Spain and New Spain in the works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Abstract

Through a historical and documentary analysis, I investigate the possible perceptions and influences that Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz could have had by her exposure to the incipient cultural and social movements at the time of the viceroyalty in New Spain. Throughout her work, she refers to Spain and New Spain. From the first, she collects the literary tradition and transforms it, dedicates poems to the representatives of the monarchy and recognizes her own Spanish heritage; from the second, she collects the Nahua language, Mexican Spanish and the echo of other languages. This agglutination is the result of an integral and conciliatory vision. The work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is a mirror of a modernity underpinned by a proposal of equity, of joint traditions articulated in the prodigy of the word and creative freedom.