juana protested against the rigorously defined relationship between genders through her full-length comedies and humor. She argues that Juana recognized the negative view of women in comedy which was designed to uphold male superiority at the expense of women. By recognizing the power of laughter, Juana appropriated the purpose of humor, and used it as a socially acceptable medium with which to question notions of men and women.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Johnson|first1=Julie Greer|title=Humor in Spain's American Colonies: The Case of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|journal=Studies in American Humor|date=2000|volume=7|pages=35–47|publisher=Studies in American Humor, 2000|language=en}}</ref>

'''''Pawns of a House'''''

The work was first performed on [[October 4]], 1683, during the celebration of the Viceroy Count of Paredes' first son's birth.<ref name=":3">García Valdés, pág. 45–50.</ref>  Some critics maintain that it could have been set up for the Archbishop [[Francisco de Aguiar y Seijas]]' entrance to the capital, but this theory is not considered reliable.<ref name=":3" />

The story revolves around two couples who are in love but, by chance of fate, cannot yet be together. This [[comedy]] of errors is considered one of the most prominent works of late [[New Spanish Baroque|baroque Spanish-American]] literature.  One of its most peculiar characteristics is that the driving force in the story is a woman with a strong, decided personality who expresses her desires to a nun.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Los empeños de una casa|last=de la Cruz|first=Sor Juana Inés|publisher=Imprénta Clásica|year=1921|isbn=9781931010177|location=Madrid, España}}</ref> The protagonist of the story, Dona Leonor, fits the [[archetype]] perfectly.<ref name=":3" />

It is often considered the peak of Sor Juana's work and even the peak of all [[Mexican literature|New-Hispanic literature]]. ''Pawns of a House'' is considered a rare work in colonial Spanish-American theater due to the management of intrigue, representation of the complicated system of marital relationships, and the changes in urban life.<ref name=":3" />

'''''Love is but a Labyrinth'''''

The work premiered on February 11, 1689, during the celebration of the inauguration of the viceroyalty [[Gaspar de la Cerda, 8th Count of Galve|Gaspar de la Cerda y Mendoza]]. However, in his Essay on Psychology, Ezequiel A. Chavez mentions Fernandez del Castillo as a coauthor of this comedy.<ref name=":4">Chávez, pág. 140–142.</ref>

The plot takes on the well-known theme in [[Greek mythology]] of [[Theseus]]: a hero from [[Crete]] Island.  He fights against the [[Minotaur]] and awakens the love of [[Ariadne]] and [[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hacia una lectura contemporanea de Amor es mas laberinto|last=Palacios Sanchez|first=Refugio Amada|publisher=Universidad Veracruzana|year=1997|isbn=978-9688344460}}</ref>  Sor Juana conceived Theseus as the archetype of the baroque hero, a model also used by her fellow countryman [[Juan Ruiz de Alarcón]]. Theseus's triumph over the Minotaur does not make Theseus proud, but instead allows him to be humble.<ref name=":4" />

=== Music ===
Besides poetry and philosophy, Sor Juana was interested in science, mathematics and music. The latter represents an important aspect, not only because musicality was an intrinsic part of the poetry of the time but also for the fact that she devoted a significant portion of her studies to the theory of instrumental tuning that, especially in the Baroque period, had reached a point of critical importance. So involved was Sor Juana in the study of music, that she wrote a treatise called ''El Caracol'' (which is lost now) that sought to simplify musical notation and solve the problems that Pythagorean tuning suffered.

In the writings of Juana Inés, it is possible to detect the importance of sound. We can observe this in two ways. First of all, the analysis of music and the study of musical temperament appears in several of her poems. For instance, in the following poem, Sor Juana delves into the natural notes and the accidentals of musical notation:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Long |first1=Pamela |title=De la música un cuaderno pedís': Musical Notation in Sor Juana's Works. |journal=Bulletin of Hispanic Studies |date=December 2006 |volume=83 |issue=6 |pages=497–507|doi=10.3828/bhs.83.6.4 }}</ref>

<blockquote><poem>
Propiedad es de natura
que entre Dios y el hombre media,
y del cielo el be cuadrado
junto al be bemol de la tierra.
(Villancico 220)
</poem></blockquote>

Professor Sarah Finley<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Finley |first1=Sarah |title=Embodied Sound and Female Voice in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Canon: romance 8 and El divino Narciso |journal=Revista de Estudios Hispánicos |date=2016 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=191–216 |doi=10.1353/rvs.2016.0007|s2cid=164173642 }}</ref> argues that the visual is related with patriarchal themes, while the sonorous offers an alternative to the feminine space in the work of Sor Juana. As an example of this, Finley points out that Narciso falls in love with a voice, and not with a reflection.

===Other notable works===

One musical work attributed to Sor Juana survives from the archive of [[Metropolital Cathedral of Guatemala|Guatemala Cathedral]]. This is a [http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/f/f3/Cru-mad.pdf 4-part villancico, ''Madre, la de los primores''].

Other works include ''Hombres Necios'' (Foolish Men), and ''The Divine Narcissus''.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote a letter to her Confessor, Antonio Núñez de Miranda, titled ''Autodefensa Espiritual (Spiritual Self-Defense)'' in 1690'','' ten years before she severs ties after sending the ''Respuesta a Sor Filotea.'' <ref name=":20">{{Cite book |last=Merrim |first=Stephanie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bm6VuMA-W3oC&dq=Juana+In%C3%A9s+de+la+Cruz+spiritual+self+defense&pg=PA11 |title=Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz |date=1999 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-2216-1 |language=en}}</ref> However, unlike the Respuesta, the ''Autodefensa'' has much more biting and frank language used. In the ''Autodefensa'', Sor Juana defends her intellectual pursuits and criticizes the restrictions placed on women's education and opportunities to pursue knowledge. She argues that women have the same rational souls as men and should be able to study and engage in intellectual pursuits. In the ''Autodefensa'' letter, Sor Juana uses this more forceful and confrontational language to reprimand and dismiss her Confessor.<ref name=":21">{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Sor Juana (1648-1695) |url=https://projectvox.org/sor-juana-1648-1695/ |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=Project Vox |language=en}}</ref> This has led scholars to suggest that the Autodefensa was a rehearsal for the arguments she would later make in the Respuesta. In both letters, Sor Juana defends her right to pursue knowledge and critiques the restrictions placed on women's intellectual development''.''<ref name=":20" /> Many of these themes were feminist in nature with one of the most notable being the right of women to be able to study intellectual pursuits. This theme is prevalent in the lines,

