Mexican · 1648–1695
Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648 or 1651–1695) was a nun, poet and playwright in colonial New Spain, now Mexico. She was born Juana Ramírez de Asbaje near Mexico City and taught herself from her grandfather's library. She served at the viceregal court before entering the Convent of San Jerónimo in Mexico City, where she kept a large library and collected scientific instruments. She wrote love lyrics, religious verse, comedies, autos sacramentales and philosophical poems. Her long poem Primero sueño treats the soul's search for knowledge. In her Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (1691) she defended women's right to study. Church authorities pressed her to give up secular learning, and she sold her books near the end of her life. She died nursing fellow nuns during a plague. She is regarded as the leading poet of the Spanish-language Baroque in the Americas and an early voice for women's education.