Apology pro vita sua

Abstract

"... in a volume in a fourth major that belongs to the library of the Archdiocesan Seminary of Monterrey, titled Various Reports and that contains prints and manuscripts from the 18th century, most of Mexico City found (Fr. Aureliano Tapia Méndez) a document of five and a half pages, with this title: Carla de la Madre Juana Inés de la Cruz written to the RPM Antonio Núñez of the Society of Jesus. The spelling is from the beginning of the 18th century and the letter appears undated ... The language and the peculiarities of the style are Sor Juana's ... In his erudite and insightful analysis of the letter, Father Tapia Méndez affirms that the probable date of writing was the year 1681. For my part, I doubt between 1681 and 1682. .. The struggles and the end of Juana Inés de la Cruz are an impressive chapter in the story between intellectual freedom and power, individual genius and ideological bureaucracies. The significance of this conflict had been obscured by the doctrinal passion of various Catholic critics, some of them truly eminent, like Father Méndez Planearte.