"But who has prohibited women private and individual studies? Do they not have a rational soul like men? Why should it then not enjoy within them the privilege of enlightenment in an education? Is it not as capable of earning God's glory and grace as yours? Why should it not be capable of such news and science, a trifle? What divine revelation, what determination of the Church, what dictate of reason made for us such a severe law?" (translated from Tapia Mendez 1993).<ref name=":21" />

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Autodefensa Espiritual and Respuesta a Sor Filotea are considered some of the most significant feminist writings of the 17th century. Her advocacy for women's intellectual rights was particularly groundbreaking, as women in her time were often restricted from pursuing academic and intellectual pursuits. Sor Juana's writings challenged patriarchal structures and called for greater gender equality and opportunities for women to pursue their passions. Sor Juana's writings were not only feminist but also expressed her thoughts on politics and religion.<ref name=":21" /> She was known for her strong defense of her beliefs and refusal to be silenced, which resulted in her being criticized by the Church and other powerful figures of her time. Despite facing backlash and opposition, Sor Juana continued to write and publish her works. Her work continues to inspire feminists and scholars today, and she is celebrated as a feminist icon and a leading voice in Latin American literature and intellectual thought. Sor Juana's writing also had a significant impact on the development of Mexican literature and culture, and she is considered a national treasure in Mexico.

== Translations and interpretations ==
[[File:Sor Juana.JPG|thumb|Monument of Sor Juana in [[Chapultepec]].]]Octavio Paz is credited with re-establishing the importance of the historic Sor Juana in modern times,<ref name=":8" /> and other scholars have been instrumental in translating Sor Juana's work to other languages. The only translations of ''Carta Atenagorica'' are found in ''Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Writings'' by Pamela Kirk Rappaport and ''The Tenth Muse: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz'' by [[Fanchon Royer]].<ref name=":15" /> Translations of Sor Juana's ''La Respuesta'' are credited to Electa Arenal and Amanda Powell, [[Edith Grossman]], [[Margaret Sayers Peden|Margaret Seyers Peden]], and Alan S. Trubeblood.<ref name=":15" /> These translations are respectively found in ''The Answer/La Respuesta, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Selected Works'', ''A Woman of Genius: The Intellectual Biography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz'' and ''Poems, Protest, and a Dream'', and ''A Sor Juana Anthology''.<ref name=":15" />

Since Sor Juana's works were rediscovered after her death,<ref name=":8" /> scholarly interpretations and translations are both abundant and contrasting.

=== Octavio Paz ===
[[Octavio Paz]] was a Mexican [[Nobel Prize]] laureate and scholar. In his 1982 book, ''[[:es:Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe|Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe]]'' (translated to English by [[Margaret Sayers Peden]] as ''Sor Juana: Or, The Traps of Faith''), Paz examines and contemplates Sor Juana's poetry and life in the context of the history of [[New Spain]], particularly focusing on the difficulties women then faced while trying to thrive in academic and artistic fields. Primarily, Paz aims to explain why Sor Juana chose to become a nun.<ref name=":7" /> In Juana Ramírez, Octavio Paz and Diane Marting find that Sor Juana's decision to become a nun stemmed from her refusal to marry; joining the convent, according to Paz and Marting, was a way for Juana to obtain authority and freedom without marrying.<ref name=":6" />

In his analyses of Sor Juana's poetry, Octavio Paz traces some of her influences to the Spanish writers of the [[Spanish Golden Age|Golden Age]] and the Hermetic tradition, mainly derived from the works of a noted [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] scholar of her era, [[Athanasius Kircher]]. Paz interprets Sor Juana's most ambitious and extensive poem, "First Dream" ("Primero Sueño"), as a representation of the desire of knowledge through a number of [[Hermeticism|hermetic symbols]], albeit transformed in her own language and skilled image-making abilities. In conclusion, Paz makes the case that Sor Juana's works were the most important body of poetic work produced in the Americas until the arrival of 19th-century figures such as [[Emily Dickinson]] and [[Walt Whitman]].<ref name=":7" />

=== Tarsicio Herrera Zapién ===
[[Tarsicio Herrera Zapién]], a classical scholar, has also devoted much of his career to the study of Sor Juana's works. Some of his publications (in Spanish) include ''Buena fe y humanismo en Sor Juana: diálogos y ensayos: las obras {{Not a typo|latinas}}: los sorjuanistas recientes'' (1984); ''[[Ramón López Velarde|López Velarde]] y sor Juana, feministas opuestos: y cuatro ensayos sobre Horacio y Virgilio en México'' (1984); ''Poemas mexicanos universales: de Sor Juana a López Velarde'' (1989) and ''Tres siglos y cien vidas de Sor Juana'' (1995).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.asale.org/academicos/tarsicio-herrera-zapien|title=Tarsicio Herrera Zapién|website=www.asale.org|language=es|access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref>

=== Feminist analyses and translations ===
[[File:Retrato de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Fray Miguel Herrera).jpg|thumb|250px|Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Friar Miguel de Herrera (1700-1789),]]
Scholars such as Scout Frewer argue that because Juana's advocacy for religious and intellectual authority would now be associated with [[feminism]], she was a [[Protofeminism|protofeminist]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Frewer|first=Scout|date=Spring 2018|title=Through the Lens of Proto-Feminist Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: An Analysis of Six Modern Feminist Perspectives|url=https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/plvsvltra/article/view/18159|journal=The Corvette|volume=4}}</ref> In the twenty-first century, [[Latin America]]n philosophers and scholars generally interpret Sor Juana as a feminist before the time of feminism.

For instance, scholars like Rachel O'Donnell argue that Sor Juana occupied a special place in between socially acceptable and socially unacceptable roles in seventeenth century Mexico. By examining Sor Juana intersectionally, they prioritize the context of [[New Spain]], specifically the influence of religion, race, and social norms, in understanding Sor Juana as a female [[Theology|theologian]] and poet.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=O'Donnell|first=Rachel|date=2015|title=Gender, Culture, and Knowledge in New Spain: Sor Juana's "To the Gentleman in Peru|journal=Women's Studies|volume=44|issue=8|pages=1114–1129|doi=10.1080/00497878.2015.1078213|s2cid=146608139}}</ref>

