Sor Juana was undoubtedly one of the greatest female thinkers and poets of Colonial 17th century Mexico. However, this was not a good thing at the time. The Archbishop exercised tremendous abuse on church of then, especially to Juana, being discriminative toward her because she was a woman. The window that opened for me after seeing this film, came out of a cultural aspect. I have never seen treatment like that of intelligent women ever in any culture. It was surprising to see that women who were well read, poetic, intelligent were not upheld, but torn down, why was this happening then. As of today, education and the striving for excellence is taught to everyone. Women are allowed many opportunities, some more than men, to embrace the institution of religion, education and marriage. These things were definitely held back from them in colonial times in Mexico for some reason, I can not explain.
Growing up in the church, pentecostal background, I was exposed to women pastors and preachers that had knowledge of the church, how it functions and was designated by God to tell about these things. I questioned whether my own religion had the same background as that of Sor Juana de la Cruz. I started asking around, my father being the first to be quizzed, he tells me that in the past, even in my church, women pastors or preachers were looked down upon or simply overlooked. It shocked to that first of all, I had a mirrored experience with this movie, and had not realized it, also, that this was happening not just in Mexico, but in the rest of the world as well.
Another mirror that came about was the idea of identity. I was forced to think about what makes a person that person they are? Is it one specific thing? Is it what others have made them out to be? How do we come about our own Identity? These were some questions that arose in my thoughts as I watched the movie. Juana says she is nothing without her books, or she does not exist without her books. This was interesting to me because, no matter what they did to her, took her books away and burned them, sold all her possessions and made her give up her writings, they still could not take her identity because she was already known for those things. How could she have overcome these things, would she leave the church to carry on with the things of her life that she loved so much?
Overall these questions, the answers I received while watching the movie, gave me better understand of what colonial Mexico would have been like then, and if I lived in that time, knowing what I know as of today, I must say I would have invested a lot in Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz!
I agree, DB, that looking at historical pieces like I, The Worst of All, can be jarring. Like you say here, I have grown up in a church community where women and men are side by side no matter what level of authority. Indeed, today the percentage of women that go to college is greater than the percent of men who go to college; education is definitely highly valued.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, it seems as if there is always something that makes you say, “what on earth were they thinking?” But it makes me realize that people are going to do that in 100 years when they look back at us. I try to figure out what it could be that future people will think makes no sense, but I think it is very difficult to discover that when you’re right in the middle of it, living it every day.
I grew up in a church that has, as long as I can remember, had two female pastors. To me this was normal and I agree with you about not understanding why an intelligent woman would be torn down just because she was intelligent. But a few years ago I was speaking to my mom about my aunt who is a pastor and her relationship with my grandfather, he was a bishop in the church. It shocked me to learn that my grandfather, for a long time, did not approve of my aunt being a pastor because she was a woman. Eventually he got used to it, but I can’t imagine how this made her feel as she was following her calling without the support of her father.
ReplyDeleteUnlike some of the people in the class, I have never had a woman pastor, and when I first learned that there were women pastors, it confused me. I come from a Southern Baptist background, and women were not involved in the church in leadership roles at all, other than being the piano player. However, now, I have learned that women have just as much right as men to be active in the church to whatever capacity they want to. It is unfortunate for Sor Juana, because she did not have the ability to exercise her intelligence in the capacity she wanted, and was brought down by the archbishop. I wonder if my views would have been different if I had lived at that time. Would I have been the same way as the men of the church, bringing Sor Juana down? Or would I have been like the viceroy, protecting her intellect?
ReplyDeleteI like the way you checked in with your own experience of women in the church here, and then followed up by interviewing your Dad to discover what the attitudes towards women in ministry had been in the past. Great that you've got strong women leaders in your church now--but leadership for women in most religious traditions has had its own sort of "Civil Rights" struggle. I agree that this is definitely a movie that prompts us to ask questions about identity. For me, the movie suggests that identity is at least partly social and created through interaction with others. When all of the interaction one has is negative, and it contradicts previous experiences, it is hard to know who one "is" in relation to others.
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