The character arc of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born 12 November 1648 at San Miguel Nepantla, the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish captain and a criolla mother. Died 17 April 1695 in Mexico City, aged forty six. Between the two sit Latin at three, poetry at eight, a refused university at sixteen, the viceregal court, vows in 1669, a library of over four thousand volumes, a defence of women's education in 1691, and a silence. The line below draws that whole life in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who was Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz?

She could not go to university, so she built one.

She was the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish naval captain and a criolla mother, raised at her grandfather's hacienda where there was a private library. By three she could read and write Latin. By eight she was writing poetry. At sixteen she went to Mexico City and asked to be allowed to attend the university disguised as a male student, because there was no other way in. The answer was no.

So her family placed her at the viceregal court as a lady in waiting, where she astonished the leading scholars of New Spain, and then she made the decision the whole line turns on. In 1667 she entered a Carmelite convent briefly, and in 1669 the Hieronymite monastery, taking the name Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. She said plainly why: she wanted no fixed occupation that might curtail her freedom to study. The convent was not a retreat from the world. It was the only room in the world where she would be left alone with books.

From 1669 for more than twenty years she wrote poetry, drama, comedy and philosophy, and gathered a library of more than four thousand volumes. Inundacion castalida made her famous across New Spain in 1689. Then in 1690 a bishop published her critique of a sermon without her permission, alongside his own letter telling her to give up secular study. She answered in 1691 with the Respuesta, defending a woman's right to a formal education, and it is still read. The pressure continued. She gave up the library. She stopped writing around 1693. She died in 1695 nursing her sisters through an epidemic. Her line is worth reading for what it cost to get an education and for what it cost to keep one.

The moments

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's timeline.

The 1650s

~1651

Latin at three

Milestone, and it changed everything. Three years old. The library was the whole of her luck.

~1656

Poetry at eight

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Not copying. Composing.

The 1660s

~1664

The university refused her

Setback, and it changed everything. She offered to pretend to be a man to be allowed to learn, and the answer was still no.

~1665

The viceregal court

Milestone, and it changed her direction. The cleverest person in the room, and the room was a court rather than a school.

1 Jun 1668

Marry, or take vows

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: enter the convent, taken, or marry from the court. She wrote for more than twenty years and built a library of over four thousand volumes before it was taken from her.

24 Feb 1669

She took vows to study

Milestone, and it changed everything. She did not enter for God alone. She entered for the hours, and she said so.

The 1680s

~1680

Four thousand volumes

Milestone, and it changed her direction. In a convent cell in New Spain, one of the great private libraries of the hemisphere.

~1689

Inundacion castalida

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Twenty years of work, published, and a reputation that crossed an ocean.

The 1690s

25 Nov 1690

Published without permission

Setback, and it changed everything. Her private argument printed for her, with an instruction attached.

Mar 1691

The Respuesta

Milestone, and it changed everything. She answered a bishop in print, and the answer is still the argument.

~1693

She gave up the library

Setback, and it changed everything. Four thousand books, given away, and then no more writing. The record gives the fact and not the reasons.

The line ends 17 Apr 1695, in Mexico City, at forty six, nursing the sick. What it set moving outlasted the silence they imposed on her: the Respuesta is still the argument, and a woman who was refused a university is now taught in all of them.

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Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What was Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's character arc?

A girl reading Latin at three who was refused a university at sixteen, entered a convent in 1669 so that she would be free to study, built a library of four thousand volumes, and was pressed into giving it up and going silent.

Why did Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz become a nun?

To be allowed to study. She said she wished to have no fixed occupation which might curtail her freedom to study. The convent was not a retreat from the world; it was the only place where she could be left alone with books.

Did Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz try to go to university?

Yes. At sixteen she asked for permission to attend disguised as a male student, because there was no other way in for a woman in New Spain. The request was denied, and she went to the viceregal court instead.

What is the Respuesta by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz?

Her answer of 1691 to a bishop who had published her private critique of a sermon without permission and told her to abandon secular study. It defends a woman's right to a formal education and is still read as the argument.

What happened to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's library?

She gave it up. Under mounting pressure she relinquished more than four thousand volumes and stopped writing around 1693. The record gives the fact and not the reasons, and this page does not speculate about them.

How did Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz die?

In an epidemic, on 17 April 1695, aged forty six, after nursing the stricken sisters of her own convent. She had stopped writing about two years earlier and had already given away her library.

What did Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz write?

Poetry, drama, comedy and philosophy, across more than twenty years from 1669. Her volume Inundacion castalida made her famous throughout New Spain in 1689, and the Respuesta of 1691 is the work most read today.

Where does this timeline of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

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Sources

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, English Wikipedia biography.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
La Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz, 1691.