According to O'Donnell, in colonial Mexico, education was an undertaking reserved for men, especially activities like writing and reading.<ref name=":0" /> Consequently, scholars like Octavio Paz argue, religion became a way for women to avoid marriage. Since Sor Juana was opposed to marriage, Paz argues, entering the convent was a socially acceptable way to be a single woman in seventeenth century Mexico.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last1=Paz|first1=Octavio|last2=Marting|first2=Diane|date=October 1979|title=Juana Ramírez|journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|volume=5|issue=1|pages=80–97|doi=10.1086/493685|s2cid=225090644|issn=0097-9740}}</ref> Entering the convent also meant that Sor Juana could read and write about religion despite the barriers to formal education for women. O'Donnell argues that Sor Juana was called a rare bird because although theology was only an acceptable pursuit for men in the [[Catholic Church]], she actively studied religion.<ref name=":0" /> Sor Juana likely perceived wisdom and religion as inseparable, so she probably also believed that to follow God was to pursue wisdom.<ref name=":6" /> A third perspective suggests that considering the colonial context of New Spain and Sor Juana's background as a ''[[criolla]]'', she represented [[Colonialism|colonial]] knowledge in a way that defied colonial religious structures.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/63797.pdf|title=Iconic Mexican Women at the Threshold of a New Century|date=2018|access-date=December 7, 2019|archive-date=December 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207195302/https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/63797.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Luis Felipe Fabre criticized 'Sorjuanista' scholarship as a whole, arguing that the discourse is binary rather than complex and multilayered.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-prj-enigmas-sor-juana-other-monsters-20151223-story.html|title=Reviews: 'Enigmas' and 'Sor Juana and Other Monsters'|last=Rooney|first=Kathleen|website=chicagotribune.com|date=23 December 2015 |access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref>

==== Luis Felipe Fabre ====
{{ill|Luis Felipe Fabre|es}}, a Mexican writer and scholar, ridicules other scholars, whom he collectively calls Sorjuanistas, who idolize Sor Juana.<ref name=":17" /> In his book, ''Sor Juana and Other Monsters'', Fabre argues that the appropriation and recontextualization immanent in scholars' interpretations of Sor Juana construct Sor Juana as either a heretic or a lesbian.<ref name=":17" /> Fabre suggests that such representations constitute Sor Juana as a monstrosity or abnormality rather than as a complex woman.<ref name=":17" /> He suggests that rather than locating Sor Juana in a fixed identity, scholarship on Sor Juana should be a fluctuating and multilayered conversation.<ref name=":17" />

==== Margaret Sayers Peden ====
Margaret Sayers Peden's 1982 ''A Woman of Genius: The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz'', was the first English translation of Sor Juana's work.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=0915998157|title=Woman of Genius: The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana De LA Cruz|date=1982 |publisher=Lime Rock Press }}</ref> As well, Peden is credited for her 1989 translation of ''Sor Juana: Or, the Traps of Faith''. Unlike other translations, Peden chose to translate the title of Sor Juana's best known work, ''First Dream'', as "First I Dream" instead. Peden's use of first person instills authority in Sor Juana as an author, as a person with knowledge, in a male-dominated society.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book|title=Routledge research companion to the works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|others=Bergmann, Emilie L., 1949–, Schlau, Stacey, 1948–|isbn=978-1-317-04164-1|location=London|oclc=985840432|date = 2017-04-28}}</ref> Peden also published her English translations of Sor Juana's work in an anthology called ''Poems, Protest, and a Dream''. This work includes her response to authorities censuring her, ''La Respuesta'', and ''First Dream''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/296531/poems-protest-and-a-dream-by-sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz/9780140447033|title=Poems, Protest, and a Dream by Juana Ines de la Cruz|website=Penguin Random House Canada|language=en|access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref>

==== Electa Arenal and Amanda Powell ====
An equally valuable feminist analysis and interpretation of Sor Juana's life and work is found in ''The Answer/La Respuesta by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz'' by Electa Arenal, a Sor Juana scholar who is recognized among [[feminists]] who changed America, and Amanda Powell, a poet and translator.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Answer/LaRespuesta by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz|last1=Arenal|first1=Electa|last2=Powell|first2=Amanda|date=June 1, 2009|publisher=The Feminist Press|isbn=9781558615984|edition=2nd|location=New York}}</ref> The original publication, released in 1994 by [[The Feminist Press]], was re-released in an updated second edition in 2009, also by [[The Feminist Press]]. The bilingual publication includes poems, an annotated publication of Sor Juana's response to Church officials and her impassioned plea for education of women, analysis and a bibliography. ''The Answer'' applies a valuable gender lens to Sor Juana's writings and life.<ref name=":8">{{cite book|title=The Routledge Research Companion to the Works of Sor Juana Inéz de la Cruz|last1=Bergmann|first1=Emilie L.|last2=Schlau|first2=Stacey|date=2017|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317041641}}</ref> In their feminist analysis, Powell and Arenal translate the viewpoint of Sor Juana's writing as gender-ambiguous. Released in an updated second edition in 2009, also by The Feminist Press, the bilingual publication includes poems, an annotated publication of Sor Juana's response to Church officials and her impassioned plea for education of women, analysis and a bibliography.<ref name=":8" />

==== Theresa A. Yugar ====
[[Theresa A. Yugar]], a feminist theologian scholar in her own right, wrote her Master's and Doctoral theses on Sor Juana. Her book, ''Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Feminist Reconstruction of Biography and Text,'' discusses the life of Sor Juana through a feminist lens and analysis of her texts, ''La Respuesta'' (The Answer) and ''El Primero Sueño'' (First Dream).<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=https://feminismandreligion.com/2017/04/17/remembering-sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruzs-life-and-legacy-champion-of-universal-and-non-human-rights-november-12-164851-april-17-1695-by-theresa-a-yugar/|title=Remembering Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Life and Legacy: Champion of Universal, and Non-Human Rights November 12, 1648/51 – April 17, 1695 by Theresa A. Yugar|date=17 April 2017 }}</ref>

Yugar aims to understand why individuals in Mexico in the twenty-first century have more knowledge of Frida Kahlo than Sor Juana.<ref name=":9" /> She celebrates poet Octavio Paz for crossing national borders with his internationally acclaimed work on ''Sor Juana: Or, The Traps of Faith''. However, while Paz establishes Sor Juana's historical relevance, Yugar expands on his work to establish Sor Juana's importance in the twenty-first century.<ref name=":9" />

Yugar argues that Sor Juana is the first female bibliophile in the New World. She also argues that Sor Juana's historic focus on gender and class equality in education (the [[public sphere]]) and the household (the [[private sphere]]), in addition to her advocacy for language rights, and the connection between indigenous religious traditions and ecological protection were paramount in the seventeenth century. Today's similar advocacy ignores her primal position in that work which is currently exclusively associated with [[ecofeminism]] and [[feminist theology]].<ref name=":9" />

== Historical influence ==
[[File:Fama y obras póstumas del Fénix de México.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The first part of Sor Juana's complete works, Madrid, 1689.]]

