1.1 Introduction

Two of the most consistent features of Sor Juana’s writings are their pedagogical ambition and their didactic tone and format. These features are clearly manifest on some occasions, but in others they are veiled under more salient goals: for example, thanking a powerful patroness for her support, fulfilling a particular commission, or defending herself against criticism. Numerous scholars (e.g. Estrada Reference Estrada2000, Aspe Armella Reference Aspe Armella and Diego2015, and Hansen Reference Hansen2018) have pointed out these features in some of Sor Juana’s major works such as The Answer (Reference De la Cruz2009).

This deep concern with pedagogy is not surprising given that Sor Juana had an unmentored education during her childhood. Indeed, in The Answer, Sor Juana laments: “What a hardship it is to learn from those lifeless letters, deprived of the sound of a teacher’s voice and explanations!” (Reference De la Cruz2009, p. 53). Because she was forced to be an autodidact, able to educate herself only through great effort, she appears to have developed a keen interest in pedagogical matters. Consequently, there is throughout Sor Juana’s writings a constant interest in educating herself and others, and ongoing experimentation to find the most effective strategies to achieve this goal. This is well illustrated by a passage in The Answer in which she suggests (Reference De la Cruz2009, p. 75) that one can engage in philosophy even while performing mundane activities such as cooking a meal, for one can observe how different foodstuffs react when subjecting them to different treatments. This makes clear that Sor Juana aims to democratize learning by showing, much like Socrates does when he engages in conversation with the slave boy in Meno, that philosophy is not a privilege reserved for members of the social elite, but rather an intellectual enterprise than anyone can engage in regardless of social status.Footnote ³

This keen interest in pedagogical matters arises not only in Sor Juana’s most well-known pieces but also in so-called “minor” works. Specifically, her villancicos exhibit, as some distinguished Sor Juana scholars (or sorjuanistas) such as Marie-Cécile Benassy-Berling (Reference Benassy-Berling1983) and Martha Lilia Tenorio (Reference Tenorio1999) have noted, a clear pedagogical dimension insofar as Sor Juana often uses them as vehicles to present and discuss various complex theological and philosophical issues and to encourage her audience to critically reflect on those issues. For instance, in a villancico for the 1676 Assumption set [217], Sor Juana discusses in a didactic manner whether the Assumption is more important than the Incarnation by means of a dialogue in which Earth and Heaven joust for primacy. Sor Juana’s interest in the villancico as a didactic genre is not intermittent. Indeed, Benassy-Berling remarks that Sor Juana seems to have become progressively more interested in the versatility of the villancico to convey complex theological and philosophical ideas to diverse audiences because “she [continued] to practice it until the end even though, in virtue of her status as a famous author, she should have logically disdained it” (Reference Benassy-Berling1983, p. 196), given that the villancico was often considered a minor genre because of its popular origin.

This prompts two related questions: Why was Sor Juana so fascinated by the villancico as a tool to present complex ideas to a large audience in an engaging fashion? And what features made the villancico an effective instrument to address serious theological and philosophical questions while instructing a diverse crowd in these matters? Tenorio’s scholarship offers a good entry point to address these questions. Indeed, as she carefully notices in her study of Sor Juana’s villancicos, it is likely that

This observation is important because it enables us to posit an important connection. Given Sor Juana’s lifelong interest in pedagogy and her fascination with the hybrid nature of villancicos, she valued genre hybridity and broad audience appeal as key tools for philosophical teaching.

The effectiveness of the villancico as a vehicle for philosophical pedagogy is one of the central philosophical insights that emerge from a reading of Sor Juana’s villancicos; the main goal in this section is to make a case for this thesis. In what follows I briefly present some well-recognized philosophical works that are acknowledged as belonging to a hybrid genre. Specifically, I focus on Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays in virtue of their wide recognition as hybrid pieces, and I show why certain common features make them effective paradigms of philosophical pedagogy. I concentrate on four common characteristics: (i) their dialogical structure, (ii) their systematic appeal to irony and other forms of humor, (iii) their constant shifting between multiple perspectives and between different language registers or sociolects, and (iv) their use of certain narratives. Subsequently, I examine in detail how Sor Juana’s villancicos have a dialogical structure that promotes learning, and I offer some examples that illustrate this. I then consider the use of irony and other forms of humor that Sor Juana employs in the villancicos, and I show how irony and other forms of humor have a pedagogical dimension. I demonstrate the constant shifting of perspectives and linguistic sociolects in Sor Juana’s villancicos, and I show that this shifting serves a pedagogical function. I show how Sor Juana constructs short narratives throughout the villancicos, and I make the case that these narratives have a pedagogical dimension.

1.2 Genre Hybridity and Pedagogical Effectiveness: Some Commonalities in Two Case Studies

To show that genre hybridity in philosophy fosters pedagogical effectiveness, I examine first two paradigmatic cases. These are Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays. Some authors (e.g, Nightingale Reference Nightingale1995 and Charlabopoulos Reference Charabopoulos2012) view Plato’s dialogues as a hybrid genre because they constitute a form of philosophical expression that is both oral and written. In addition, other scholars consider them to be hybrid works because they often mix comedy and tragedy, as well as narrative and dialogue, as has been noted for the Symposium (e.g., Clay Reference Clay1975 and Sheppard Reference Sheppard2008). Similarly, scholars such as Lawrence Kritzman (Reference Kritzman1980) and Déborah Knop (Reference Knop and Desan2016) consider the Essays of Montaigne a hybrid work because the essays mix an anti-rhetorical orientation with an affirmation and an explicit use of rhetoric. Finally, Deborah Losse defends the hybridity of Montaigne’s Essays in virtue of the fact that they have, like the French conte (tale), with which they share many parallels, “an ability to bridge the public and the private sector” (Reference Losse2013, p. 155).

Granting that Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays are hybrid pieces, let us examine some of the features tied to their hybridity that make them powerful vehicles of philosophical pedagogy. The first feature is the presence of a dialogical structure. For instance, in the case of Plato’s dialogues, several scholars have stressed that the dialogical form promotes learning in various respects. First, though the dialogue may often end in aporia, it allows Socrates to learn about his conversational partners, and, indirectly, about himself. As Gary Scott contends: “As the master of his conversational craft, Socrates seems to learn only how better to assay the character of his interlocutors, to identify the fundamental nature of their beliefs or the structure of their desires, and to anticipate them in argument” (Reference Scott2000, p. 27). Second, even if the elenctic exchange does not ultimately yield knowledge, it works as a method for providing preliminary instruction for Socrates’ interlocutors, as Richard Robinson holds: “[Elenchus] does not, however, actually increase knowledge but only prepares the ground for it” (Reference Robinson and Vlastos1971, p. 84).

When we turn to Montaigne’s Essays, we can appreciate that their hybridity also promotes learning through a dialogical structure that operates in various ways. First, the dialogical character of Montaigne’s Essays, which mixes different styles of conversation, acts as a jolt that gets the readers’ attention and entices them to further engage with the text. As David Halpin remarks: “Montaigne’s conversational prose style, which is a mixture of the intimate, polemical and colloquial, helps in this regard, drawing readers easily into his personal and emotional life world” (Reference Halpin2015, p. 130). In addition, the dialogical structure of the Essays promotes learning through open-ended conversation with others. The dialogical structure fosters a habit of decentering, that is, of developing a critical distance with respect to one’s own beliefs. As Kevin Williams and Patrick Williams stress: “Conversation contributes to the process of decentering in learning by facilitating movement from the comfort zone of current beliefs and commitments. … If the interlocutor is a person of ‘strong mind and a tough jouster,’ writes Montaigne, ‘he presses on my flanks, he pricks me right and left, his ideas stimulate mine … and raise me above myself’” (Reference 84Williams and Williams2017, p. 259).

The second feature of hybrid philosophical pieces that promotes greatly their pedagogical effectiveness is the use of irony and other forms of humor.Footnote ⁴ Indeed, in the case of some of Plato’s dialogues, Vassiliou remarks that various instances of Socratic irony have a pedagogical role: namely, to shock the audience by inducing puzzlement. One such example is Socrates’ pronouncement in the Apology that if his “penalty” were to match his deed, he should receive free meals at the Prytaneum. As Vassiliou stresses, it is very likely that, when he uses irony in this fashion, “Socrates is attempting to generate perplexity en masse, and therefore attempting to do something positive and educative” (Reference Vassiliou2002, p. 227). In the case of Montaigne, the hybrid character of the Essays also provides a fertile ground for the use of irony and other forms of humor. A vivid illustration emerges when Montaigne engages in self-deprecation by stating that if he needs to laugh at a madman, he doesn’t need to search far since he himself is right there. This self-deprecatory humor plays an important pedagogical role for Montaigne, as Basu (Reference Basu2014, p. 193) observes, because “having renounced the role of the authoritative expert, he is free to collaborate, as the good teacher should, in the learning process and examine and experiment with himself in the presence of his students” (Reference Basu2014, p. 193).

The third common pedagogical feature of Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays tied to their hybridity is the constant shifting between different perspectives and various linguistic registers. The Symposium clearly manifests this since the dialogue allows multiple perspectives on love and beauty to be juxtaposed. This shifting between multiple perspectives plays a key pedagogical role because, as Solans remarks while discussing the Symposium, “producing definitions or accounts of love is one of the activities involved in the educational process in each particular class of love” (Reference Solans and Bosch2020, p. 175). For instance, we appreciate this when Aristophanes shifts from the dignified medical perspective exemplified in Eryximachus’ discourse to a jocular one when he jokes about using the “sneeze treatment” to stop his hiccups (189a). This sets the tone for his subsequent speech where he presents an account of love based on a farcical creation myth. In addition, the shifting in perspectives and sociolects also plays an important pedagogical role for Montaigne. Duval remarks that “in attempting to present the Cannibals of Brazil in a more sympathetic light, Montaigne successively adopts five different perspectives on the ‘barbarism’ of this new culture” (Reference Duval1983, p. 96). This shifting between different perspectives on what we mean by “barbarism” is, as Duval claims, of great pedagogical effectiveness since it offers “a way to discover [certain] insights for ourselves, and actually experience them through the very process of reading” (Reference Duval1983, p. 111).

