Under the Stars Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz
“The first feminist of the Americas”
Presentation illustrating the life of
Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz
Multimedia presentation by…
GREGORIO LUKE
an expert in Mexican and Latin American art and culture
When: Friday, July 15
Time: 8:30PM
Where: French Plaza (corner of 4th and French)
What: Downtown Santa Ana Public Event
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz is one of the major poets of the Spanish language and the first in our hemisphere to defend women’s right to knowledge. She has been called “the first feminist of the Americas.”
Gifted with intelligence, grace and beauty, she so passionately sought knowledge that she asked her mother to dress her up as a man so that she could attend the university, which at the time was closed to women.
Protected by the Vicereine, she went to live in the Royal Court of the New Spain and shortly thereafter became a nun. Sor Juana went on to write numerous plays and exceptionally beautiful poems.
Towards the end of her life, she was silenced by the ecclesiastical hierarchy and forced to relinquish her library. Sor Juana during “the great plague” in Mexico City the 17 April of 1695.
