I have Octavio Paz’s acclaimed biography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz on my shelves, but I never read it. I saw the 1990 film adaptation—if one can compress a 547-page tome into a 105-minute film.1 The IMDB précis is precise:
A 17th-century Mexican nun defies expectations, becoming a renowned intellectual and writer during the Spanish Inquisition. Her progressive ideas attract unwanted attention, forcing her to seek protection from an influential ally.
I watched it again tonight via Kanopy and it comes off both unsubtle and sly. Sor Juana is portrayed as conforming, confident, conceited, condemned. She is, according to Paz’s publisher, “the most striking figure in all of Spanish-American colonial literature and one of the great poets of her age.”2
I went back to the film because I heard today on a local NPR station that two concerts this weekend by the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado will present Sor Juana’s musical work, of which I was unaware. Unaware for good reason because the music that accompanied the Sister’s words is lost, being imagined by other composers. Lost…
As we approach the coming American Inquisition, see what you think about the film Yo, la peor de todas (I, the Worst of All, with English subtitles).