Finally, a fourth common feature of Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays tied to their hybridity is the use of certain narratives. Various scholars recognize that these narratives in Plato and Montaigne have effective pedagogical roles. In the case of the dialogues where Socrates acts as a narrator, Schultz remarks that the narrative has a pedagogical role because it aims to educate his interlocutors: “Socrates’ narrations are attempts to engage his auditor in philosophy” (Reference 83Schultz2013, p. 5). For instance, in book 10 of the Republic, Socrates deploys a powerful narrative, the story of Er, to make his interlocutor Glaucon reflect upon the fact that the character one develops and the choices one makes in life have an impact after one’s death. And, in the case of the Essays, Montaigne often employs narratives with clear pedagogical purposes, as shown by his retelling of Socrates’ death in “Of Cruelty.” In this essay, he offers a brief narrative describing Socrates’ experience of pain and subsequent relief as he feels a scratch on his leg caused by the removal of the chains. For Hampton, this brief narrative of Socrates’ last hours plays a pedagogical role because “if the narrative of the heroic life is a journey of the soul, then the life has a direction, and even the most offhand gesture becomes a sign of greater purpose” (Reference Hampton1989, pp. 888–889). As these examples show, these four features, which are all characteristic of hybrid philosophical works, render Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays very effective pieces of philosophical pedagogy. I show below that this is also the case for Sor Juana’s villancicos.

1.3 The Impact of the Villancicos’ Dialogical Structure on Their Pedagogical Role

Many of the villancicos that Sor Juana penned possess a dialogical structure, where different performers play the part of different characters in conversation. Examples of this dialogical structure include the friendly conversational joust between Heaven and Earth in the first villancico of the 1676 Assumption set [217], as well as a wonderful example of dialogue in the first villancico of the Immaculate Conception 1689 set [275]. In the latter villancico, the chorus dialogues with a soloist about an important issue: how can we believe in the thesis of the Immaculate Conception if it is not an article of faith? Here is a fragment of the villancico:

In this fragment, the dialogue has two clear pedagogical aims. First, the passage enables the audience to learn the distinction between reason-based belief and faith-based belief and to grasp the proper justificatory ground of each kind of belief. This is important for the following reason: though the Immaculate Conception was widely accepted by most Catholics during the seventeenth century, it had been an object of serious debate between St. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, and was not officially adopted as dogma until much later.Footnote ⁵ Because of this, belief in the Immaculate Conception could not be justified for Sor Juana through mere faith: it was not a revealed truth but rather a sententia probabilis. Thus, to be justified, belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception required argumentation, which is precisely what Sor Juana offers in [275]. Secondly, the passage provides a very tidy illustration of how a justification via reductio ad absurdum enables us to acquire and hold beliefs. Since it is foul (“repugnante”) and contradictory that Mary is at once both mother of God (which is a revealed truth) and burdened by the original sin, we have to accept that, given that she is the mother of God, she must have been created free of the original sin, and thus the mystery is solved.Footnote ⁶ Considering this, the pedagogical import of the passage consists in conveying to the villancico’s audience the importance of offering reason-based justifications for certain religious claims. Indeed, for Sor Juana, some important claims such as Mary’s Immaculate Conception could not be directly justified using faith since they were not revealed truths and thus required further proof or deduction.Footnote ⁷

Another prominent example that shows how Sor Juana adroitly uses the dialogical structure of the villancico for pedagogical purposes can be appreciated in the first villancico of the 1690 Assumption set [304]. In this villancico, after one singer asks whether the Assumption consists in an ascent or a descent, Sor Juana has two other performers engaging in the following debate:

In this passage Sor Juana aims to teach her audience to do what Montaigne does according to Williams and Williams (Reference 84Williams and Williams2017): to decenter one’s thought. This decentering invites her audience to critically reflect on whether Mary’s Assumption necessarily denotes an ascending motion and, beyond this, on Mary’s nature and role. Indeed, even though the notion of “assumption” is traditionally associated with an upward movement or shift – for example, when a prince “assumes” the throne by ascending to it from a subaltern position – there are cases where the “assumption” is associated with a downward movement or shift, for example, when a person “assumes” a burden by lowering herself to lift it up. This is precisely what performer 3 suggests in the second stanza of [304] by arguing that, insofar as Mary’s soul was better than Heaven (“mejor que el Cielo”), Mary’s Assumption can be understood not in terms of an ascending motion of Mary to Heaven, but rather as a descending motion from Heaven to Mary.

Sor Juana’s critical reflection on Mary’s Assumption aims to prompt the following questions in her audience: granting that Mary’s assumption involves some kind of perfecting or reward, who benefits from it? Is Mary rewarded or perfected somehow because she ascends to Heaven, or is Heaven rewarded or perfected because Mary descends to it? These questions are important because they pertain to the nature and role of Mary and thus function as proxies for another pressing question: is Mary entirely subordinate to God just like the rest of humanity or does she have some complementary role vis-à-vis God by virtue of her Immaculate Conception? Though Sor Juana does not provide answers to this question here, one of the central pedagogical features of [304] is to encourage her audience to reflect on it from a philosophical perspective through a process of decentering their thoughts.

In addition to the decentering of one’s thoughts, another pedagogical feature displayed by the dialogical structure of [304] consists in showing the importance of articulating reasons in a philosophical conversation. Indeed, by presenting different characters who respectfully debate on the nature of Mary’s Assumption, since there is no single meaning for the notion “assumption” that they agree upon, Sor Juana teaches her audience that the exercise of debating respectfully with each other is crucial because it fosters in us the habit of articulating reasons to defend our views. Having shown the pedagogical effectiveness of the dialogical structure in the villancicos, let us turn now to consider the role of irony and humor.

1.4 The Role of Irony and Humor in the Pedagogical Effectiveness of the Villancicos

Just as in Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays, irony and other forms of humor have an important function in the pedagogical role of villancicos. To appreciate this, let us introduce the first villancico of the 1676 Immaculate Conception set [225]. In [225], Sor Juana celebrates Mary by recounting ironically the futile efforts of Lucifer to corrupt her:

This passage is very ironic because Sor Juana portrays Lucifer as a self-satisfied and cunning braggart who arrogantly believes that he can corrupt Mary just as he corrupted Eve. Indeed, since Mary is “Adam’s daughter” (“hija de Adán”), Lucifer is “boorishly daring” (“corrientemente atrevido”) that he can deploy his wiles to pervert her. But, just as the braggart Euthyphro embarrassingly fails to define piety, Lucifer also embarrassingly founders in his attempts to corrupt Mary. The reason for this is that Mary’s title as “Adam’s daughter” operates as a mechanism of dissembling vis-à-vis Lucifer. Indeed, since Lucifer views himself as superior to all humans, he considers Mary as an easy target.

But he does not realize that Mary is completely impervious to his wiles since he cannot “swallow” the very idea of corrupting her given their antithetical natures, which makes him hold back from Adam’s bite. Both the dissembling character of Mary’s title and the humorous wordplay on “tragar”, which is typically used for food but is employed here to express the grasp of an idea by Lucifer, have an effective pedagogical dimension since Sor Juana aims to convey through them that Mary is free from and impervious to all sin by virtue of her Immaculate Conception.

In addition to this, there are other passages in the villancicos where Sor Juana deploys more subtle forms of irony. For instance, in the eighth villancico from the 1690 Assumption set [311], Sor Juana offers a jácaraFootnote ⁸ where one of the singers mentions with a polished irony that, on the day of Mary’s Assumption, God was so delighted that he suspended all suffering even in Hell:

As Tenorio (Reference Tenorio1999, p. 171) remarks, Sor Juana deploys a sophisticated form of irony similar to Socratic irony, as Greogory Vlastos understands it. Indeed, for Vlastos, when Socrates deploys irony, “the surface content [of what he says] is meant to be true in a sense, false in another” (Reference Vlastos1991, p. 31). This also appears to be the case in the jácara in [311]. On the one hand, Sor Juana knows well that the affirmation that the torments of the damned in Hell ceased during Mary’s Assumption is not theologically defensible. Thus, performer 1 dissembles vis-à-vis performer 2 since she pretends to hold true a story that is obviously is false in a sense. But, on the other hand and in another sense, what she says is also true. Namely, if God is a compassionate being rather than a wrathful judge bent on punishing, he can experience compassion and clemency for the damned. In doing this, Sor Juana questions the traditional view of God as a wrathful avenger and proposes an alternate view meant to portray God as a source of love rather than fear. Sor Juana’s irony in [311] has a key pedagogical purpose since it aims to teach an important pastoral lesson: God’s love and compassion might be more easily attained through the intercession of Mary, given the central position that she occupies.Footnote ⁹

1.5 The Role of Shifting Perspectives and Sociolects in the Pedagogy of Villancicos

In addition to the dialogical structure and the use of humor that the villancicos exhibit, a third feature with pedagogical import that they also manifest is a constant shifting between different perspectives and sociolects. There are many examples of this shifting. One noteworthy instance occurs in a dialogue in the eighth villancico from the 1677 Peter Nolasco set [241] where two characters – a pedantic University bachiller (student) and a lay Spaniard everyman – engage in the following verbal exchange:

This hilarious exchange is a clear example of shifting perspectives in the villancicos, which is accompanied here by constant shifting between different sociolects. Given that the audience of Sor Juana’s villancicos encompassed both learned Church priests who were fluent in Latin and Spanish, as well as lay Novohispanic people who mostly spoke vernacular Spanish, the dialogue in [241] highlights humorously the consequences of the priests’ use of a prestige language different from the vernacular spoken by the congregation. Since only priests and a few other learned members of the elite would have fully understood the dialogue, what Sor Juana seems to be doing here is leveling a tongue-in-cheek criticism at priests to make them reflect on whether using a language unfamiliar to most of their flock was the best way to carry out their pastoral duties.

Moreover, since the bachiller and the lay person end up systematically talking past each other because of the former’s fixation with speaking Latin, what the poem shows is that both fail to learn something important from each other. In particular, the bachiller fails to learn that the layman has a potentially problematic proclivity for wine that could be addressed if the bachelor deigned to speak Spanish, and the layman fails to learn the theological knowledge that the bachelor conveys because the layman ends up losing patience with him. The most important lesson that Sor Juana draws from this Babel-like situation induced by the constant shifting of sociolects is not that we should all learn Latin or that Latin should be abandoned in favor of the vernacular, but rather that, to foster a respectful and productive communal life within a community, priests and other members of elites should practice humility, and laypersons and commoners should practice patience.

