WEBVTT 00:00:06.826 --> 00:00:11.744 Juana Ramírez de Asbaje sat before a panel of prestigious theologians, 00:00:11.744 --> 00:00:14.254 jurists, and mathematicians. 00:00:14.254 --> 00:00:18.288 The viceroy of New Spain had invited them to test the young woman’s knowledge 00:00:18.288 --> 00:00:21.478 by posing the most difficult questions they could muster. 00:00:21.478 --> 00:00:24.408 But Juana successfully answered every challenge, 00:00:24.408 --> 00:00:28.118 from complicated equations to philosophical queries. 00:00:28.118 --> 00:00:30.308 Observers would later liken the scene 00:00:30.308 --> 00:00:33.628 to “a royal galleon fending off a few canoes.” NOTE Paragraph 00:00:33.628 --> 00:00:38.225 The woman who faced this interrogation was born in the mid-17th century. 00:00:38.225 --> 00:00:42.708 At that time, Mexico had been a Spanish colony for over a century, 00:00:42.708 --> 00:00:46.118 leading to a complex and stratified class system. 00:00:46.118 --> 00:00:49.018 Juana’s maternal grandparents were born in Spain, 00:00:49.018 --> 00:00:52.448 making them members of Mexico’s most esteemed class. 00:00:52.448 --> 00:00:57.317 But Juana was born out of wedlock, and her father – a Spanish military captain – 00:00:57.317 --> 00:01:01.855 left her mother, Doña Isabel, to raise Juana and her sisters alone. 00:01:01.855 --> 00:01:04.905 Fortunately, her grandfather’s moderate means 00:01:04.905 --> 00:01:07.205 ensured the family a comfortable existence. 00:01:07.205 --> 00:01:10.815 And Doña Isabel set a strong example for her daughters, 00:01:10.815 --> 00:01:13.905 successfully managing one of her father’s two estates, 00:01:13.905 --> 00:01:17.605 despite her illiteracy and the misogyny of the time. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:17.605 --> 00:01:21.892 It was perhaps this precedent that inspired Juana’s lifelong confidence. 00:01:21.892 --> 00:01:25.986 At age three, she secretly followed her older sister to school. 00:01:25.986 --> 00:01:29.606 When she later learned that higher education was open only to men, 00:01:29.606 --> 00:01:32.956 she begged her mother to let her attend in disguise. 00:01:32.956 --> 00:01:37.747 Her request denied, Juana found solace in her grandfather’s private library. 00:01:37.747 --> 00:01:42.195 By early adolescence, she’d mastered philosophical debate, Latin, 00:01:42.195 --> 00:01:45.245 and the Aztec language Nahuatl. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:45.245 --> 00:01:47.625 Juana’s precocious intellect attracted attention 00:01:47.625 --> 00:01:49.865 from the royal court in Mexico City, 00:01:49.865 --> 00:01:51.565 and when she was sixteen, 00:01:51.565 --> 00:01:55.788 the viceroy and his wife took her in as their lady-in-waiting. 00:01:55.788 --> 00:02:00.818 Here, her plays and poems alternately dazzled and outraged the court. 00:02:00.818 --> 00:02:03.278 Her provocative poem Foolish Men 00:02:03.278 --> 00:02:06.408 infamously criticized sexist double standards, 00:02:06.408 --> 00:02:10.928 decrying how men corrupt women while blaming them for immorality. 00:02:10.928 --> 00:02:14.808 Despite its controversy, her work still inspired adoration, 00:02:14.808 --> 00:02:16.478 and numerous proposals. 00:02:16.478 --> 00:02:19.618 But Juana was more interested in knowledge than marriage. 00:02:19.618 --> 00:02:22.168 And in the patriarchal society of the time, 00:02:22.168 --> 00:02:25.048 there was only one place she could find it. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:25.048 --> 00:02:29.039 The Church, while still under the zealous influence of the Spanish Inquisition, 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:32.849 would allow Juana to retain her independence and respectability 00:02:32.849 --> 00:02:34.659 while remaining unmarried. 00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:39.079 At age 20, she entered the Hieronymite Convent of Santa Paula 00:02:39.079 --> 00:02:43.409 and took on her new name: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:43.409 --> 00:02:47.651 For years, Sor Juana was considered a prized treasure of the church. 00:02:47.651 --> 00:02:52.184 She wrote dramas, comedies, and treatises on philosophy and mathematics, 00:02:52.184 --> 00:02:54.604 in addition to religious music and poetry. 00:02:54.604 --> 00:02:56.654 She accrued a massive library, 00:02:56.654 --> 00:02:59.244 and was visited by many prominent scholars. 00:02:59.244 --> 00:03:02.094 While serving as the convent’s treasurer and archivist, 00:03:02.094 --> 00:03:05.684 she also protected the livelihoods of her niece and sisters 00:03:05.684 --> 00:03:07.804 from men who tried to exploit them. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:07.804 --> 00:03:12.435 But her outspokenness ultimately brought her into conflict with her benefactors. 00:03:12.435 --> 00:03:18.889 In 1690, a bishop published Sor Juana’s private critique of a respected sermon. 00:03:18.889 --> 00:03:20.199 In the publication, 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:25.122 he admonished Sor Juana to devote herself to prayer rather than debate. 00:03:25.122 --> 00:03:28.062 She replied that God would not have given women intellect 00:03:28.062 --> 00:03:30.302 if he did not want them to use it. 00:03:30.302 --> 00:03:34.507 The exchange caught the attention of the conservative Archbishop of Mexico. 00:03:34.507 --> 00:03:37.907 Slowly, Sor Juana was stripped of her prestige, 00:03:37.907 --> 00:03:40.827 forced to sell her books and give up writing. 00:03:40.827 --> 00:03:44.827 Furious at this censorship, but unwilling to leave the church, 00:03:44.827 --> 00:03:46.867 she bitterly renewed her vows. 00:03:46.867 --> 00:03:50.047 In her last act of defiance, she signed them 00:03:50.047 --> 00:03:53.487 “I, the worst of all,” in her own blood. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:53.487 --> 00:03:57.661 Deprived of scholarship, Sor Juana threw herself into charity work, 00:03:57.661 --> 00:04:03.198 and in 1695, she died of an illness she contracted while nursing her sisters. 00:04:03.198 --> 00:04:08.535 Today, Sor Juana has been recognized as the first feminist in the Americas. 00:04:08.535 --> 00:04:12.741 She’s the subject of countless documentaries, novels, and operas, 00:04:12.741 --> 00:04:15.961 and appears on Mexico’s 200-peso banknote. 00:04:15.961 --> 00:04:19.221 In the words of Nobel laureate Octavio Paz: 00:04:19.221 --> 00:04:23.329 “It is not enough to say that Sor Juana’s work is a product of history; 00:04:23.329 --> 00:04:27.849 we must add that history is also a product of her work.”