A Sor Juana Anthology. Translated by Alan S. Trueblood. Foreword by Octavio Paz. Harvard University Press, 1988.
Vintage softcover. Near fine condition.
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From the New York Historical Society Museum and Library, 2018:
Not only was Juana a talented poet and philosopher, but she was also one of the first feminist literary women in the Americas.
Juana was a nun in New Spain, the territory that encompassed present-day Mexico and the American southwest. In her lifetime she was well-known for her scholarly pursuits. She was a self-taught scholar, religious philosopher, composer, and poet. Her poetry and prose, which covered topics like love, religion, feminism, and women’s rights to education, garnered the most attention.
One of her poems, written in 1680s, “Hombres necios que acusáis” (“You Foolish Men”), expresses her disappointment in the hypocrisy of the relations between men and women in New Spain. In the first, stanza Juana cries foul that men blame women for the faults that male-dominated society has taught them:
Hombres necios que acusáis You foolish men who lay
a la mujer sin razón, the guilt on women,
sin ver que sois la ocasión not seeing you’re the cause
de lo mismo que culpáis: of the very thing you blame"