In addition to this, the shifting between different perspectives in the villancicos has another important pedagogical function, which consists in teaching the importance of learning the strengths and shortcomings of different positions – particularly, those that one disagrees with. To appreciate this, let me consider the ninth villancico of the 1690 St. Joseph set [300] where Sor Juana contrasts the positions of Thomas the Apostle and Joseph with respect to their respective justifications for their beliefs (that is, Thomas’ belief in the resurrection of Jesus and Joseph’s belief in Mary’s virginal conception of Jesus):

As we can appreciate here, the structure of [300] enables Sor Juana to juxtapose and shift between two different perspectives. The first one is that of Thomas the Apostle, who initially doubted the tale of Jesus’s resurrection and only believed it when he saw Jesus with his own eyes (John 20:25–27). The second one is that of Joseph, who initially doubted that Mary had gotten pregnant through the power of God, and only believed when he heard the voice of an angel in a dream. The pedagogical import of this passage consists in offering the following lesson: considering that different people have distinct epistemic orientations – some are materially inclined, as Thomas is, while others are oneirically receptive as Joseph is – God adapts to the different epistemic orientations of people to provide the evidence that they require to believe in him. In virtue of this, in [300] the shifting of perspectives plays a notable pedagogical role in teaching that, regardless of your epistemic orientation (“genio”), you can be justified in believing in God since God provides various paths to know him: specifically, direct sense experience and dreams.Footnote ¹⁰ Let us finally turn to consider the use of narratives in the villancicos.

1.6 The Role of Narratives in the Pedagogy of Sor Juana’s Villancicos

Besides being a masterful conversationalist, ironist, and perspective-shifter, Sor Juana is also an accomplished storyteller who excels at creating compelling and witty narratives that offer valuable lessons. A good example is Sor Juana’s retelling of the Biblical story of how God chose Joseph to raise and mentor Jesus, and how Joseph escaped to Egypt to protect Jesus from the massacre of infants in the eighth villancico from the 1690 St. Joseph set [299]:

Though this narrative is a fictional and almost farcical retelling of certain Biblical passages from Matthew’s gospel in which the humor is heightened by the insistence that the story is not made up, it serves an important pedagogical function. Indeed, like many other fictional and farcical narratives, such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, it aims to convey an important moral lesson to the audience, though a different one from that of Swift. Unlike Swift, Sor Juana does not aim to satirize the mores of her time to shame her audience into good behavior. Instead, she seeks to cast light on the moral stature of Joseph, highlighting that he is not a mere tool in God’s hands whose sole function is to ensure the survival of Jesus Christ. Rather, he is a noble person worthy of the responsibility entrusted to him, and he supersedes God in some respects as the verses “consider, If God is his junior / How great must he be!” suggest. In virtue of this, Sor Juana aims to convey an important lesson in [299]: though God is omnipotent, human beings have an active role to play through our actions to bring about the good in God’s design, just as Joseph does. Because of this, we should try to emulate Joseph as a moral paradigm.

1.7 Conclusion

I have argued here that, given Sor Juana’s pedagogical ambitions, one of the characteristic philosophical features of Sor Juana’s villancicos consists in their hybrid nature. Indeed, the villancicos’ hybridity, which they share with other well-known philosophical works such as Plato’s dialogues and Montaigne’s Essays, enables Sor Juana to use a variety of different resources, which are also employed by Plato and Montaigne, to educate her audience effectively. As I have shown above, the hybridity of the villancicos allows Sor Juana to exploit fully the expressive possibilities of the genre by employing the following features: dialogical structure, irony and other forms of humor, constant perspective shifting, and narratives – all of which are patently effective as pedagogical tools. Considering this, Sor Juana’s villancicos should be considered notable models of pedagogical philosophy to be studied and emulated, particularly if one aims, as Sor Juana did, to democratize access to philosophy.

2.1 Introduction

As Section 1 showed, there is a constant effort in Sor Juana’s villancicos to prompt her audience to engage in philosophical reflection to improve themselves. This effort manifests itself in Sor Juana’s use of various rhetorical techniques and literary resources, such as the employment of humor and the development of narratives. But it also emerges in the specific figures and events Sor Juana addresses in her villancicos and in the ways in which she approaches these figures and topics.

Sorjuanistas such as Margo Glantz have noticed that there is a convergence between the figures that Sor Juana addresses in her writings and the ways in which Sor Juana addresses them. Particularly, Glantz remarks that “colonial writing is a literature of exemplars, and its avowed objective is to teach, to charm, to persuade, which means to say that any life worthy of being told must constitute an example for all others with the goal that, being moved by the virtues and the extraordinary acts of this life, all will be compelled to follow it” (Reference Glantz1995, p. 50). Because of this, the villancicos belong to a hagiographic tradition that is governed by a narrative schema – that of an edifying discourse – and constrained by the choice of certain religious events or figures.

Though the adoption of the general schema and the focus on certain topics could have made the villancicos clichéd, Sor Juana’s genius allowed her to turn them into great works of philosophy because of the original ways in which she addresses those figures or events. Considering that Sor Juana was aware of the importance of being able to offer reasons in any pedagogical and philosophical endeavor, I agree with Tenorio’s contention (Reference Tenorio1999, p. 94) that the originality of the villancicos lies, at least partially, in the fact that Sor Juana employs a logico-scholastic approach to argue for certain claims. In addition, Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel has pointed out another crucial feature that explains why Sor Juana’s villancicos are effective as sources of moral paradigms: “the sets of villancicos outline in their very structure a journey from the Catholic knowledge of the metropolis to the multiplicity of voices of the colony … wherein the villancico is the place of confluence and passage of various paradigms and knowing subjects” (Reference Tenorio1999, p. 153). In other words, because of the constant shifting between perspectives (discussed in 1.5), the villancicos allow the convergence of different perspectives belonging to different situated subjects concerning what makes certain religious figures moral paradigms.

Because of this, I argue here that the villancicos function as exemplars of a kind of moral perspectivism because, through them, Sor Juana enables her audience to get to know various prominent religious figures – such as the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and Peter the Apostle – from different perspectives. This reading of Sor Juana’s villancicos as instances of a kind of moral perspectivism also suggests that Sor Juana endorses a form of virtue pluralism, wherein individuals can exhibit virtue in different ways, depending on their specific social identities and locations. Indeed, by presenting and juxtaposing diverse perspectives, Sor Juana appears to establish how different religious figures can be virtuous in different ways. Specifically, Sor Juana provides the members of her audience with a variety of different moral exemplars that they can more easily follow since some of them mirror more closely their own specific social identity and position. This results in a broad and diverse conception of virtue that encompasses many distinct traits and unifies them into a comprehensive – even if not completely consistent – set of moral ideals that helps various people in different social locations lead better lives.

I examine here her various moral paradigms. I focus initially on Sor Juana’s treatment of the Virgin Mary in two villancicos, showing how Sor Juana’s portrait of Mary as a moral paradigm allows her to introduce certain of Mary’s specific roles or virtues – namely, intercession and compassion – that certain groups are encouraged to emulate. I then consider two villancicos belonging to the 1677 St. Peter set, and I show how Sor Juana manages to craft in them a compelling portrait of Peter the Apostle as a moral exemplar exhibiting grit and helmsmanship, by using perspectives from various characters with different social identities and locations. I investigate subsequently how Sor Juana uses different perspectives in two villancicos of the 1690 St. Joseph set to craft an image of Joseph as a moral paradigm, showcasing chastity, obedience, and decorum. I consider finally a villancico from the 1691 St. Catherine set and argue that her depiction as a moral paradigm depends upon presenting different perspectives about her, which all serve to highlight different virtues such as courage and devotion.

2.2 The Virgin Mary as a Moral Paradigm in Sor Juana’s Villancicos

Let me consider first the case of Sor Juana’s treatment of Mary, who is a central figure in various sets of villancicos. As I mentioned in Section 1.2, the first villancico of the 1676 Assumption set [217] involves a dialogue between Heaven and Earth in which they engage in a friendly joust over which one has been more important in God’s designs:

This exchange offers a picture of Mary as a moral paradigm by highlighting several traits in juxtaposition with those of Christ. First, Heaven presents Mary as triumphant as she ascended to it in contrast to the suffering that Christ experiences after descending to Earth. Earth replies that Mary’s womb is a better abode than Heaven since God chose it to become incarnated, thus emphasizing Mary’s wholesomeness. Finally, in the last stanza, Mary and Christ are characterized as peacemakers that bring an end to the dispute through the joy that they both elicit. The attribution to Mary of virtues such as wholesomeness and of roles such as being a peacemaker is standard within the hagiographic tradition that the villancicos belong to.Footnote ¹¹ What makes this portrait a compelling moral paradigm is that it is not presented as a top-down imposed dogma that must be uncritically accepted by the audience. Rather, it is the product of an energetic argumentative exchange between different characters in which various reasons are offered and assessed by each, thus implicitly inviting the audience to engage in the same kind of reflective exercise. Sor Juana hints that the kind of measured and thoughtful exchange that Earth and Heaven have in [217] provides an exemplar of an ethical life insofar as the debate ends not in acrimony but in mutual contentment.

Sor Juana also uses a villancico to offer a portrait of Mary as a moral paradigm in the last of the 1676 Assumption set [224]. In this piece, Sor Juana brings to the fore the voices of the lowest strata of the Novohispanic society – that is, Indigenous and Black people – to present her as a moral paradigm. This can be appreciated in a section of [224] – the tocotín – which Sor Juana composed in Nahuatl to better reach Nahua speakers in her audience:

We find in the tocotín a clear depiction of Mary as a moral paradigm where the central virtue that characterizes her is compassion. It is through compassion that Mary can help her Nahua devotees to become deserving so that they too are able to ascend to Heaven. To be more specific, Mary’s compassion is presented in the tocotín as a kind of master virtue because it places Mary above God in one respect. Since Mary’s compassion for Christ’s hunger when he is an infant prompts her to feed him and earns her his gratitude, compassion offers a pathway to collective salvation for Mary’s Nahua devotees since she can more effectively intercede for them.

