SOURCE: "The Blasón of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Politics and Petrarchism in Colonial Mexico," in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Vol. LXXII, No. 1, January, 1995, pp. 28-39.

In the following essay, Rabin discusses the literary and political implications of Cruz's use of the blasón in her poetry.

The frontispiece of the Fama y obras pósthumas (1700), one of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's first published collections of verse, proclaims her Petrarchan poetry as the vehicle of eloquence in a foreign land. The official pillars of empire, the plus ultra of Castile and Aragon, have been converted into a knight of 'Europa' and an Indian of 'América' to embrace the primitive regions of Mexico. And written on the cornices of the plus ultra is a revealing invitation to Sor Juana's readers: Mulierem forte(m) q(u)is inveniet / Procul et de ultimis finib...