7. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Frontera-Crosser in New Spain
Subjugated Voices and Religion - Souad T. Ali
Theresa A. Yugar [+]
California State University, Los Angeles
Description
Theresa A. Yugar’s chapter, “Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz: Frontera-Crosser in New Spain” explores Mexican Catholic nun, writer, prolific poet and border-crosser. In her era, she crosses over social and ideological borders prescribed for women, and in the process expands them. Sor Juana Inés is also a frontera-crosser. Although the terms “border” and frontera can be interchangeably translated as a physical boundary, the Spanish term frontera is distinctive so that it can also be metaphorically understood as where a person is on the threshold of discovery. While Sor Juana Inés wrote in the seventeenth century, her insights from her frontera heritage, diverse knowledge of languages and cultures, as shown in her writings, lay the foundation for a greater understanding of diverse peoples, places, cultures, religions, and wisdom. This essay will demonstrate the ways that Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz crossed borders/fronteras for women, and the Indigenous people in her region, in her primary texts, La Respuesta/The Answer and El Primero Sueño/The First Dream.