=== Philanthropy ===
The Sor Juana Inés Services for Abused Women was established in 1993 to pay Sor Juana's dedication to helping women survivors of domestic violence forward. Renamed the Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA), the organization offers community, legal, and family support services in Spanish to Latin American women and children who have faced or are facing domestic violence.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|url=https://www.corasupport.org/about/our-story/|title=Our Story|website=CORA|date=18 January 2016|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-06|archive-date=2019-12-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206042843/https://www.corasupport.org/about/our-story/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Education ===
The San Jerónimo Convent, where Juana lived the last 27 years of her life and where she wrote most of her work is today the [[University of the Cloister of Sor Juana]] in the [[historic center of Mexico City]]. The Mexican government founded in the university in 1979.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cdmxtravel.com/en/attractions/claustro-de-sor-juana-university-siste-museum.html|title=Claustro de Sor Juana University Siste Museum · Attractions|last=CDMX|first=Secretaría de Turismo de|website=cdmxtravel.com|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05|archive-date=2019-12-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205231302/http://cdmxtravel.com/en/attractions/claustro-de-sor-juana-university-siste-museum.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Political controversy ===
While Sor Juana was a famous and controversial figure in the seventeenth century, she is also an important figure in modern times.

During renovations at the cloister in the 1970s, bones believed to be those of Sor Juana were discovered. A medallion similar to the one depicted in portraits of Juana was also found, with [[Margarita López Portillo]], the sister of President [[José López Portillo]] (1976–1982), taking possession of the relic. During the tercentennial of Sor Juana's death in 1995, a member of the Mexican congress called on Margarita López Portillo to return the medallion. Portillo returned the medallion to Congress on November 14, 1995, with the event and description of the controversy reported in ''[[The New York Times]]'' a month later. Whether or not the medallion actually belonged to Juana, the incident sparked discussions about Juana and the abuse of official power in Mexico.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/15/world/mexico-city-journal-the-poet-s-medallion-a-case-of-finders-keepers.html|title=Mexico City Journal;The Poet's Medallion: A Case of Finders Keepers?|last=DePalma|first=Anthony|date=1995-12-15|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2016-04-15|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

=== Contribution to feminism ===

==== Historic feminist movements ====
Amanda Powell locates Sor Juana as a contributor to the [[Querelle des femmes|Querelles des Femmes]], a three-century long literary debate about women.<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal|last=Powell|first=Amanda|date=2009|title=Revisiting the "Querelle" in María de San José Salazar and Juana Inés de la Cruz: Inciting Disturbances of Patriarchy|journal=Letras Femeninas|volume=35|issue=1|pages=211–232|issn=0277-4356|jstor=23023069}}</ref> Central to this early feminist debate were ideas about [[gender]] and [[sex]], and, consequently, [[misogyny]].<ref name=":14" />

Powell argues that the formal and informal networks and pro-feminist ideas of the Querelles des Femmes were important influences on Sor Juana's work, ''La Respuesta''.<ref name=":14" /> For women, Powell argues, engaging in conversation with other women was as significant as communicating through writing.<ref name=":14" /> However, while [[Teresa of Ávila]] appears in Sor Juana's ''La Respuesta'', Sor Juana makes no mention of the person who launched the debate, [[Christine de Pizan]].<ref name=":14" /> Rather than focusing on Sor Juana's engagement with other literary works, Powell prioritizes Sor Juana's position of authority in her own literary discourse. This authoritative stance not only demonstrates a direct counter to misogyny, but was also typically reserved for men.<ref name=":14" /> As well, Sor Juana's argument that ideas about women in religious hierarchies are culturally constructed, not divine, echoes ideas about the construction of gender and sex.<ref name=":14" />

==== Modern feminist movements ====
Yugar connects Sor Juana to [[Feminist movements and ideologies|feminist advocacy]] movements in the twenty-first century, such as [[religious feminism]], [[ecofeminism]], and the [[feminist movement]] in general.

Although the current religious feminist movement grew out of the [[Liberation theology|Liberation Theology]] movement of the 1970s,<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-exponent.com/latina-feminist-theology-with-theresa-a-yugar/|title=Latina Feminist Theology with Theresa A. Yugar|last=Bennett|first=April Young|date=2018-09-10|website=The Exponent|language=en|access-date=2019-12-06}}</ref> Yugar uses Sor Juana's criticism of religious law that permits only men to occupy leadership positions within the Church as early evidence of her religious feminism. Based on Sor Juana's critique of the oppressive and [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] structures of the Church of her day,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz: Feminist Reconstruction of Biography and Text|last=Yugar|first=Theresa A.|publisher=Wipf and Stock|year=2014|isbn=978-1-62564-440-4|location=Eugene, OR}}</ref> Yugar argues that Sor Juana predated current movements, like Latina Feminist Theology, that privilege Latina women's views on religion.<ref name=":11" /> She also cites modern movements such as the Roman Catholic Women Priest Movement, the Women's Ordination Conference, and the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual, all of which also speak out against the [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] limitations on women in religious institutions.<ref name=":11" />

Yugar emphasizes that Sor Juana interpreted the Bible as expressing concern with people of all backgrounds as well as with the earth.<ref name=":9" /> Most significantly, Yugar argues, Sor Juana expressed concern about the consequences of [[Capitalism|capitalistic]] Spanish domination over the earth. These ideas, Yugar points out, are commonly associated with modern [[Feminism|feminist]] movements concerned with [[decolonization]]<ref name=":11" /> and the protection of the planet.<ref name=":9" />

=== A symbol ===

==== Colonial and indigenous identities ====
[[File:Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.JPG|right|thumb|200px|Statue of Sor Juana Inés in [[Madrid]], Spain.]]As a woman in religion, Sor Juana has become associated with the [[Our Lady of Guadalupe|Virgin of Guadalupe]], a religious symbol of Mexican identity, but was also connected to Aztec goddesses.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hind|first=Emily|date=2006|title=Being Jean Franco: Mastering Reading and "Plotting Women"|journal=Letras Femeninas|volume=32|issue=1|pages=329–350|issn=0277-4356|jstor=23024128}}</ref> For example, parts of Sor Juana's ''Villancico 224'' are written in Nahuatl, while others are written in Spanish.<ref name=":16" /> The Virgin of Guadalupe is the subject of the ''Villancico'', but depending on the language, the poem refers to both the Virgin of Guadalupe and [[Cihuacōātl|Cihuacoatl]], an indigenous goddess.<ref name=":16" /> It is ambiguous whether Sor Juana prioritizes the Mexican or indigenous religious figure, or whether her focus is on harmonizing the two.<ref name=":16" />

