Badass women: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

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   I can’t help it if the women I know best also happened to be writers, or Hispanic! But seriously, after this month I will do some branching out. Promise.

   Sor Juana is thrillingly famous in the Hispanic literary world, but sometimes (many times) I have to remind myself that there is a world outside of Hispanic literature, and that many people live there.

   EVERYONE (and I mean everyone) should know who Sor Juana was. So read this. 😉

   A Mexican nun in the 17th century, Sor Juana loved to read from a young age, and knew that one day she would have to choose between marriage and the convent. She chose the convent in order to maintain some semblance of freedom in her life and to be able to continue her studies.

   She is perhaps most famous for her work called “La Respuesta,” the answer to the bishop’s letter to her in which he told her that it was better that she focus on religious studies instead of what interested her most, including science and other subjects. In her response, she brilliantly defends not only her right to study, but also women’s right to education, and was one of the first women in the Western hemisphere to defend women’s rights in such a way.

   “La Respuesta” can easily be found in English translation as “The Answer” and I encourage everyone to go and read it. Seriously. You won’t be disappointed by her general badassery and whitty, sarcastic responses.

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