What makes this characterization particularly effective is that Sor Juana presents it not from the vantage point of a Spanish religious authority figure seeking to impart catechism. Rather, she adopts the perspective of Nahua worshippers by speaking in their own language and praising Mary in their own terms. Specifically, though Mary might initially be presented as a colonial savior, the Nahuas clearly indigenize her by using the name “Tonantzin” (“Our great Mother”), a name originally used to refer to an Aztec goddess.Footnote ¹² Because of this, Sor Juana not only invites the Christian Nahua speakers in her audience to emulate the compassion that Mary exhibits so that they can be saved, but also to act as compassionate intercessors vis-à-vis other gentile Nahuas, so that these can in turn convert to Christianity and become morally better persons by emulating Mary. Let us now turn to the case of Peter the Apostle.

2.3 Peter the Apostle as a Moral Paradigm in Sor Juana’s Villancicos

In the case of Peter the Apostle, we can also see a clear use of different perspectives to craft a compelling moral paradigm. But there is a key difference that sets Peter apart from the Virgin Mary. Though Peter is a central figure for the Catholic church as the first of the Apostles, he is not above sin, as Mary is. Specifically, one of Peter’s greatest moral failings consists in his denial of Christ. Theologians have often assigned particular significance to this moral failure given that, despite its gravity, it also shows how redemption is possible, since Peter is ultimately reconciled with Christ after his resurrection. For Sor Juana, Peter’s moral failure is not the product of fear overwhelming him, but rather a logical shortcoming. Because of this logical shortcoming, Peter’s case provides an excellent pedagogical opportunity to teach her audience about the central importance of logic and its connection with good character.Footnote ¹³ Here is what she writes in the sixth villancico of 1677 St. Peter set [247]:

Through this wonderful villancico, Sor Juana presents to us an enthralling characterization of Peter the Apostle as a moral paradigm that has two important and complementary facets. The first facet consists in contending that Peter’s gravest moral shortcoming is not due to a failure of character, but rather to a lapse in Peter’s logical skills. According to Sor Juana, though Peter is a “deep well of science” (“de ciencia un abismo”), he fails to consider the nexus (“y sin ver la ilación”) between the premises of the argument – which are “I know that Jesus is God” and “I know that God is this man” –and, because of this, he denies the conclusion “I know that Jesus is this man.” In virtue of this error in reasoning, the lesson that Sor Juana seemingly wants to convey is that, to become a better person – in particular, in order to succeed where Peter failed – one must learn and cultivate logical skills.Footnote ¹⁵ The second facet, which is articulated in the last stanza, consists in showcasing the importance of Peter’s acknowledgment of his logical shortcoming, which is the source of his moral failure, and highlighting his regret. Peter’s repentance is a core part of the moral exemplar that he provides through his actions since it underscores the key role of epistemic humility that is required to follow in Peter’s footsteps when he humbles himself, engages in contrition, and redeems himself.

A second example of Sor Juana’s use of different perspectives to craft a compelling moral exemplar lies in the eighth villancico of the 1677 St. Peter set [249]. In [249], Sor Juana has various singers play the parts of different characters: a mestizo (i.e., mixed-race man) from New Spain, a Portuguese sailor and a poltroon sexton.Footnote ¹⁶ What is fascinating about the characters’ praise for Peter is that the resulting portrait of him is one in which he is clearly a moral paradigm, but also one in which his attributed virtues reflect the social origins and occupations of his devotees. For instance, the mestizo praises him in the following terms:

The portrait of St. Peter that emerges here is that of a tough guy, aloof (“orejano”) and withdrawn (“retraído”), who grew up in such difficult circumstances and adverse environmentFootnote ¹⁷ that all the people unquestioningly followed his lead. Given that mixed-race people constituted a minority that was viewed with suspicion and resentment by both Spaniards and Indigenous groups, they had to develop tough and brave personas to survive in a harsh social environment. Thus, in praising Peter as a tough guy who is aloof and withdrawn but also brave and fearsome because of his harsh youth environment, the mestizo is projecting unto Peter the virtues of his socio-racial group. This is also something that we can appreciate in the case of the Portuguese sailor, who praises Peter as follows:

This passage is not only remarkable in virtue of its humor since Sor Juana uses a macaronic language blending Portuguese and Spanish to elicit fun, but also because it presents a depiction of Peter as a moral exemplar. However, in contrast to the brave and fearsome “tough guy” persona in the mestizo’s discourse, the portrait of Peter that emerges is that of a calm and skillful seaman who steers himself and those who follow him to safety. The Portuguese sailor stresses the virtues and positive character traits of equanimity and helmsmanship.

A noteworthy point here is that the virtues that both the mestizo and the Portuguese sailor attribute to him – that is, courage and grit, but also equanimity and helmsmanship – are not at odds with each other since all of them are required to accomplish what Peter in fact realized: namely, to guide the newly formed Christian church in a hostile environment during its early years. Considering this, the different perspectives that Sor Juana presents in [249] allow her to make the case that, since virtue has many different facets as the case of Peter shows, different individuals can be virtuous in different ways.

This insight is important insofar as it opens the door to a form of virtue pluralism where individuals may pursue different paths to become virtuous in ways that reflect their social identities and locations. Some may develop courage and grit in harsh environments by facing dangers and hardships, as mestizos did, while others may develop equanimity and helmsmanship by performing tasks, such as reefing sails or shifting ballast when a storm approaches, as sailors do.

2.4 St. Joseph as a Moral Paradigm in Sor Juana’s Villancicos

The figure of St. Joseph is revered within the Catholic hagiographic tradition that Sor Juana followed because he raised Christ even though he was not his son and because he cohabited with Mary in an abstinent marriage. For these reasons, he is usually considered a paradigm of obedience and chastity to be emulated. Following this tradition, Sor Juana presents St. Joseph in her villancicos as a moral paradigm exemplifying obedience and chastity. But the way in which she articulates the portrait of St. Joseph is highly innovative as she relies on presenting Joseph from different perspectives. This is apparent in the case of sixth villancico of the 1690 St. Joseph set [297]. Indeed, we can see in [297] that Sor Juana presents two different perspectives – those of God and St. Joseph – as both engage in a wager about which one should be credited for doing the greatest fineza (love demonstration) to the other:

The structure of the exchange throughout [297] mirrors a disputatio in which reasons are traded back and forth between God and Joseph. The exchange suggests that, for Sor Juana, cultivating logical skills is necessary to develop virtue, as Joseph shows when he argues that the best sign of obedience is the very act of obeying. In addition, the picture that emerges is one in which Joseph’s virtues are rewarded by a series of matching divine gifts: Joseph’s chastity vis-à-vis Mary is rewarded by Mary remaining virgin after giving birth to Jesus Christ, his sacrifice of any natural progeny is rewarded by his becoming surrogate father of God, and his swift obedience to God is rewarded by God subjecting his omnipotence to him. Consequently, the presentation of Joseph’s virtues as a series of traits highly valued by God enables Sor Juana to articulate a persuasive moral paradigm where chastity and obedience are shown to be gateways to moral greatness and power.

Indeed, Sor Juana suggests that people can achieve moral greatness and power by emulating Joseph’s chastity and obedience, because these virtues enable those who act in accordance with them to follow paths that lead to moral greatness and power and to avoid paths that, though prima facie attractive, ultimately lead to self-debasement and grief.Footnote ¹⁸

In addition, Sor Juana hints that, by admitting his jealousy when faced with Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph can better control it through the exercise of decorum, which is a key social virtue. Indeed, Sor Juana suggests here, that though Mary’s pregnancy could have elicited in Joseph an unbridled jealous rejection as well as a loss of respect, the exercise of decorum – understood as “good manners” – enables him to continue treating Mary with courtesy, even though he is fully aware she does not carry his child. This intimates that, for Sor Juana, decorum plays a role in morality by helping us to acknowledge and respect the dignity of other people, as Joseph does vis-à-vis Mary.Footnote ¹⁹ God subsequently rewards this exercise of decorum when he grants Joseph knowledge about the true nature of Mary’s pregnancy.

A second example of how Sor Juana employs different perspectives to craft a compelling portrait of Joseph as a moral exemplar is visible in the third villancico of the 1690 St. Joseph set [294]. In this piece, Sor Juana makes one of the performers ask a riddle about the identity of a person who rules over God while at the same time obeying Him:

The back and forth in this riddle game allows Sor Juana not only to present a lively collective conversation that is deeply amusing, but to construct a portrait of St. Joseph as a moral exemplar. All the perspectives that converge here contribute to the creation of a portrait embodying different virtues. St. Joseph is successively depicted as being more powerful than Moses, more just than Joshua, more courageous than Jacob, and more magnanimous than Elijah. The person who asks the riddle and then supplies the right answer concludes that Joseph exceeds all the other patriarchs and prophets since he is the only figure whose authority God bows to. Thus, through the villancico, Sor Juana makes clear that St. Joseph is a moral paradigm whose example should be followed because these multiple virtues make him a kind of concentrate of all the virtues of his predecessors. And she also leaves open the possibility that different people in different social strata might emulate Joseph by pursuing different paths that lead to different individual virtues (e.g., justice, as in the case of Joshua, or courage, as in the case of Jacob), rather than pursuing a single path. Finally, let us consider the case of St. Catherine.

2.5 St. Catherine as a Moral Paradigm in Sor Juana’s Villancicos

In addition to the Virgin Mary, the other main feminine figure that appears in Sor Juana’s villancicos is St. Catherine of Alexandria. St. Catherine had a privileged position in the Christian hagiographic tradition as a moral exemplar for women. According to the story transcribed in the Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine (Reference De Voragine2012, pp. 720–727), St. Catherine was the daughter of the pagan governor Costus. Born in the early fourth century, she was reputed to be an intellectually gifted and beautiful young woman who refused to marry anyone to preserve her chastity. After her refusal, she received a vision of Mary praising her for her choice and telling her that she would be married to Christ in a mystical union, after which she converted to Christianity. Following her conversion, the emperor Maximinus came to Alexandria and ordered all the people to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods. When St. Catherine refused to do so, Maximinus commanded fifty scholars to examine her beliefs and persuade her to honor the Roman gods. But it was St. Catherine who convinced the scholars through her arguments, and they all converted to Christianity. Upon hearing this, Maximinus ordered that the scholars be burned alive. He then tried to convince St. Catherine to abandon her Christian faith, even promising to make her his empress. But, as St. Catherine persisted in her refusal, he ordered his soldiers first to torture her and then, finally, to decapitate her.

