Download
1 / 10
E N D
Juana Ines was born in Nuevo España in 1640. When she was 3 years old she loved the books because her Grandpa had many books around the house. Juana always spent time looking at the books, but she could not read because she was too little. Juana liked going to the river and cutting roses for her house at these times she composed verses.
Juana used to watch her sister going to school and wished to go with her. She could not because she was too little. One day when her sister went to school, Juana followed her and entered the classroom. She talked to the teacher and told her, “I want to learn to read and write, can you teach me?” and the teacher said, “Yes, you can come to school,” and in a few weeks she began to read and write.
One day Juana told her mother, “I want to go México City to study, My teacher told us there is a big university, It has a library with thousands of books. I want to study about music, plants and stars. I want to write poems; you know girls are as smart as boys Mamá.” “Only boys can go to the university; girls need to help at home,” her mother told Juana. The next night Juana dressed up like a boy because she was practicing to go to university in México City when she got older.
When Juana was about eight years old, she participated in a poetry Competition and won the prize. When she got home she showed it to her mother and told her, “Now I can open my own library. Por favor Mamá please let me go to México City to study, girls can do more than spin and sew we can study and prove all we know.”
When Juana was about ten years old, her mother sent Juana to live in Mexico City. She went to visit the university and palace. She looked at the people and listened to the many languages. Juana wrote poems about all she saw. She knew girls could not attend the university but she had a tutor to teach her at home; Juana studied very hard.
Wen Juana was fifteen years old she moved to the palace, because there was a big library there. Every day Juana could come to library and read books about calendars, stars, women, the Bible, Greek and Roman stories. Juana wrote plays and songs. People who lived in the palace looked for Juana to write poems for them. She studied about roses.
One day the viceroy said, “Juana I tell scholars how smart you are, but they don’t believe me, and I’ve invited forty scholars to came and ask you questions.” The scholars arrived in the big room they looked very serious. They began to ask Juana difficult questions; Juana answered every question. When the scholars finished they were very impressed about her knowledge, Juana Inés said, “Yes, girls can do more than spin and sew , we can study and prove all we know.”
Juana liked living at the palace, she had many friends and she wanted to keep learning. She became a Nun and changed her name to: Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz. She added books to her library until it became one of the largest libraries in the Americas. One day some friends came to visit Juana and they gave her a book with her name on the cover. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was one of the most important poets of the Americas.
Juana Ines wrote this poem: Oyeme con los ojos, Ya que estan tan distantes los oidos, Y de ausentes enojos En ecos, de mi pluma mis gemidos; Y ya que a ti no llega mi voz ruda, Ayeme sordo, pues me quejo muda. Hear me with eyes alone, since ears are out of hearing's farthest reach, hear how my pen, with moans, echoes separation’s bitterest pangs and, since you cannot catch my raucous tune. hear me unhearing, hear a pain gone mute. Beatriz Mayorga.
