Isabel and the Rogue (The Luna Sisters #2)

by Liana De la Rosa

It was the evening before they fled Mexico City when he had found her in the library at the Luna family villa, trying to decide which books she would take on the voyage. The idea she would have to choose between them had gutted her, for her collection of books had been her friend for longer than she could remember. Oftentimes the written word had been her only friend.

Sor Juana, as Isabel referred to her, was a colonial Mexican writer and the first published feminist in the Americas. In one word, she was a badass! Born in 1648 in what was then called New Spain, Sor Juana was a poet, dramatist, scholar, and nun, and during her time at the Convent of Santa Paula, she acquired one of the largest private libraries in the New World. A role model Isabel could aspire to! In a time when most women did not have access to an education, Sor Juana maintained a correspondence with scholars and members of court, and received the patronage of the viceroy and vicereine of New Spain for her scholarly pursuits. Her many writings are studied to this day, almost three hundred and thirty years after her death, because of their range of emotions, themes, and even languages. In one infamous example, her poem “Hombres necios” (“Foolish Men”) implicates men of the same nonsensical behavior that they accuse women of. Sor Juana was a brilliant trailblazer…which also made her a target, and after immense pressure from members of the Catholic Church, she set aside her literary pursuits and renewed her religious vows. Her expansive library was even sold for alms. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz died in 1695, and is revered as a national icon of Mexico and Mexican identity.