Sor Juana inÉs De La Cruz: Feminist Reconstruction of Biography and Text By Theresa A.Yugar. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014. Pp. ix + 107. $16.00.

Abstract

Could an eco-feminist and protofeminist awareness lie embedded within Sor Juana's seventeenth-century texts La Respuesta (The Answer) and El Sueño (The Dream)? Yugar's introductory work about this Mexican nun who was both a scholar and a poet builds upon E. S. Fiorenza and R. R. Ruether to explore Sor Juana's dream of egalitarian empowerment, suggesting an early example of Latina feminist theology. Following an introduction, Yugar constructs a “her-story,” revealing the clash between the community-centered Nahua and mestizaje reality, with the individualistic colonizers and their Counter-Reformation pressures for conformity. The third chapter reconstructs the lives of the women closest to Sor Juana, such as Doña Isabel Ramírez, her mother. Single and running her own hacienda, we see Ramírez model independence for her precocious daughter. Chapters 4 and 5 provide introductions to La Respuesta and El Sueño. The latter presents an eco-feminist narrative developing an egalitarian vision of the world through the journey of her non-gendered soul. A matricentric work, Yugar argues it reflects the three stages of her life: childhood, court, and convent. In conclusion, Yugar offers a “Latina Liberative Ecclesiology” as Sor Juana's legacy—the sueño of a non-patriarchal world. Although often repetitive and presuming a textual familiarity, Yugar's use of feminist theory creates a window through which we are able to see a reflection of Sor Juana's life within the text itself and a vision for an egalitarian church. The book is a useful secondary source for scholars or students reading Sor Juana's original works.