As Tenorio (Reference Tenorio1999, p. 136) remarks, Sor Juana was likely attracted to the figure of St. Catherine because, besides being a paradigm of chastity, her life and circumstances mirrored Sor Juana’s own. Both were intellectually gifted women who were subject to examinations by male scholars who eventually bowed to their intellects, and both were subject to pressures by male authority figures to abandon their beliefs and their activities. St. Catherine provided for Sor Juana an excellent model of how women could display courage and constancy. Sor Juana makes this clear in the third villancico of the 1691 St. Catherine set [314], where she introduces and compares different perspectives on the actions of Cleopatra and St. Catherine:

The juxtaposition of these different perspectives on Cleopatra and St. Catherine allows Sor Juana to accomplish two main goals. First, she presents two compelling female paradigms of courage, the first one pagan and the second Christian, to make clear that courage can manifest in women regardless of their religion. Second, Sor Juana argues that, though the sacrifice of St. Catherine is like that of Cleopatra, the former is superior because it was motivated by a divine love for God rather than an earthly love for freedom. And St. Catherine’s sacrifice for divine love is one that, as she puts it, prolongs life instead of ending it. St. Catherine’s example constitutes a moral paradigm that presents for people, and specifically for women, a path to salvation and everlasting life.

In addition to this juxtaposition of different perspectives in [314], Sor Juana also employs elsewhere different perspectives to craft a portrait of St. Catherine as a moral exemplar. Sor Juana presents in [320] a debate between two performers who discuss whether St. Catherine is better considered as a rose, which is associated with virtues such as chastity and dignity, or a star, which is associated with virtues such as kindness and candor:

The juxtaposition of these two perspectives is crucial since the rose and the star are, as Elías Trabulse remarks, classical symbols of alchemy that represent “The Flower of Wisdom” (Reference Trabulse and Herrera1993, p. 213). Because of this, the contrast between the two perspectives, which turn out to stand for different stages of the Great Work, is only transient. The contrast is resolved in a union wherein all the virtues associated with both the rose and the star (i.e., chastity, candor, kindness and spiritedness) coalesce in a single feminine figure that admits multiple names. Sor Juana makes this patent in the last stanza of [321]:

This confluence of names, and of the corresponding virtues associated with them, in a single person signals that virtue is plural and that it can be attained through many different paths. Some may want to emulate St. Catherine by imitating her chastity and naming her “Rose.” Others may want to emulate her by imitating her candor and naming her “Star.” Regardless of the path followed, Sor Juana shows that the different names that people use to refer to St. Catherine and the different perspectives about her virtue are not antithetical. They merely reflect different standpoints that people have due to their different social identities and locations. These different perspectives enable us to develop distinct but complementary approaches to virtue that various people can follow depending on their circumstances.

2.6 Conclusion

In this section, I have argued that Sor Juana’s villancicos juxtapose different perspectives concerning various saintly or divine figures who are presented as moral paradigms. Through this juxtaposition, her villancicos offer a kind of moral perspectivism that allows her audience to see these figures from various standpoints, thus opening the door to a virtue pluralism in which individuals can be virtuous in distinct ways. To show this, I have examined how Sor Juana uses different perspectives to illustrate how different persons assign different virtues to figures such as Mary, Peter the Apostle, Joseph and St. Catherine, depending on their specific social identities and locations. In turn, these different religious figures provide various alternative paths to become virtuous. On the whole, Sor Juana’s villancicos should be viewed as teaching a deep philosophical insight: namely, that there are potentially different ways to become virtuous depending on one’s identity and social position.

3.1 Introduction

Various sorjuanistas have maintained that many of Sor Juana’s writings can be considered feminist pieces. Starting with Dorothy Schons’ observation that the Answer is “in fact, a defense of the rights of women, a memorable document in the history of feminism” (Reference Schons1926, p. 158), scholars have argued that various other Sor Juana works are feminist compositions, granting that we understand feminism, following María Luisa Femenías, as “the perception of women’s subordination and the commitment to correct this situation of subordination” (Reference Femenías, Salles and Millán-Zaibert2005, p. 132). For instance, Electa Arenal has contended that “gnostic, Marian feminism is evinced most affirmatively and coherently in the Ejercicios Devotos” (Reference Arenal1985, p. 66). Moreover, in the case of Sor Juana’s play One House, Many Complications (Reference De la Cruz2020), George Lemus has argued that one of the main characters who provides comic relief, the servant Castaño, “plays in addition an important role as he presents feminist ideas in comical situations” (Reference Lemus1985, p. 26). And, finally, Linda Egan has claimed that, in the case of her lyrical and religious poetry (particularly, in her sacramental autos such as The Scepter of Joseph), Sor Juana develops a “feminist theology” that allows her “to deconstruct the masculine Trinity and reconstruct it on the basis of a feminine principle” (Reference Egan and Herrera1993, p. 330).

In light of these readings, it is not surprising to find feminist themes and strategies deployed in the villancicos. Martínez-San Miguel has observed that there are two visible strategies articulated in the villancicos: “(1) the praise of the intellectual capacity in a series of sacred feminine figures … and (2) the revision of theology itself to redefine the place of women in the intellectual domain, starting with the Virgin Mary as a fundamental figure in the articulation of a female theological and epistemological subject” (Reference 82Martínez-San Miguel1999, p. 60). Contemporary scholars already interpret the villancicos as feminist compositions. My goal in this section is to build on this prior work to argue that the villancicos are mannerist feminist compositions.

By “mannerist,” I mean here, following Alessandra Luiselli, a specific tendency in art wherein the artist, who is an imitator of a previous master, “focuses upon a detail of the masterpiece, but blows it out of proportion and places it at the center of a new creation” (Reference Luiselli1993, p. 151). Characterizing the villancicos as mannerist feminist productions is crucial because it underscores that Sor Juana’s villancicos do imitate previous existing artistic and religious models, but in a differential way that involves focusing on some details and exaggerating them to the point of creating something new that subverts the original model. Indeed, while Sor Juana’s portrayal of Mary often imitates previous models found in the Bible – particularly, the Song of Songs, the gospel of Matthew, and the Revelation of John – Sor Juana typically uses these sources in novel ways, often in order to subvert or question the traditional subordination of women to men.

To show this, I proceed in the following fashion. I examine first how in two early villancicos Sor Juana uses a mannerist strategy that involves portraying Mary as courageous, and then I demonstrate that, by exaggerating this courage out of proportion, Sor Juana turns Mary into a soldier full of martial virtues. I show how through this military portrayal of Mary Sor Juana carves a path to excellence for at least some women, particularly by suggesting that Mary can ascend to Heaven through these martial virtues. I analyze subsequently how Sor Juana also uses a mannerist strategy in two villancicos of the 1690 Assumption set to exaggerate the role of the Virgin Mary as the God-bearer (Theotokos). As we will see, Sor Juana uses this exaggeration to suggest that, since Mary’s Assumption to Heaven is needed so that God’s enthronement can take place, Mary’s position is not subordinate to God. I then finally explore in detail a villancico from the 1691 St. Catherine set, and I demonstrate how Sor Juana uses a mannerist strategy to hyperbolize the wisdom and logical skills of St. Catherine to subvert the traditional conception of learned women within the Hispanic world. Specifically, I show how Sor Juana argues that St. Catherine’s wisdom and logical skills are precisely what empower her to triumph over her examiners and achieve the greatest possible outcome for them and for herself.

3.2 First Mannerist Feminist Strategy: Portraying the Virgin Mary as a Courageous Warrior

Though Mary is often depicted in the villancicos following traditional portrayals found in the Scriptures (e.g., as a mother, a bride, or an intercessor), Sor Juana occasionally depicts her using unexpected allegories (e.g., as a healing plant) or in unusual roles (e.g., as an accomplished astronomer or a consummate rhetorician). Among the unusual roles, the role of Mary as a courageous warrior is recurrent in the villancicos. This depiction is clearly the product of a deliberate exaggeration given that, even if the Scriptures depict Mary as courageous when she addresses Gabriel during the Annunciation despite her fear (Luke 1:34), Mary’s courage was never deployed in battle nor was she an actual warrior.

According to Martínez-San Miguel, this exaggerated portrayal of Mary as courageous warrior is not fortuitous. Rather, it has a specific role: considering that the conventional association of the warrior with both physical strength and martial activities, it “reminds us that religion was precisely the pretext to justify the military dominion of colonial America, as well as the Spanish Reconquista” (Reference 82Martínez-San Miguel1999, p. 155). While I agree that this portrayal has the role that Martínez-San Miguel underscores (which is potentially troublesome since it associates Sor Juana’s praise of Mary’s virtue with Spanish colonialism),Footnote ²⁰ I contend that, in addition, it has another important role within the context of Sor Juana’s virtue pluralism: it showcases how (at least some) women can achieve moral excellence through a martial path, just as Mary does in her role as a soldier. To appreciate this, let us first consider the sixth villancico [222] of the 1676 Assumption set:

An analysis of the villancico shows that, in addition to being depicted wearing the gear of a knight as well as performing the traditional feats that a knight undertakes, Mary is depicted as embodying the virtues associated with that figure, that is, courage, gallantry, industry and compassion, especially towards the downtrodden. This portrayal is further developed and nuanced in an interesting way given that Sor Juana also reminds us, that despite manifesting these traditionally masculine attributes and virtues, Mary nevertheless remains a woman since “she bore us a Lion” (“nos parió un León”).

Sor Juana depicts Mary by using this mix of masculine and feminine attributes, which are in tension with each other. She then characterizes Mary as “bizarra,”Footnote ²¹ and implies that, for some women who are “bizarras” – that is, both courageous and unconventional – insofar as they are inclined to pursue a military career and a nomadic life such as the famous Catalina de Erauso,Footnote ²² it is possible to achieve moral excellence without marrying or joining a convent. They can do so by imitating Mary-qua-warrior and pursuing the path of a soldier – especially, the path of a soldier who defends the Christian faith. Given that Mary’s martial virtues in [222], and in particular her courage and gallantry, are such that they make her “bolt away from the world” (“del mundo se nos afufa”), Sor Juana suggests that there are other paths to virtue open for women who are unable to achieve moral excellence through married life or through the convent given their dispositions. In light of this, we can see how the mannerist feminism of this piece, which involves exaggerating Mary’s courage to turn her into the embodiment of all martial virtues, is oriented towards supporting Sor Juana’s virtue pluralism.