Sor Juana's connection to indigenous religious figures is also prominent in her ''[[Loa to Divine Narcissus]]'', (Spanish "''El Divino Narciso''") (see Jauregui [https://www.academia.edu/6991029/_El_plato_más_sabroso_eucarist%C3%ADa_plagio_diabólico_y_la_traducción_criolla_del_can%C3%ADbal 2003], [https://www.academia.edu/11767784/_Cannibalism_the_Eucharist_and_Criollo_Subjects_ 2009]). The play centers on the interaction between two Indigenous people, named Occident and America, and two Spanish people, named Religion and Zeal.<ref name=":16" /> The characters exchange their religious perspectives, and conclude that there are more similarities between their religious traditions than there are differences.<ref name=":16" /> The loa references Aztec rituals and gods, including [[Huītzilōpōchtli|Huitzilopochtli]], who symbolized the land of Mexico.<ref name=":16" />

Scholars like Nicole Gomez argue that Sor Juana's fusion of Spanish and Aztec religious traditions in her ''Loa'' ''to Divine Narcissus'' aims to raise the status of indigenous religious traditions to that of Catholicism in New Spain.<ref name=":16" /> Gomez argues that Sor Juana also emphasizes the violence with which Spanish religious traditions dominated indigenous ones.<ref name=":16" /> Ultimately, Gomez argues that Sor Juana's use of both colonial and indigenous languages, symbols, and religious traditions not only gives voice to indigenous peoples, who were marginalized, but also affirms her own indigenous identity.<ref name=":16" />

Through their scholarly interpretations of Sor Juana's work, Octavio Paz and Alicia Gaspar de Alba have also incorporated Sor Juana into discourses about Mexican identity. Paz's accredited scholarship on Sor Juana elevated her to a national symbol as a Mexican woman, writer, and religious authority.<ref name=":13" /> On the contrary, Gaspar de Alba emphasized Sor Juana's indigenous identity by inserting her into Chicana discourses.<ref name=":13" />

==== Connection to Frida Kahlo ====
[[File:013Sor Juana.jpg|thumb|Juana Ines de la Cruz in art by Mexican artist [[Mauricio García Vega]].|249x249px]]Paul Allatson emphasizes that women like Sor Juana and Frida Kahlo masculinized their appearances to symbolically complicate the space marked for women in society.<ref name=":13" /> Sor Juana's decision to cut her hair as punishment for mistakes she made during learning<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://msmagazine.com/2011/03/16/my-favorite-feminist-sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz/|title=My Favorite Feminist: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz – Ms. Magazine|website=msmagazine.com|first=Dahlia |last=Grossman-Heinze| date=16 March 2011 |access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref> signified her own autonomy, but was also a way to engage in the masculinity expected of male-dominated spaces, like universities. According to Paul Allatson, nuns were also required to cut their hair after entering the convent.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last=Allatson|first=Paul|date=2004|title=A Shadowy Sequence: Chicana Textual/Sexual Reinventions of Sor Juana|journal=Chasqui|language=en|volume=33|issue=1|pages=3–27|doi=10.2307/29741841|jstor=29741841}}</ref> These ideas, Allatson suggests, are echoed in [[Frida Kahlo]]'s 1940 self-portrait titled ''Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair'', or ''Autorretrato con el pelo corto''.<ref name=":13" />

As well, the [[University of the Cloister of Sor Juana]] honored both Frida Kahlo and Sor Juana on October 31, 2018, with a symbolic altar. The altar, called ''Las Dos Juanas'', was specially made for the [[Day of the Dead]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/cultura/frida-kahlo-y-sor-juana-juntas-en-monumental-altar-de-muertos|title=Frida Kahlo y Sor Juana, juntas en monumental altar de muertos|date=2018-10-23|website=El Universal|language=es|access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref>

====Official recognition by the Mexican government====
In present times, Sor Juana is still an important figure in Mexico.

In 1995, Sor Juana's name was inscribed in gold on the wall of honor in the [[Congress of the Union|Mexican Congress]] in April 1995.<ref name=":2" /> Sor Juana also appears on the Mexican currency [[Obverse and reverse|obverse]]. She was first included on the 1000 pesos AA family bill in 1978, which was in circulation until 1992.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jurado |first=Héctor Alfonso Morales |date=2019-09-02 |title=Así ha evolucionado Sor Juana en los billetes |url=https://www.forbes.com.mx/asi-ha-evolucionado-sor-juana-en-los-billetes/ |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=Forbes México |language=es-MX}}</ref> Between 1994 and 2020, she appeared on the 200 pesos C, D, D1, and F family bills.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.banxico.org.mx/billetes-y-monedas/informacion-general/billetes-y-monedas-de-fabricacion-actual/billete-de-200-pesos/pagina-billete-200-pesos.html|publisher=[[Bank of Mexico]]|title=Billete de 200 pesos|access-date=2011-07-26|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907072707/http://www.banxico.org.mx/billetes-y-monedas/informacion-general/billetes-y-monedas-de-fabricacion-actual/billete-de-200-pesos/pagina-billete-200-pesos.html|archive-date=2011-09-07}}</ref> She currently appears on the 100 pesos G bill, which has been in circulation since 2020. The town where Sor Juana grew up, San Miguel Nepantla in the municipality of [[Tepetlixpa]], [[State of Mexico]], was renamed in her honor as Nepantla de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

== Veneration ==
{{Infobox saint|name=Juana Inés de la Cruz|image=Sor Juana by Miguel Cabrera (cropped).jpg|imagesize=200px|caption=|titles=[[Monastic]] and [[Theologian]]|feast_day=[[18 April]]|venerated_in=[[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]]|attributes={{unbulleted list|[[Hieronymites|Hieronymite habit]];|Seated at a desk;|Nun's shield depicting the [[Annunciation]];|[[Rosary]] belt}}|honorific_prefix=[[Saint]]}}In 2022, the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church of the United States]] gave final approval and added her feast to the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)|liturgical calendar]]. Her feast day is April 18.<ref>{{Cite web |title=General Convention Virtual Binder |url=https://www.vbinder.net/resolutions/24?house=HD&lang=en |access-date=2022-07-22 |website=www.vbinder.net |archive-date=2022-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913143652/https://www.vbinder.net/resolutions/24?house=HD&lang=en |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* 1676 - ''Villancicos, que se cantaron en la Santa Iglesia Metropolitana de Mexico. En los maitines de la Purissima Concepción de Nuestra Señora''
* 1689 - ''Inundación castalida''. Madrid: Juan Garcia Infanson 
* 1693 - ''Segundo tomo de las obras de sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, monja professa en el monasterio del Señor San Geronimo de la ciudad de Mexico''. Barcelona: Joseph Llopis
* 1701 - ''Fama, y obras posthumas, tomo tercero, del fenix de México, y dezima musa, poetisa de la America, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, religiosa professa en el Convento de San Geronimo, de la imperial ciudad de Mexico''. Barcelona: Rafael Figuerò
* 1709 - ''Poemas de la unica poetisa americana, musa dezima, soror Juana Inés de la Cruz, religiosa professa en el monasterio de San Germonimo de la imperial ciudad de Mexico''. Valencia: Antonio Bordazar

