Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–1695) was a Mexican nun, dramatist, scholar, and poet of the Baroque era, hailed throughout the Spanish Empire as 'The Tenth Muse' and 'The Phoenix of Mexico'. A self-taught prodigy who learned Latin in twenty lessons and mastered the viceregal court of Mexico, she chose monastic life in the Convent of San Jerónimo so she could dedicate herself freely to intellectual and literary pursuits.

Sor Juana amassed an extraordinary personal library and composed baroque love sonnets, sacred plays (autos sacramentales like El divino Narciso), and the philosophical dream-poem Primero sueño. Her landmark letter Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (1691) stands as a foundational feminist treatise in the Americas, brilliantly defending women's fundamental right to education and intellectual independence.