Let us now turn to the seventh villancico [231] of the 1676 Immaculate Conception set. In this piece, we can also appreciate the portrayal of Mary as a warrior, though in this case Sor Juana depicts Mary more as a brave general than as a private. Moreover, the greatly exaggerated traits and virtues that are attributed to Mary here are slightly different from the ones featured in [222]. In [231], Sor Juana emphasizes traits and virtues such as organization, clarity and candor:

As Sor Juana makes clear in [231], it is through virtues such as organization, clarity, and grace, which are portrayed in an exaggerated manner and then associated with martial terms such as “squadron,” that Mary can vanquish the shadow. And, given that for Sor Juana this military triumph over the shadow is precisely what enables Mary to remain pure, it is patent that Sor Juana aims to highlight, in accordance with her virtue pluralism, another possible path to moral excellence.

Indeed, just as some women can achieve moral excellence by pursuing the military career of a private or a low-ranking officer, and cultivating virtues such as the courage and gallantry that Mary exhibits in [222], Sor Juana suggests that some other women can achieve moral excellence as generals or military commanders (e.g., Joan of Arc or Isabella I of Castile) by cultivating virtues such as the organization, clarity, and candor that Mary exhibits in [231].Footnote ²³ Considering this, Sor Juana’s portrayal of the Virgin Mary as a warrior manifestly employs a mannerist feminist strategy by underscoring Mary’s leadership qualities. This, in turn, bolsters Sor Juana’s virtue pluralism by showing that there are multiple paths to virtue for women

3.3 Second Mannerist Feminist Strategy: Emphasizing Mary’s Role as God-Bearer

In addition to presenting an exaggerated description of Mary’s courage and then using it to depict Mary as the embodiment of martial virtues, Sor Juana also pursues a second mannerist feminist strategy. This strategy consists in overemphasizing the role of Mary as God-bearer and then arguing that, since Mary was chosen as the God-bearer because of her moral excellence, God’s place in Heaven depends upon her. The core of this strategy consists in Sor Juana directly linking the Incarnation and the Assumption through the notion of God-bearer (Theotokos), which is polysemous in the following way. Since Mary became the God-bearer – qua God’s mother – when God chose to embody himself in her womb given all her virtues, it is only fitting that she continues exercising this role at the end of her earthly life, which is why she had to ascend to Heaven so that she could continue being the God-bearer – qua God’s throne. This strategy can be clearly seen in the second villancico [305] of the 1690 Assumption set, where Sor Juana also likens Mary to the City of God that John observes descending from Heaven:

What is remarkable about [305] is that Sor Juana weaves her source material (e.g., John’s Revelation) with both God’s enthronement and Mary’s Assumption in a way that offers an interpretation of John’s vision: the New Jerusalem has no need of a temple because, as Sor Juana puts it, Mary (who is identified with the New Jerusalem) is “God’s temple, and God is her temple, all at once.” This is possible because the Assumption is precisely what allows God’s enthronement in Heaven to occur. Through this juxtaposition of the descent of the New Jerusalem and the Assumption of Mary we can see how Sor Juana articulates a mannerist feminism. Because Sor Juana hyperbolizes Mary’s role as God-bearer, Mary is no longer subordinated to God but rather has a complementary role that allows God to perform his soteriological mission on Earth and then to “fit” into Heaven.Footnote ²⁴ This mannerist feminism is also on full display in the fifth villancico [308] of the 1690 Assumption set:

This villancico illustrates even more clearly than [305] the use of the mannerist feminist strategy since Sor Juana amplifies the exceptional nature of Mary as God-bearer, given that she is selected by God as his mother on Earth and as his dwelling in Heaven in virtue of her integrity. Indeed, it is because of her integrity that only Mary can provide God with a proper abode since God’s majesty is so great that it cannot fit properly into Heaven without Mary, and Sor Juana goes as far as saying that, prior to her Assumption, “God has no Abode in the high heavens” (“no tiene Dios Morada en las alturas”).

This is an obvious manifestation of Sor Juana’s subversive intent since she suggests here that God requires Mary to “fit” in Heaven. In so doing, she questions the traditional patriarchal view according to which all humans, and particularly all women, are subordinate to God. Moreover, when she describes Mary’s bosom as “throne, prayer kneeler, temple and urn,” Sor Juana is using the core characteristic of mannerism since she takes a particular feature of Mary (God-bearer) and, by hyperbolizing it, offers a portrayal of Mary that subverts the traditional conception of her as subordinate to God. Sor Juana suggests instead that Mary complements God because her bosom plays all these different roles all at once. Having presented this second mannerist feminist strategy, let us turn now to the third one, which consists in highlighting the female intellectual capacity in the case of St. Catherine.

3.4 Third Mannerist Feminist Strategy: Hyperbolizing St. Catherine’s Intellectual Activities

As several sorjuanistas have noticed, in many of her works Sor Juana offers detailed portraits of learned women. These portraits are usually put forth with a specific goal in mind. For instance, in the case of Sor Juana’s series of portraits in the Answer, the obvious goal is, as Femenías observes, to provide a genealogy of intellectual women because “the genealogy becomes a way to gain recognition as an intellectual female, because it allows her to situate herself within a tradition of wise women” (Reference Femenías, Salles and Millán-Zaibert2005, p. 134). In the case of the villancicos, Sor Juana also offers portraits of learned women, focusing on the figure of St. Catherine. According to Elías Trabulse, when Sor Juana offers an approving depiction of the wisdom of St. Catherine, she offers a response to the misogynistic attitude of her confessor Antonio Núñez de Miranda, who had sternly criticized all women who engaged in intellectual endeavors (Reference Trabulse and Herrera1993, pp. 44–45).

While I agree with Trabulse’s interpretation, it is important to notice that Sor Juana’s praise of St. Catherine’s wisdom and logical skills – which are depicted in an exaggerated, superhuman fashion – is also explicitly oriented to defend the idea that women are not subordinate to men in their service to God or in their faith, particularly when facing threats such as torture and death. This can be clearly seen in the following fragment of the sixth villancico [317] of the 1691 St. Catherine set:

By stressing the link between St. Catherine’s wisdom and logical skills and her service to God in the first stanza of the fragment, Sor Juana suggests that St. Catherine’s intellect is exceptional and unique precisely because God made her in this way so she could better serve him by spreading his message. Thus, for Sor Juana, female intellectual pursuits are justified insofar as they support an evangelizing or soteriological goal and, consequently, her mannerist feminism seems to be duty oriented.Footnote ²⁵ Moreover, Sor Juana makes patent that the triumph of St. Catherine in the intellectual joust with the scholars gathered by Maximinus leads all of them to martyrdom since they all “gave their lives to the sword.” This is particularly important because Sor Juana views martyrdom as a form of performative wisdom that transcends other forms of knowledge such as discourses, as we can appreciate when she writes that “the form (alas!) was lost / of her learned syllogisms / but those she did not write in ink / she left written in her blood.”

Considering this emphasis on the syllogisms written in blood, which echoes the view stressed in Section 3.2 according to which the cultivation of good logical skills leads to virtue, Sor Juana’s reliance on the figure of St. Catherine reflects not just her embrace of a duty oriented feminism but also a mannerist feminism to the extent that St. Catherine manages to propagate Christianity in the pagan world through her wisdom and logical skills, while also achieve everlasting life. Indeed, by imitating previous writers such as the Spaniard Manuel de León Marchante, who had authored several villancicos on religious figures, Sor Juana creates in [317] a portrayal of St. Catherine in which hyperbolic characteristics of the saint – that is, her wisdom and logical skills – are so overstated that they manifest not only in her discourse but in her very martyrdom. This overemphasis on St. Catherine’s wisdom and logical skills, which is a mannerist strategy, allows Sor Juana to create a compelling portrait of wise and learned women as instruments of salvation.

In [317], in contrast to the traditional view of wise and learned women prevalent in the Hispanic world, according to which they have neither husbands nor good endings,Footnote ²⁶ Sor Juana contends persuasively that St. Catherine’s wisdom and logical skills empower her not only to save the souls of the pagan scholars appointed by Maximinus by persuading them to convert to Christianity, but also to achieve the highest ending for herself, which is to become a “tutelar, holy patroness” of scholars who may inspire future sages to become saints. By doing this, Sor Juana is deploying a form of mannerist feminism since her feminist message is conveyed via the hyperbolization of certain traits, and this hyperbolization leads both to a subversion of the original picture as well as the development of a new and original work, as Luiselli maintains when she writes the following:

Given the subversion of the traditional view about learned women in the Hispanic world that Sor Juana achieves in [317] by overemphasizing St. Catherine’s wisdom and logical skills and by showing that these hyperbolic traits are precisely what empowers St. Catherine to achieve her soteriological goals by saving the pagan scholars and herself, it is patent that [317] must be read not only as an instance of feminism, but as a mannerist feminist composition in which Sor Juana seeks to partially subvert the subordinate position of women. She uses an exaggerated depiction of St. Catherine’s wisdom and logical skills to support the claim that women should not be subordinate to men in evangelical or soteriological matters since, as the example of St. Catherine makes clear, women can be in virtue of their intellects much better vehicles for salvation than men. This interpretation shows that her feminism is tied to a certain conception of Christian duties.

3.5 Conclusion

I have argued in this section that Sor Juana’s villancicos should be read as mannerist feminist compositions. This is because the main strategy that Sor Juana deploys to advance her feminist agenda consists in taking certain characteristics of prominent Christian women such as Mary or St. Catherine and then exaggerating them both to create original works and to defend the claim that women are not subordinate to men, at least in certain matters relating to evangelization and salvation. I have also shown that, because of this, the kind of feminism that Sor Juana adopts in her villancicos is duty-based: women are entitled, as St. Catherine did, to engage in intellectual activities such as reading and writing only if these intellectual activities support their duties as Christians or their obligations to God.

