Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz

podcastOPTalks
Written By Open Plaza

Theologians Dr. Theresa L. Torres and Dr. Theresa A. Yugar discuss Latinx women's leadership in the context of the 17th-century Mexican protofeminist and ecofeminist

“Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz [Mexico: 3|4],” 2015. Illustration: MikeMAMD on DeviantArt

 
 

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Feminist Reconstruction of Biography and Text (Wipf and Stock, 2014) by Dr. Theresa A. Yugar invites readers to accompany Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a seventeenth-century Mexican protofeminist, ecofeminist, poet, and nun, on her lifelong journey within three communities of women in the Americas. 

Dr. Theresa L. Torres researches the impact of religion and spirituality in the lives of Latina leaders and the role of Latinas in religious and civic organizations.

In this episode of OP Talks, the two Latina theologians–Dr. Yugar is Peruvian American and Dr. Torres is second-generation Mexican American–discuss Latinx women's leadership in the context of Sor Juana. 

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

“God Gave Women Intellect to Use It: Catholic Nun and Feminist Icon Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz,” Conscience Magazine (8 August 2023).

Conscience’s managing editor Kate Hoeting speaks with Dr. Theresa A. Yugar.

 

Lesson by Dr. Theresa A. Yugar: “History's ‘worst’ nun” (dir. Wow-How Studio), TED-Ed Animations, 2019.

Juana Ramírez de Asbaje sat before a panel of prestigious theologians, jurists, and mathematicians. They had been invited to test Juana’s knowledge with the most difficult questions they could muster. But she successfully answered every challenge, from complicated equations to philosophical queries. Who was this impressive woman? Theresa Yugar details the life of the Mexican poet and scholar.

 

“Latina Feminist Theology with Theresa A. Yugar,” Religious Feminism, Exponent II, September 2018.

Exponent II is a feminist space for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum. In this episode of Exponent II’s Religious Feminism interview series, Dr. Theresa Yugar teaches us about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the first known feminist on the American continent, and modern Latina feminist movements.

 
 
 

"Like many bold women, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz can be interpreted as 'ahead of her time.' Theresa Yugar clearly shows that Sor Juana—in her intelligence, wit, and candor—occupies her unique historical moment and social location, yet she relates directly to contemporary feminist and ecofeminist concerns. Yugar's book is a good read for anyone interested in Mesoamerican and colonial history, women's studies in religion, and Catholic feminism."

—Sarah Robinson, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA

 
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Theresa Torres

Dr. Theresa L. Torres, a second-generation Mexican American, is Associate Professor of Sociology and Race, Ethnic and Gender Studies (REGS) in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Her areas of expertise are Latinx Studies (in the United States, particularly Kansas City), Gender Studies, Immigration Studies, Ethnic Studies, Religious Studies, and Anthropology. Using ethnographic field studies, her current research is on the impact of religion and spirituality in the lives of Latina Leaders and the role of Latinas in religious and civic organizations. She holds a BA in Secondary Education from Benedictine College; an MA in Pastoral Studies in Mexican American Culture and Theology from Boston College; and a PhD in Religious Studies, Theology, and cognate in Anthropology and Latino Studies from Catholic University. Dr. Torres is the author of The Paradox of Latina Religious Leadership in the Catholic Church: Las Guadalupanas of Kansas City (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013), a book on Latina spirituality and resilience based on interviews of Latina leaders. 

Featured
Theresa Yugar

Dr. Theresa A. Yugar is a Peruvian American scholar in religion whose scholarly focus is on women, ecology, and climate change on a global level. She is a graduate of Harvard University with a master’s degree in Feminist Theology and has a PhD from Claremont Graduate University in the field of Women Studies in Religion. Her research interests include creating counter narratives in course curriculum, reclaiming the native indigenous cosmology within a Buen Vivir ecological framework, reimagining Andean colonial frameworks, and reflecting on 17th century Novohispaña Latina woman Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in a contemporary U.S. context. 

Dr. Yugar is the Chief Editor for the book, Valuing Lives, Healing Earth: Religion, Gender, and Life on Earth (Peeters, Belgium, 2021), which focuses on women who embody commitments to healing the earth rendered vulnerable by problematic social systems in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. She is also the author of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Feminist Reconstruction of Biography and Text (Wipf and Stock, 2014). She is the scriptwriter for the TED-Ed Lessons Worth Sharing "History’s Worst Nun," which has been viewed nine million times since its publication in November 2019. Dr. Yugar has also been recognized by The Peruvian Consulate, in Lima, with a diploma for organizing the Santo Niño de la Mascaipacha (Holy Child of Cuzco) cultural event at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, in Los Angeles, which reclaims the “ancestral cult of the Peruvian Andes.”

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