Juana Inés de la Cruz: “The Poet’s Answer to Sor Filotea de la Cruz”

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, born Doña Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana (c. 1648–1695), was an accomplished scholar and a contributor to the Golden Age of Spanish literature. Born the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish officer in Mexico and a wealthy lady whose family had its roots in Spain, Inés de la Cruz (she only took the name Sor Juana after entering religious life) was raised by her maternal grandparents on a hacienda near Mexico City. She was an autodidact who learned to read and write Latin by the age of three from books in her grandfather’s library. Later she learned Greek philosophy, the composition of poetry, and the Aztec language Nahuatl. By the time she was sixteen, she had entered the court of the viceroy, serving as a lady in waiting to Donna Eleonora del Carretto, the vicereine (viceroy’s wife), who encouraged her to further her education.