4.1 Introduction

As I mentioned previously, Sor Juana’s villancicos often possess a dialogical structure, which enables the confluence of multiple voices. In addition, considering that the villancico emerged as a folkloric composition wherein the performers were initially villagers, servants, or other members of the lowest social strata in the Iberian peninsula (see Moraña Reference Moraña1998, p. 88, and Tenorio Reference Tenorio1999, p. 13), the villancico unsurprisingly became in New Spain a natural vessel for the voices of subjugated groups in the Novohispanic colonial society. Since this society was structured in accordance with a socio-racial caste system wherein Black and Indigenous people were placed in the lowest rungs, it is not unusual that these characters figure prominently in Sor Juana’s villancicos.

Sor Juana was often compelled to negotiate her place within Novohispanic society and this negotiation involved both concessions and challenges to the colonial order.Footnote ²⁷ Along similar lines, the presence of Black and Indigenous people in her villancicos serves multiple roles that sometimes involve the same negotiations. Let me first present the roles that involve acquiescence. First, the villancicos were composed to be performed as part of liturgical celebrations wherein the audience was multi-racial and where caste divisions caused deep-rooted ignorance as well as fear among elites (that is, peninsular Spaniards and American-born Creoles) with respect to Black and Indigenous people. Some authors such as Meza Sandoval thus maintain that the villancicos operated “as a window through which … the image of that strange character enters and is transposed to the rhetoric of the villancico so that the fear that it inspires either becomes unreal or fictitious, and thus can be controlled and attenuated” (Reference Meza Sandoval2009, p. 16). Second, other scholars, such as Tenorio, contend that the presence of the lowest castas in some villancicos (particularly, Black people) had “the function of lightening certain moments, enlivening the sets [of villancicos] with jests, jokes and riddles” (Reference Tenorio1999, p. 117).

If we consider only these roles, it might seem prima facie that Sor Juana’s villancicos featuring Black and Indigenous characters are just a form of minstrelsy, and that they are consequently not worth taking seriously since these portrayals make her complicit in the oppression of Black and Indigenous people. However, I contend that Sor Juana’s villancicos also involve challenges to the colonial order because they sometimes offer a partial defense of Black and Indigenous people against the oppressive treatment and the abuse they were subject to by Spaniards. On this issue, Benassy-Berling remarks that we find in Sor Juana’s villancicos “a valorization and a defense of Black people, which occurs at various levels” (Reference Benassy-Berling1983, p. 289). In addition, with respect to Indigenous people, Martínez-San Miguel observes that Sor Juana offers a partial defense of the epistemic standpoint of Indigenous individuals given that, in at least one villancico, “in this hierarchy of knowledges … the Indian wins through his astuteness, and not through the outcome of the legitimacy of his religious formation” (Reference Martínez-San Miguel2010, p. 446). In this section, drawing on the observations of Benassy-Berling and Martínez-San Miguel, I defend the thesis that Sor Juana’s villancicos provide a partial defense of the oppressed, and that this defense often involves subtle condemnations of the abuse they suffer.

Before going further, I wish to reiterate a couple of important qualifications. First, though Sor Juana offers in my view a defense of the oppressed, it is important to bear in mind that this defense is partial. Indeed, even if some of the villancicos offer criticisms of the oppression and the abuses that Black and Indigenous people suffered, Sor Juana does not endorse in them the abolition of slavery or the end of the colonial order. Even if Sor Juana often exhibits a supportive attitude toward the plight of Black and Indigenous people, her villancicos are not revolutionary manifestos. Instead, she often employs a type of subtle condemnation that involves relying upon stereotypical portrayals of both Black and Indigenous people (e.g., having her characters employ Black vernacular Spanish or “habla de negros”) that would elicit laughter in her audience, but then employs these stereotypical portrayals to denounce inconspicuously the inhumanity of slavery and to showcase cautiously the humanity and the intelligence of Black and Indigenous people.

Second, Sor Juana’s partial defense of Black and Indigenous people is inscribed within her Catholic faith, which works both as a common ground that equalizes all human beings in the eyes of God and as a possible catalyst for social reform. Fra Molinero highlights this point, contending that “the happy ending [in some villancicos] comes together with the Christian doctrine, which in Sor Juana’s period underscored the metaphysical equality of all men: we are all equal before God” (Reference Fra Molinero1988, p. 21). Molinero also argues that Sor Juana’s position in the villancicos is one of “reform through the guiding role of religion, which fuels her strong denunciation [of injustice] and at the same time undermines the revolutionary character of her protest” (Reference Sabat de Rivers1998, p. 30).

Keeping these two observations in mind, what follows is an outline of how I defend my thesis. I consider first some fragments of two early villancicos wherein Sor Juana introduces Black characters, and I show that she uses the appearance of these Black characters to argue for the rationality, the religious devotion, and the wholesomeness of Black people. She does so by using various strategies which include (i) characterizing these Black characters as philosophers, (ii) showing them engaged in a reasoned debate, and (iii) having them offer an affirmation of their devotion to Mary and of the purity of their souls. Subsequently, I examine two other villancicos, and I show that Sor Juana offers therein a defense of Black people by having Black characters affirm their humanity while denouncing the mistreatment they suffer at the hands of Spaniards. Finally, I consider fragments of two villancicos in which Sor Juana portrays Indigenous resistance against Spanish oppression as well the ingenuity and wit that Indigenous and Black people possess.

4.2 Black Rationality, Purity, and Devotion in Sor Juana’s Villancicos

As various scholars such as Glenn Swiadon (Reference Swiadon2000) and Geoff Baker (Reference Baker, Knighton and Torrente2007) have pointed out, Sor Juana is not the first composer to include Black characters in her villancicos. Black characters also appear in earlier villancicos authored by Luis de Góngora and Manuel de León Marchante. However, I contend that Sor Juana is one of the few composers to offer, as Nicholas Jones maintains, “poetic representations of Blackness and habla de negros [that] negotiate the categories of humanness within the contours of Christianity and slavery” (Reference Jones2018, p. 270). Indeed, in my view, even though Sor Juana accepted certain aspects of the colonial order since she relied on minstrelsy stereotypes when she reproduced Black Spanish vernacular speech, she also offered a partial defense of Black people that involves showing that Black people are endowed with rationality, and suggesting that skin color is irrelevant to their moral character. We can appreciate this in the following fragment from the eighth villancico [224] of the 1676 Assumption set:

This fragment offers a defense of Black people in four different respects. First, Sor Juana portrays the two Black characters, Pirico and Francisco, as being engaged in a reasoned debate regarding whether it is fitting for them to rejoice or lament the Assumption of Mary to Heaven. Second, she also compares them to the Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Democritus. This is remarkable because, in doing this, Sor Juana makes clear that Black people are thinking subjects, as Jones observes (Reference Jones2018, p. 276). In addition, she provides, through the characterization of Francisco and Pirico like the philosophers Democritus and Heraclitus, a “savvy critique of slavery and unjust social hierarchies,” as Jones also remarks (Reference Jones2018, p. 274), since these social hierarchies typically reject that some individuals can perform certain roles. Third, after Pirico complains that Mary’s ascent to Heaven leaves all the Black slaves in the dark at the obraje – a textile workshop – Footnote ²⁸ Francisco responds that in fact Mary’s ascent shows that the Spaniards who have been left behind remain dark. In doing this, Sor Juana draws an ingenious parallel between the darkness in the obraje and the dark moral character of Spaniards who force Black people to work there, thus performing a stunning inversion. Indeed, though the skin of the slaves and the environment within the obraje are dark, this darkness is external to the Black slaves but, in the case of the Spaniards, the darkness is internal since it is their very souls that are darkened by the abuses and the cruelty directed against Black people. And, fourth, though Sor Juana relies on the stereotype of Black people as talented singers whose role is to entertain in the eight verses that immediately precede the chorus, the final chorus of [224] offers a defense of Black people by suggesting, as Jones maintains, that “Spaniards are not necessarily a group of people who the Virgin Mary/Queen desires to resemble physically. Embracing black beauty, she prefers somatic blackness (morena) like the Queen of Sheba from the Song of Songs” (Reference Jones2018, p. 277).

Sor Juana’s defense of Black people can also be seen in another early villancico where she presents a vindication of their right to participate in religious celebrations. Although any Catholic could in principle partake in religious celebrations regardless of social status, in practice various exclusionary practices prevented some groups – and specifically Black people – from participating in the celebrations since they were either considered impure or somehow lacking in devotion to God or the Virgin Mary. In response to this, Sor Juana offers a criticism of these exclusionary practices and a partial defense of Black people by showcasing their religious devotion in the eighth villancico [232] of the 1676 Immaculate Conception set:

As we can see, Sor Juana’s defense of the right of Black people to participate in religious celebrations involves arguing that, despite their skin color, they should be allowed to partake in the feast because all devout souls are white. I must note here that this approach has elicited some sharp criticisms from certain commentators. For instance, Juana Martínez Gómez criticizes Sor Juana’s strategy by claiming that in the villancico she severely undermines her defense of Black people considering that she “lost here the opportunity to vindicate the equality of the souls, stressing instead the supremacy of one color over the other” (Reference Martínez Gómez and Medrano1997, p. 74). Though I agree that Sor Juana could have adopted a more radical stance such as the one that Martínez Gómez proposes, I think it is important to stress that, in [232], her attitude is likely a strategic concession to the colonial order given that it enables her to put forth – and make her audience accept – the claim that Black slaves have souls and that, because of this, their Spaniard masters have certain responsibilities vis-à-vis them.Footnote ²⁹ In virtue of this, I agree with Jones’ overall positive assessment of Sor Juana’s approach in this passage, which is that “through the trope of the White soul, she vindicates Black Africans’ humanity” (Reference Jones2018, p. 279).

To show that Black slaves have souls and that they are worthy of some basic respect as fellow Christians, Sor Juana showcases in the second part of [232] the devotion of the Black character toward the Virgin Mary. This is accomplished in three ways. First, the Black character emphatically rejects the Devil in the verses that he sings, as he ousts him with a series of comical epithets such as “dolphin-snout.” Second, the Black character presents himself as a protector of the Virgin Mary insofar as he claims that he struck the Devil’s head after he had assumed the shape of a snake to try to harm Mary by biting her. And, finally, the Black character reiterates the claim made at the very beginning of the villancico – namely, that Black people are devout since they “know how to serenade the Queen.”