==Popular culture==
{{more citations needed|section|date=April 2019}}

=== Literature ===

* [[List of poets from the United States|American poet]] [[Diane Ackerman]] wrote a [[Verse drama and dramatic verse|verse drama]], ''Reverse Thunder'', about Sor Juana (1992).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Myers |first=Kathleen |date=1990 |title=Phaeton as emblem: Recent works on Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz – A Sor Juana Anthology edited and translated by Alan Trueblood / Sor Juana, or The Traps of Faith by Octavio Paz / Reverse Thunder by Diane Ackerman / and others |url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.act2080.0029.003:18 |journal=Michigan Quarterly Review |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=453 |hdl=2027/spo.act2080.0029.003:18 |via=Gale Academic OneFile Select}}</ref>
* Canadian poet and novelist [[Margaret Atwood]]'s 2007 book of poems ''The Door'' includes a poem entitled "Sor Juana Works in the Garden".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sánchez Calle |first=Pilar |date=2018 |title=Writing, Aging and Death in Margaret Atwood's The Door |doi-access=free |journal=ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies |volume=39 |issue=39 |pages=145, 153–154 |doi=10.24197/ersjes.39.2018.135-156 |s2cid=186986319 }}</ref>
* [[Puerto Rican poetry|Puerto Rican poet]] [[Giannina Braschi]] wrote the [[Postmodern literature|postmodern]] [[Spanglish]] novel [[Yo-Yo Boing!]] in which characters debate the greatest women poets, acknowledging both Sor Juana and [[Emily Dickinson]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=O'Dwyer |first1=Tess |title=Poets, Philosophers, Lovers On the Writings of Giannina Braschi |last2=Aldama |first2=Frederick Luis |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-8229-4618-2 |edition=1st |location=Pittsburgh, Pa |pages=61 |language=English}}</ref>
* Canadian novelist Paul Anderson devoted 12 years writing a 1300-page novel entitled ''[[Hunger's Brides]]'' (pub. 2004) on Sor Juana.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Block |first=Allison |date=2005 |title=Anderson, Paul. Hunger's Brides |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=tamp44898&id=GALE&#124;A136770422&v=2.1&it=r |journal=Booklist |volume=101 |issue=19–20 |pages=1710–1711 |via=Gale Academic Onefile}}</ref> His novel won the 2005 Alberta Book Award.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alberta Literary Awards Finalists and Winners |url=https://writersguild.ca/programs-services/alberta-literary-awards-finalists-and-winners/ |access-date=2022-10-25 |language=en-US}}</ref>
* Sor Juana was the subject of a 2007 fictionalized novel entitled ''Sor Juana's Second Dream: A Novel'' by [[Alicia Gaspar de Alba]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gaspar de Alba |first=Alicia |url=https://www.unmpress.com/9780826320926/sor-juanas-second-dream/ |title=Sor Juana's second dream: a novel |date=2007 |publisher=Univ. of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0826320919 |location=Albuquerque}}</ref>

=== Music ===
* American composer [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]] and director [[Peter Sellars]] used two of Sor Juana's poems, ''Pues mi Dios ha nacido a penar'' and ''Pues está tiritando'' in their libretto for the Nativity oratorio-opera [[El Niño (opera)|El Niño]] (2000). 
*Composer [[Allison Sniffin]]'s original composition, Óyeme con los ojos – (Hear Me with Your Eyes: Sor Juana on the Nature of Love), based on text and poetry by Sor Juana, was commissioned by [[Melodia Women's Choir]], which premiered the work at the [[Kaufman Center]] in New York City.<ref>{{cite web|title=Melodia Women's Choir premieres New York composer Allison Sniffin in a concert of Latin American reflections|url=https://www.van.org/articles/Melodia20061118.htm|access-date=December 11, 2019|website=VAN: Vocal Area Network}}</ref> 
*Composer [[Daniel Crozier]] and librettist Peter M. Krask wrote ''With Blood, With Ink'', an opera based around her life, while both were students at [[Baltimore]]'s [[Peabody Institute]] in 1993. The work won first prize in the [[National Operatic and Dramatic Association]]'s Chamber Opera Competition. In 2000, excerpts were included in the [[New York City Opera]]'s Showcasing American Composers Series. The work in its entirety was premiered by the [[Fort Worth Opera]] on April 20, 2014, and recorded by Albany Records. 
* Puerto Rican singer [[iLe]] recites part of one of Sor Juana's [https://books.google.com/books?id=3eQAURs2t2gC sonnets] in her song "[https://www.vevo.com/watch/ile-official/Rescatarme-(Cover-Audio)/USSD21600344 Rescatarme]".
* In 2013, the Brazilian composer [[Jorge Antunes (composer)|Jorge Antunes]] composed an electroacoustic musical work entitled ''CARTA ATHENAGÓRICA'', in the studio of [[CMMAS (Mexican Center for Music and Sound Arts)]] in the city of Morelia, with the support of Ibermúsicas. The composition, which honors Sor Juana is called "Figurative Music", in which the musical structure and musical objects are based on rhetoric with figures of speech. In the work Antunes uses the chiasmus, also called retruécano, from poems of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

=== Film, television and video ===
* Mexican actress [[Andrea Palma (actress)|Andrea Palma]] played her in the 1935 biopic "[[Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (film)|Sor Juana Inės de la Cruz]]"
* A [[telenovela]] about her life, ''[[Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (telenovela)|Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz]]'', was created in 1962.
* [[María Luisa Bemberg]] wrote and directed the 1990 film ''Yo, la peor de todas'' (''[[I, the Worst of All]]''), based on [[Octavio Paz]]'s ''Sor Juana: Or, the Traps of Faith'' based on Sor Juana's life.
* The Spanish-language miniseries ''[[Juana Inés]]'' (2016) by Canal Once TV, starring Arantza Ruiz and [[Arcelia Ramírez]] as Sor Juana, dramatizes her life.

