Sor Filotea De La Cruz Summary

Born in an androcentric world, Sor Juana is left to fend for herself from the wrath

of the superior gender that is man. Fallen victim to the poison that is the bishop’s

betrayal, Sor Juana is forced into a corner beaten down and devastated. She then

collectively plans and retaliates against the bishop and the church with Response to the

Most Illustrious Poetess Sor Filotea de la Cruz. This response recognized and praised

the bishop for his kind and loving gestures, yet is saturated with Sor Juana’s disgust

and fury for him, all the while targeting and challenging the inequality between man and

the lowly creature that is woman. Sor Juana’s response is bursting with sarcasm and

irony supported by her witty jokes, displays

This is

targeting the bishop. Here the bishop talks to Sor Juana through an alternate name, Sor

Filotea de la Cruz, a female. Sor Juana bashes on the fact that he who despises women

and looks down on them is impersonating one himself, degrading himself. Sor Juana

sees this and plays along, sarcastically thanking the bishop of Puebla for publishing her

letter. She then goes on to discuss the irony of speaking about not speaking or

understanding, silence. As Sor Juana states, “I know nothing I can say that is worthy of

you,” she tells the bishop that she cannot say anything good about him, for there is

nothing good to be said at all.

Sor Juana further taunts the bishop by quoting an excerpt from the bible, where

Moses asks god to “shew me thy face” (qtd in Cruz 7). Here she challenges the bishop

to reveal himself, knowing that he will not reveal himself. Sor Juana continues on to

question him and asks how it is that he can favor her, and yet publish her works without

her acknowledgement. Sor Juana then continues on saying that because of his

benevolence, she will spend more time on religious study and less on her

To support this she brings up the great women who had impacts on their

communities in the past. She mentions Minerva, the goddess of science, Debbora, who

governed over men, Pola Argentaria, who helped her husband to write Pharsalia, the

daughter of the divine Tiresias who learned more than her father, and Aspasia of

Miletus who taught philosophy. This was only a few among many that Sor Juana had

mentioned. She is trying to prove that there have been innumerable accounts where

women had mastered knowledge to not only benefit themselves, but to improve their

surroundings.

To support her fight for equality, Sor Juana brings in the son of God, Jesus

Christ. Christ was abhorred for his divine beauty as the God-man and punished for his

miracle-working. Relating herself to that of Jesus Christ, the savior of humanity. She

explains that what they are doing to her is comparable to how the romans treated

Christ. Showing that riches and power strike at reason, for few will allow that