Though this final claim rests on the traditional minstrelsy stereotype that portrays Black people as natural-born singers, it is important to recognize here that Sor Juana offers a partial and circumspect defense of them by suggesting that their innate singing ability is not a mere aptitude or natural instinct, but rather a kind of knowledge (“we also know how to serenade the Queen”). The recognition that Black people have a particular knowledge is used here by Sor Juana to argue that they have a right to participate in the religious celebration, since this musical knowledge is used to celebrate Mary and, in so doing, to honor God. Having shown how Sor Juana highlights the devotion of Black people, let me now consider how Sor Juana defends Black slaves by highlighting their humanity and their yearning for freedom in other villancicos.

4.3 Black Humanity and Its Yearning for Freedom in Sor Juana’s Villancicos

As we have seen, in some of her early villancicos Sor Juana pursues a strategy to affirm the humanity of Black slaves that consists in depicting them with features associated with human beings such as rationality, wholesomeness, and devotion. In later villancicos, Sor Juana deploys a somewhat different strategy in which Black characters affirm straightforwardly their humanity and protest the inhuman treatment they are subject to as slaves. This is done in the following fragment of the eighth villancico [241] of the 1677 Peter Nolasco set. She highlights there the tensions between the core mission of the Mercedarian order, which was founded by Peter Nolasco, and their actual practices:

Sor Juana’s defense of Black slaves begins here with the initial chorus, where the character Pirico expresses his longing for freedom, and then it is carried out forcefully throughout the first four stanzas as Pirico mounts a blistering criticism of the Mercedarians while affirming his humanity.Footnote ³⁰ Specifically, Sor Juana makes an ingenious wordplay in the first stanza in which Pirico refers to the Mercedarians as “Mercenaries” (“Mercenaria”). Her goal is to highlight that, contrary to their mission of redeeming Christian slaves from bondage, the Mercedarians seem more interested in pursuing financial gain by exploiting Black slaves instead of freeing them.

In addition, through Pirico Sor Juana also criticizes the Mercedarians for organizing a religious feast from which they exclude those who, like Pirico, do not look like them. Sor Juana’s condemnation of this exclusion, which is antithetical to Christian values, is further developed in the following three stanzas in which Pirico stresses that the discrimination he is subject to is due to the color of his skin since the Mercedarians “do not want Black people” (“no quiele gente plieta”) and “only free Spaniards” (“Sola saca la Pañola”). Pirico then affirms the humanity of Black individuals in the fourth stanza by claiming that, even if they are called horses by Spaniards (“aunque nos dici cabaya”), “we are people” (“gente somo”).

Various commentators such as Fra Molinero (Reference Fra Molinero1988) and María Zielina (Reference Zielina2006) have pointed out that, in the last two stanzas, Sor Juana seems to walk back her previous criticisms since Pirico asks the audience forgiveness for speaking ill of the Mercedarians, claiming that this is due to “the demons that deceive me” (“Los demoño, que me engaña”). While this retraction may seem to undermine Sor Juana’s defense, I believe it can be best understood as a strategy of plausible deniability that she employs to downplay the playful provocation that she previously engaged in when criticizing the Mercedarians.Footnote ³¹

This strategy of plausible deniability serves, in my view, two main functions. On the one hand, it soothes the intended target of the criticism – the Mercedarians, who were an influential religious order in colonial New Spain – by suggesting that Pirico’s words are not his own since the demons deceive him. But, on the other hand, it functions to make the audience accept that if Pirico can indeed be deceived by the demons, he must have a soul that endows him with a certain dignity that must be respected, thus echoing the central claim made in [232].Footnote ³² Consequently, while it is patent that Sor Juana’s writings do not involve the articulation and pursuit of a revolutionary politics, her villancicos nonetheless can be seen as powerful reformist calls for a more humane treatment of Black people in the name of Christian values since they are endowed with souls.

The yearning of Black people for freedom is something that can be appreciated in other villancicos where Sor Juana portrays Black characters petitioning for their freedom. This is particularly visible in the eighth villancico [274] of the 1685 Assumption set. One of the performers in [274] assumes the role of a Black character and addresses the Virgin Mary in the following fashion:

This fragment of [274] is remarkable because the devotion that Black slaves manifest toward the Virgin Mary is deeply connected with their yearning for freedom. Indeed, the Black character here seeks to delay Mary’s assumption to heaven with food offerings so that she can protect them. But, since she must ultimately ascend, he asks her to intercede with God so that he can obtain his freedom. In virtue of this, one can appreciate that, though Black people are portrayed “as faithful and devout Christians, and not as social instigators” as Tenorio (Reference Tenorio1999, p. 156) maintains, part of what being a good Christian involves for Sor Juana is to aspire to rejoin God and be free. Thus, for Sor Juana, the devotion for God and the Virgin Mary naturally includes a yearning for one’s freedom, which she hopes her audience will heed. Having shown this, let us consider how Sor Juana uses the villancico to portray Indigenous resistance and ingenuity.

4.4 Indigenous and Black Resistance and Ingenuity in Sor Juana’s Villancicos

Though Indigenous individuals appear less often than Black people in Sor Juana’s villancicos,Footnote ³³ their presence often also serves the same functions that Black characters have. To be specific, some of these functions involve concessions to the colonial order, such as operating as a “tamed otherness” or providing comic relief, while others involve challenges, such as offering a partial defense of oppressed groups. Indeed, just as in the case of Black slaves, Benassy-Berling notes that “Sor Juana felt toward her Indigenous compatriots a real sympathy” (Reference Benassy-Berling1983, p. 312) and, because of this, she offers a partial defense of them against the abuses that they endured. Specifically, bearing in mind that Indigenous people were subject to a tribute they had to pay to the Spanish crown, in a tocotín belonging to the eighth villancico [241] of the 1677 Peter Nolasco set, Sor Juana presents an Indigenous character who, after having drunk alcohol, sings the following verses:

Here Sor Juana uses the character’s drunkenness not only to provide comic relief but also to voice a surreptitious criticism of the abuses that Indigenous people endured. Indeed, on one hand, the drunkenness makes the character behave boastfully when he compares himself with Peter Nolasco because the saint was held in captivity by the Moors; as he bombastically states, he would have killed four hundred Moors with a stroke. But, on the other hand, the character’s drunkenness lowers his inhibitions and thus makes him speak the truth to the audience and voice openly the oppression that he is subject to, denouncing his persecution by a colonial officer sent to apprehend him for not paying the tribute.

Under the cover of drunkenness, Sor Juana also makes the Indigenous character admit that he hit the official sent to seize him on the head with a stick, which is a way to showcase his resistance against the attempts to deprive him of his liberty for not paying the tribute. This partially subverts a traditional stereotype of Indigenous people that portrays them as submissive and meek. However, since Sor Juana also portrays the Indigenous character as a good Christian, he seeks redemption at the end of the villancico for his violent outburst by voicing his desire to buy an image of Peter Nolasco. This enables us to see how Sor Juana integrates her partial defense of the oppressed with a strong emphasis on the role of religion as a tool for social reform and reconciliation.

Finally, let me consider a final example of how Sor Juana deploys the villancico to offer a partial defense of the oppressed. In the last portion of the eighth villancico [299] of the 1690 St Joseph set that is titled “Juguete” (“Plaything”), Sor Juana offers an entertaining exchange between various characters within the framework of a catechesis where a doctor in theology poses a riddle to an audience composed of children who are accompanied by an Indigenous and a Black character.

In addition of being extremely witty, the exchange is remarkable by explicitly showcasing the interventions of the Indigenous and the Black characters. Both participations are noteworthy since Indigenous and Black people were usually considered unable to engage in any intellectual inquiry since they were deemed to be perpetually infantile. Because of this, they were often treated as children, which explains why Sor Juana places them in the company of children in the context of a session of catechesis. But, instead of infantilizing them, Sor Juana subtly shows how they have the same capacities as the university doctor performing the catechesis.

Here Sor Juana uses a strategy that she also deploys in The Answer where she shows that she is an epistemic agent by engaging within an anodyne space – that is, the kitchen – in intellectual activities such as carefully observing what happens to eggs when they are cooked in either oil or syrup. In [299], Sor Juana shows that Indigenous and Black people have the same epistemic agency as university doctors by illustrating how they engage in exchanges that, while prima facie innocuous, display their wit and intellectual ingenuity. On one hand, the Indigenous character poses an ingenious riddle to the audience while explicitly asserting that not only the University doctors can do this, and his response suggests that the Indigenous artisans from Xochimilco – an Indigenous settlement outside Mexico City – are skilled agents, since they produce the best religious images. On the other hand, the Black character engages in sophisticated counterfactual thinking by considering how Joseph could have been Black had Solomon had children with the Queen of Sheba and, unlike the university doctor, he rightly ascribes Joseph’s greatness not to his patronage of Spain, which is an ethnocentric attitude, but to his Davidic origins.Footnote ³⁴

4.5 Conclusion

I have argued in this section that Sor Juana offers in her villancicos a partial defense of the oppressed, particularly of Black slaves and Indigenous people. Though her depictions of Black and Indigenous people often rely on the use of features such the “habla de negros” and other minstrelsy clichés, a thorough analysis of the villancicos reveals that Sor Juana opposed the abuses and the oppression that Black persons and Indigenous people had to endure. Many of Sor Juana’s criticisms of Spaniards and Creoles tend to be rather subtle and subdued and, when they become too conspicuous, are typically walked back by her characters – probably to avoid her being reprimanded by secular or religious authorities. However, even if Sor Juana’s villancicos are not revolutionary manifestos, they can nevertheless be considered subversive to the extent that they accomplish two goals. First, Sor Juana’s villancicos portray and denounce the hypocritical attitudes of both Spaniards and Creoles who, despite professing allegedly Christian values, persist in oppressing and mistreating other Christians who belong to different socio-racial groups. Second, Sor Juana’s villancicos present portraits of Black and Indigenous people that highlight their moral and intellectual capabilities in a way that shows that they are not fundamentally different from white people – and, specifically, from white educated elites such as university doctors. Because of this, Sor Juana’s villancicos are interesting as philosophical works given that they offer a partial defense of racially oppressed groups in New Spain in the name of a certain conception of Christian universalism.