Sor Juana Defends a Woman’s Right to Learn

In 1691, a nun in Mexico City answered a powerful critic with an account of why she could not stop learning. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz was more than a private explanation of her reading habits. It defended a woman’s intellectual life within a world that placed strict limits on who could teach, interpret and speak with authority. Its politeness should not be mistaken for the absence of an argument.

The person writing as Sor Filotea was not another nun. It was the bishop of Puebla, Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, who had published a theological critique by Sor Juana and accompanied it with an admonishing letter. He praised her abilities while urging a more restricted use of them. The situation made a simple refusal difficult. Sor Juana was responding within church hierarchies that shaped her life, to someone whose approval and criticism carried consequences beyond a literary disagreement.