=== Theater ===
*[[Helen Edmundson]]'s play ''[[The Heresy of Love]]'', based on the life of Sor Juana, was premiered by the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] in early 2012 and revived by [[Shakespeare's Globe]] in 2015.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Spencer|first=Charles|date=2012-02-10|title=The Heresy of Love, RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, review|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/9072252/The-Heresy-of-Love-RSC-Stratford-upon-Avon-review.html|access-date=2016-04-15}}</ref>
* [[Jesusa Rodríguez]] has produced a number of works concerning Sor Juana, including ''Sor Juana en Almoloya'' and ''Striptease de Sor Juana'', based on Juana's poem "Primero Sueño".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Isabel Gómez|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/isabel-gomez/|access-date=2020-10-23|website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}</ref>
* Playwright, director, and producer Kenneth Prestininzi wrote ''Impure Thoughts (Without Apology''), which follows Sor Juana's experience with Bishop Francisco Aguilar y Seijas. "[http://newdramatists.org/sites/default/files/impure_thoughts_without_apology_june_2016_1.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011130342/http://newdramatists.org/sites/default/files/impure_thoughts_without_apology_june_2016_1.pdf |date=2017-10-11 }}".
* [[Tanya Saracho]]'s play ''The Tenth Muse'', a fictionalized 18th-century drama about women in a convent in Colonial Mexico included seven female characters and their discovery of and relationship to Sor Juana's writings, debuted at the [[Oregon Shakespeare Festival]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Tenth Muse |url=https://www.osfashland.org/productions/2013-plays/the-tenth-muse.aspx |website=Oregon Shakespeare Festival |access-date=10 June 2022}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana/ ''The Juana Inés de la Cruz Project''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818170205/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana/ |date=2010-08-18 }} [[Dartmouth College]]. Retrieved: 2010-05-09.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100528131605/http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/cruz.html ''Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648–1695)''] [[Oregon State University]]. Retrieved: 2010-05-09.
* [http://www.ucsj.edu.mx Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana]. Retrieved: 2010-08-03.

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|35em}}
* ALATORRE, Antonio, ''Sor Juana a través de los siglos''. México: El Colegio de México, 2007.
* BENASSY-BERLING, Marié-Cécile, ''Humanisme et Religion chez Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: la femme et la cultura au 17e siècle''. Paris: Editions Hispaniques, 1982. {{ISBN|2-85355-000-1}}
* BEAUCHOT, Mauricio, ''Sor Juana, una filosofía barroca'', Toluca: UAM, 2001.
* BUXÓ, José Pascual, ''Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Lectura barroca de la poesía'', México, Renacimiento, 2006.
* CORTES, Adriana, ''Cósmica y cosmética, pliegues de la alegoría en sor Juana Inés de la Cruz y Pedro Calderón de la Barca''. Madrid: Vervuert, 2013. {{ISBN|978-84-8489-698-2}} 
* GAOS, José. "El sueño de un sueño". ''Historia Mexicana'', 10, 1960.
* HAHN, Miriam, "As If There Were No Damages: Representing Native American Spirituality in the Dramas of Lope de Vega and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz." Ecumenia. April 2015, vol. 8, no. 1, Pennsylvania State University Press,  pp.&nbsp;7–20, 87
* JAUREGUI, Carlos A. [https://www.academia.edu/11767784/_Cannibalism_the_Eucharist_and_Criollo_Subjects_ "Cannibalism, the Eucharist, and Criollo Subjects."] In ''Creole Subjects in the Colonial Americas: Empires, Texts, Identities''. Ralph Bauer & Jose A. Mazzotti (eds.). Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, Williamsburg, VA, U. of North Carolina Press, 2009. 61–100.
* JAUREGUI, Carlos A. [https://www.academia.edu/6991029/_El_plato_más_sabroso_eucarist%C3%ADa_plagio_diabólico_y_la_traducción_criolla_del_can%C3%ADbal {{"'}}El plato más sabroso': eucaristía, plagio diabólico, y la traducción criolla del caníbal."] ''Colonial Latin American Review'' 12:2 (2003): 199–231.
*Kretsch, Donna Raske. "Sisters Across the Atlantic: Aphra Behn and Sor Juana Inez de La Cruz." Women's Studies, vol. 21, no. 3, Taylor & Francis Group, 1992, pp.&nbsp;361–379, {{doi|10.1080/00497878.1992.9978949}}
*MERKL, Heinrich, ''Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Ein Bericht zur Forschung 1951–1981.'' Heidelberg: Winter, 1986. {{ISBN|3-533-03789-4}}
* MURATTA BUNSEN, Eduardo, "La estancia escéptica de Sor Juana". ''Sor Juana Polímata''. Ed. Pamela H. Long. México: Destiempos, 2013. {{ISBN|978-607-9130-27-5}}
* NEUMEISTER, Sebastian, "Disimulación y rebelión: El Político silencio de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz". ''La cultura del barroco español e iberoamericano y su contexto europeo''. Ed. Kazimierz Sabik and Karolina Kumor, Varsovia: Insituto de Estudios Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos de la Universidad de Varsovia, 2010. {{ISBN|978-83-60875-84-1}}
*OLIVARES ZORRILLA, Rocío, "[http://ru.ffyl.unam.mx:8080/jspui/handle/10391/1405 The Eye of Imagination: Emblems in the Baroque Poem 'The Dream,' by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011751/http://ru.ffyl.unam.mx:8080/jspui/handle/10391/1405 |date=2013-12-03 }}", in ''Emblematica. An Interdisciplinary Journal for Emblem Studies,'' AMC Press, Inc., New York, vol. 18, 2010: 111–161. 
*----, ''La figura del mundo en "El sueño", de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Ojo y "spiritus phantasticus" en un sueño barroco,'' Madrid, Editorial Académica Española, 2012. {{ISBN|978-3-8484-5766-3}}
* PERELMUTER, Rosa, ''Los límites de la femineidad en sor Juana Inés de la Cruz'', Madrid, Iberoamericana, 2004.
* PAZ, Octavio. ''Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe''. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1982.
* PFLAND, Ludwig, ''Die zehnte Muse von Mexiko Juana Inés de la Cruz. Ihr Leben, ihre Dichtung, ihre Psyche''. München: Rinn, 1946.
* RODRÍGUEZ GARRIDO, José Antonio, ''La Carta Atenagórica de Sor Juana: Textos inéditos de una polémica'', México: UNAM, 2004. {{ISBN|9703214150}} 
* ROSAS LOPATEGUI, Patricia, ''Oyeme con los ojos : de Sor Juana al siglo XXI; 21 escritoras mexicanas revolucionarias''. México: Universidad Autónoma Nuevo León, 2010. {{ISBN|978-607-433-474-6}}
* SABAT DE RIVERS, Georgina, ''El «Sueño» de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: tradiciones literarias y originalidad'', Londres: Támesis, 1977.
* SORIANO, Alejandro, ''La hora más bella de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz'', México, CONACULTA, Instituto Queretano de la Cultura y las Artes, 2010.
* WEBER, Hermann, ''Yo, la peor de todas – Ich, die Schlechteste von allen.'' Karlsruhe: Info Verlag, 2009. {{ISBN|978-3-88190-542-8}}

