Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo by Francisco Ramírez Santacruz

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo by Francisco Ramírez Santacruz George Antony Thomas Ramírez Santacruz, Francisco. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 2019. 317 pp. Octavio Paz’s monumental book Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe (1982) has been the standard reference work on the life and literature of the celebrated colonial Mexican writer since its publication in 1982. Francisco Ramírez Santacruz’s recent biography of Sor Juana offers a new interpretation, one that incorporates the many significant archival finds that have been made since Paz’s book first appeared. As Ramírez Santacruz explains in the prologue, his primary objective in this biography is to document the details of Sor Juana’s life and provide an objective analysis: “esta biografía propone una exégesis lo más objetiva posible de [End Page 873] todos los datos que se conocen de sor Juana hasta el día de hoy” (12). Paz attempted to paint a very broad picture, highlighting the colonial milieu in which Sor Juana worked and offering interpretations of many of her literary works, and he sometimes strayed from objectivity in trying to offer a psychological portrait of the nun in the mode of Ludwig Pfandl’s early monograph. Ramírez Santacruz’s biography is more traditional in that it covers the entire trajectory of Sor Juana’s life and it offers more details about her family and her interactions with a variety of important figures in the viceroyalty of New Spain. The first two chapters of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo deal with Sor Juana’s life before she became a Hieronymite nun. Chapter one, “Los riesgos del mar (¿1648/1651?–1664),” provides a great deal of information about Sor Juana’s family, beginning with her maternal grandparents. Although this biography does not resolve the issue of Sor Juana’s exact birth date, it does affirm that her father was a native of the Canary Islands named Pedro de Asuaje (24). In addition, while many critics (and Sor Juana herself) seem to have believed that her father was of Basque origin, Ramírez Santacruz proposes that this was probably not the case and that this feigned lineage possibly had something to do with the high esteem of the Basque community in New Spain (27). There is a wealth of information about Sor Juana’s family and her early years in this chapter. The author goes beyond emphasizing the importance of Sor Juana’s grandfather (and his library) by establishing the key role played by the Mata family (Sor Juana’s uncle and aunt), who adopted her into their home in the capital of New Spain and played a central role in establishing her place at the court of a new viceroy. Chapter two, “El objeto venerado (1665–1667),” attempts to provide a glimpse into Sor Juana’s time at the viceregal court of the marquesses de Mancera and her brief attempt to join the Discalced Carmelite convent in Mexico City. This period is very difficult to document and so the author frequently strays from discussing what Sor Juana did during these three years and instead tries to speculate on the nature of her religious faith and why she decided to profess as a nun. Many of the primary sources cited in this chapter are Sor Juana’s own writings in addition to the somewhat hagiographic texts written by contemporaries (Diego Calleja and Juan Antonio de Oviedo). Although the author does try to maintain his objectivity, some Sor Juana scholars have advanced alternative interpretations on these issues. Despite the clear difficulties in establishing many factual details pertaining to this period, the author offers many interesting ideas about why Sor Juana first chose the Discalced Carmelites and, when discussing her abrupt departure from their community, highlights the intriguing fact that, between 1665 and 1670, there weren’t any professions in the convent that Sor Juana chose to abandon (57–59). In comparison to chapter two, the subsequent section on Sor Juana’s ultimate profession and entrance...