Synopsis

The film is based on the life of Sor (Sister) Juana Ines de la Cruz, considered nowadays to be one of the greatest poets of 17th-century Spain (click here to hear Audrey Gibbs read one of Sor Juana's poems and discuss her stature).  Living in colonized Mexico, in a convent, Sor Juana is already famous for her writings, and she is the pride of the convent.  The arrival of a new viceroy and a new archbishop in Mexico will change her life forever.  Juana gets caught in the web of power and politics and in the continuous fight between the Church and the State, represented in the movie by the misogynyst Archbishop and the liberal, art-loving Viceroy and especially Vicereine, with whom Juana has a special relationship.  The power scales lean in favor of the Church, so the Viceroy has to return to Spain.  Left without a protector, Juana is caught in a political intrigue within the Church, and, in order to stay alive, she is forced to repent, give up all her intellectual activities, and consecrate her life to worshipping God. From the feminist rebel that she was, Juana seems to turn into the submissive nun that the Archbishop wants her to be.
 
 

Copyright (c) 2000 by Irina Negrea, graduate student at Lehigh University

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