<!-- NEEDS CLEANUP FOR CONSISTENT FORMATTING WITH AND INCORPORATION INTO PREVIOUS LIST -->
* Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Carl W Cobb. ''The Sonnets of Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz in English Verse''. E. Mellen Press, 2001.
* Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Alberto G Salceda. ''Obras Completas De Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz''. 1st edn, Fondo De Cultura Economica, 1957.
* Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Margaret Sayers Peden. ''A Woman of Genius : The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz''. 2nd edn, Lime Rock Press, 1987.
* Schmidhuber de la Mora, Guillermo, et al. ''The Three Secular Plays of Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz : A Critical Study''. University Press of Kentucky, 2000. INSERT-MISSING-DATABASE-NAME, INSERT-MISSING-URL. Accessed 14 May 2020.
* Thurman, Judith, et al. ''I Became Alone : Five Women Poets, Sappho, Louise Labé, Ann Bradstreet, Juana Ines De La Cruz, Emily Dickinson''. 1st edn, Atheneum, 1975.
* 2.14.6, [https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/417161 Notes on Two Spanish American Poets: Gabriela Mistral and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz], 1947 and undated, Box: 14, Folder: 6.0; Reel: 81, Frame: 148. Katherine Anne Porter papers, 0041-LIT. Special Collections and University Archives. Accessed May 14, 2020.
* Juana de la Cruz. Mother Juana De La Cruz, 1481–1534 : Visionary Sermons. Edited by Jessica A Boon, Iter Academic Press, 2016.
* Juana Inés de la Cruz . A Sor Juana Anthology. Translated by Alan S Trueblood, Harvard University Press, 1988.
* ''The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz''. Ashgate, 2012. INSERT-MISSING-DATABASE-NAME, INSERT-MISSING-URL. Accessed 14 May 2020.
* Kirk Rappaport, Pamela. ''Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz: Religion, Art, and Feminism''. Continuum, 1998.
* Merrim, Stephanie. ''Early Modern Women's Writing and Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz''. 1st edn, Vanderbilt University Press, 1999.
* Juana Inés de la Cruz, Joan Larkin, Jaime Manrique. [https://usf-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_USF/8i1ivu/alma99379510642006599 ''Sor Juana's Love Poems'']. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. Project Muse. Accessed 14 May 2020.
* Allen, Heather. [https://go-gale-com.lc.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=leth49384&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA166534877&inPS=true&linkSource=interlink&sid=bookmark-AONE "New Research on Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz"]. ''Letras Femininas'' (Vol. 42, Issue 2), Association of Hispanic Feminine Literature, 2016.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8211}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Juana Inés de la Cruz}}
*[http://nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/sorjuana/ Sor Juana festival. National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210707010859/https://nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/sorjuana |date=2021-07-07 }}
*[https://www.inside-mexico.com/sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz-2/ Sor Juana Ines the Tenth Muse] from Inside Mexico
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110408031036/http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/lesson-1-sonnets-sor-juana-poet Sor Juana, the Poet: The Sonnets] from National Endowment for the Humanities
*[https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plans/sor-juana-la-poetisa-los-sonetos Sor Juana, la poetisa: Los sonetos] from National Endowment for the Humanities
*[http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/majfud250207.html The Imperfect Sex: Why Is Sor Juana Not a Saint?] by [[Jorge Majfud]]
*[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana The Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308210651/http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Esorjuana/ |date=2021-03-08 }}
*[http://www.latin-american.cam.ac.uk/SorJuana/ Academic resource on the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz]
*[http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/delacruz/fama/ On-line facsimile edition of Sor Juana's ''Fama y obras posthumas'']
*[http://sonnets.spanish.sbc.edu/SorJuana.html Six sonnets in Spanish with English translations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629164645/http://sonnets.spanish.sbc.edu/SorJuana.html |date=2021-06-29 }}
*{{ChoralWiki|Juana Inés de la Cruz}}
*[[scores:Category:Juana Inés de la Cruz|Free scores by Juana Inés de la Cruz]] in the [[International Music Score Library Project]]
*''[[hdl:2152/16026|Libro de professiones y elecciones de prioras y vicarias del Convento de San Gerónimo]]'' ([[Benson Latin American Collection|University of Texas Libraries]]). Includes the handwritten professions of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
*[https://www.librarything.com/author/cruzsorjuanainesdela Juana Inés de la Cruz profile and works on LibraryThing]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gxHbYI0uy4 CrashCourse and PBS Digital Studios: Pre-Colombian Theatre, Sor Juana, etc]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Juana Ines de la Cruz}}
[[Category:Juana Inés de la Cruz| ]]
[[Category:1648 births]]
[[Category:1695 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century deaths from plague (disease)]]
[[Category:17th-century Mexican poets]]
[[Category:17th-century Mexican women writers]]
[[Category:17th-century Mexican writers]]
[[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from New Spain]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]
[[Category:Baroque writers]]
[[Category:Ecofeminists]]
[[Category:Hieronymite nuns]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Mexico]]
[[Category:Mexican Baroque]]
[[Category:Mexican environmentalists]]
[[Category:Mexican feminist writers]]
[[Category:Mexican nobility]]
[[Category:Mexican people of Basque descent]]
[[Category:Mexican people of Spanish descent]]
[[Category:Mexican philosophers]]
[[Category:Mexican Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns]]
[[Category:Mexican Roman Catholic writers]]
[[Category:Mexican women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Mexican women philosophers]]
[[Category:Mexican women poets]]
[[Category:People from Tepetlixpa]]
[[Category:People from Amecameca]]
[[Category:Rhetoricians]]
[[Category:Salon-holders]]
[[Category:Sonneteers]]
[[Category:Spanish Baroque people]]
[[Category:Spanish Catholic poets]]
[[Category:Women encyclopedists]]
[[Category:Writers from the State of Mexico]]
[[Category:Scholars of the Aztecs]]
[[Category:17th-century philosophers]]
[[Category:Women theologians]]
[[Category:Hermeneutists]]
[[Category:Protofeminism]]