{"id":59801,"date":"2026-06-22T06:38:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T04:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/?p=59801"},"modified":"2026-06-22T11:39:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:39:35","slug":"the-smartest-girl-i-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/actualidad\/la-chica-mas-lista-que-conozco\/","title":{"rendered":"The smartest girl I know"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading the magnificent biography of Sister Juan In\u00e9s de la Cruz, written by Juan Manuel Galaviz Herrera (1942\u20132019), undoubtedly one of the most important figures of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, when I suddenly came across a novel set in the present day at the University of Madrid with a very eye-catching title: The smartest girl I know<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the biography of Sor Juan In\u00e9s de la Cruz\u2014a 2026 reprint\u2014is titled \u201cHeroine of Understanding,\u201d that is, almost the same phrase as in Sara Barquinero\u2019s novel, but in a 17th-century version. The coincidence of the titles caught my attention, and I decided to read both books side by side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, we should note that Sor Juana In\u00e9s de la Cruz\u2019s mother had ten siblings and was the daughter of the famous Pedro Ram\u00edrez, a native of Sanl\u00facar de Barrameda (C\u00e1diz), who had made his fortune in the Marquisate of El Valle and whose marriage to a Mexican Creole woman would bring him great happiness and many children (p. 11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting to note, incidentally, that the New Laws of 1542 had already been implemented in those lands by that time and, therefore,\u00a0 much to the delight of Bartolom\u00e9 de Las Casas, the indigenous people had fully regained their lands and possessions and were exercising their rights and fulfilling their obligations, just like the other subjects of the Crown of Castile, in peace and freedom (p. 12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our protagonist, Sor Juana In\u00e9s de la Cruz\u2014born Juana Ram\u00edrez de Asbaje\u2014was born in San Miguel de Nepantla, on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano, in 1648. She was born out of wedlock and was raised by her mother and her grandfather, Don Pedro Ram\u00edrez, and is believed to have taken her vows as a Hieronymite nun at the order\u2019s convent in Mexico as early as 1668.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parallelisms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The novel by The smartest girl I know<\/em> It was written by Sara Marquinero and tells the story of a rather shy girl from the provinces\u2014an only child and extremely intelligent\u2014who enrolls in a philosophy program and begins to stand out among her classmates from day one. A life centered on her studies, friendships, her first boyfriend, and her romantic pursuit of a professor\u2014in other words, the slow and unhurried process of maturing in our time, though without any transcendent view of life or spiritual reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the life of Sor Juana In\u00e9s de la Cruz seems to have been a direct path toward growth in love. First, through her studies and early education in the capital, and then at the viceroy\u2019s court, where she would further develop her literary skills\u2014for which she had already shown clear talent since childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His introduction to poetry through careful reading and the guidance of the capital\u2019s learned men ran parallel to an intense spiritual life, which would ultimately lead to his religious profession, growth in holiness, and the development of an early passion for writing that, from the publication of the first volume of his works, had an enormous impact both in New Spain and in the Mother Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting that on that path toward her definitive conversion to the love of loves and her divine vocation in the cloister, it would come to her precisely through a romantic disappointment, just as she describes it in one of her most significant poems, which is undoubtedly autobiographical in nature: \u201cLove seized me without warning, cunning and tyrannical: clad in the garb of a courtier, he entered my heart\u201d (p. 51).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the biographer astutely points out that \u201cJuana In\u00e9s loved so intensely that she could not find a suitable partner\u201d (p. 52). In addition to this account of the facts, we have Men\u00e9ndez Pelayo\u2019s assessment, in which he states: \u201cSor Juana\u2019s secular verses are among the most gentle and delicate ever to flow from a woman\u2019s pen\u201d (p. 53).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The life of the smartest girl I know will be marked by the delusions of false and superficial loves that ultimately lead to \u201cagape\u201d love\u2014the love of self-giving and total devotion that Benedict XVI so aptly describes in the encyclical \u201cDeus Caritas est.\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the life of Sister Juan In\u00e9s demonstrates exactly the opposite, for what happens to her is precisely what Mar\u00eda Zambrano had predicted in her poetic philosophy: that the paths of knowledge, understanding, and love run parallel both in the intellect and in the will (p. 69).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undoubtedly, for Sor Juana In\u00e9s, literary and poetic creation did not distract her from her duties as a nun, and her contemplative vocation intertwined with her writing\u2014and there lie the fruits: both in her impressive collections of poetry and in literary texts of the highest caliber that can be included in the tradition of the Golden Age of Spanish literature, since at that time the viceroyalty and the mother country drew from the same cultural sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is very interesting how the biographer highlights Sor Juana In\u00e9s\u2019s lifelong passion for reading and her interest in the study of theology; it stands to reason, after all, that to love God and souls, one must know God and human nature, which is why study and prayer made her a woman of great inner richness that she was later able to express through literature (p. 84).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is very interesting\u2014and even amusing\u2014to see how many pages the biographer devotes to countering the gossip and rumors about the nun\u2019s dedication to writing, reading, and understanding the broad outlines of theology and literature of the Golden Age, as well as their reception in the New World. He returns to the same point: \u201cThese setbacks, though true, were not Sor Juana\u2019s cross to bear\u201d (p. 133).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we must mention the injustices suffered by this righteous woman throughout her long religious life, particularly at the hands of certain spiritual directors who, not content with humiliating her in private so that she might grow in humility, did so in public as well (p. 145).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Estaba leyendo la magn\u00edfica semblanza de Sor Juan In\u00e9s de la Cruz, escrita por Juan Manuel Galaviz Herrera (1942-2019), seguramente una de las personalidades m\u00e1s importantes del virreinato de la Nueva Espa\u00f1a, cuando me encontr\u00e9 de golpe con una novela ambientada en nuestros d\u00edas en la Universidad de Madrid que tiene un t\u00edtulo muy llamativo: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2431,"featured_media":62645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,39,45],"tags":[594],"class_list":["post-59801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad","category-cultura","category-libros","tag-libros","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2431"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}