by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Juana Ramírez de Asbaje was born on the hacienda of San Miguel Nepantla, near Mexico City, the capital of New Spain, probably in 1648. The out-of-wedlock daughter of Isabel Ramírez de Santillana and Pedro Manuel de Asbaje y Vargas Machuca, the young Juana Inés was raised at the hacienda of her maternal grandfather Pedro Ramírez de Santillana, where she quickly demonstrated prodigious talents and exceptional intellectual ability. Upon her grandfather’s death in 1656 Juana’s mother sent her to live in Mexico City with her aunt, and in 1664 she became a lady-in-waiting to and protégée of the Viceroy’s wife, doña Leonor María Carreto, the Marquise de Mancera. Although she enjoyed many favors during her life at court, after five years she joined...