HIS 315K Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Catalina De Erauso, Premarital Sex, Casta
A. Reflection (20 Points)
I would not consider Sor Juana a feminist. I commend her actions of entering a
convent to avoid a marriage that she would not be happy in, as well as her persistence
in learning and refusal to give it up. She made the most of her life by following the rules
but still pushing them to their limit, such as agreeing to cease reading when her superior
mother told her too, but her unwillingness to stop learning and analyzing her
surroundings continued.
1
However, to be considered a feminist, I believe that a person
must be doing their actions with the purpose of ending discrimination or spreading the
belief and importance of equality. Sor Juana certainly wandering into Colonial men’s
territory with her love of education, but the reading did not say that she was fighting for
her right to an education specifically to raise the bar for all women. She was merely
doing what interested her without breaking any laws – even if she did go against social
norms, like cutting her hair short and studying subjects other than the Bible.
2
Not
knowing everything about her life, it is difficult to definitively say that she was not a
feminist. If she used her knowledge to help other women realize their own power and
worth or to teach other women with the belief that they deserved to know just as much
as men, I would consider her a feminist. But just learning and defying social norms does
not make her so.
B. Identification (20 Points)
1. One way for the men to control women in Latin America was with casas de
recogimiento or houses of seclusion. Women who were accused of anything
immoral could be sent to one as punishment. However, some women used these
houses to their advantage. They could escape an abusive or unhappy marriage
here and wait to file for an annulment or divorce. Beacuse it was rare to be able
to leave a marriage, most of the women that came to casas de recogimiento
were only provided temporary relief from their husbands.
3
2. A sirvinacuy was a sort of trial marriage that predominately existed before
Iberian rule in the New World. The Native Americans encouraged the young men
and women to have a trial period in order to evaluate the compatibility of the
couple and to see if the marriage would last between the two people. This could
include premarital sex and even children. Viceroy Toledo said, in the 1570’s, that
the Indians believed the practice was necessary. After the Catholic Church came
1
Kenneth Mills and William B. Taylor, Colonial Spanish America: a document history (Scholarly Resources Inc.,
1998), 207-208.
2
Mills and Taylor, 206-207.
3
Burkholder and Johnson, 223.
to power in Latin America, it attempted to get rid of sirvinacuy because they
believed it threatened the sanctity of marriage.
4
3. Barrios were the neighborhoods that most of the Indians, Blacks, Castas, and
poor Spaniards lived in in Latin America. The buildings and roads differed a lot
from those in the cities; the roads were unpaved and the buildings housed
multiple families separated only by blankets. The barrios were typically less
organized and those that could afford their own place lived in small adobe
houses that succumbed easily to the weather. Only churches or governmental
agencies could afford decent buildings in these areas. Because of the hardships
of being in the lowest caste and living in a challenging place, many people put off
marriage and/or having children. The children and women that lived there
though, were easily attacked verbally, sexually, and/or physically and their
husbands/fathers would fight with knives or fists to defend them, rather than
the duels that occurred in cities. Lastly, barrios contained the most dangerous
businesses. They produced the most odors, were housed in unsafe buildings, and
more. To escape these harsh realities, many drank “enormous amounts of
pulque, chichi, rum, wine” and other alcohols.
5
4. Mascaras or mascarada were parades in which those participating dressed up in
costume. They were used as a way to express counter-culture ideas or beliefs. In
mascaras there was sometimes a theme and the parades insinuated actions or
things that the Catholic Church did not condone. For example, in one of these in
New Spain, a float contained those dressed as the Viceroy and his wife getting
beaten. The parades did not always express violent desires; they also
occasionally went against social norms. A common example was having men
dress as women and vice versa.
6
5. Brujas/Feiticeiras were witches. While partaking in such activities was still illegal
and went against the church, it was seen as less corrupting than heresy. Only
when spells dealt with dark magic was it seen on the save level as heresy. Some
witches were questioned by the Inquisition and had to undergo acts of
repentance but there was not as a wide spread fear of witches as in the Salam
Witch Trials. Brujas (Spanish) and Feiticeiras (Portuguese) were occasionally
hired to provide Iberian women with potions or tonics to help them, such as love
potions or ways to cure illness. Most often, witches were of African or Native
4
Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman L. Johnson, Colonial Latin America, 9th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2015), 225.
5
Burkholder and Johnson, 243-244.
6
Burkholder and Johnson, 274.
American origin and would be turned in by another person who witnessed their
actions helping an Iberian.
7
6. Sodomy is sexual intercourse that was prohibited in Colonial Latin America. It
generally included anal or oral sex or bestiality. Sex was seen as a dirty act that
was only necessary to reproduce and anything that could go along with it, such
as lust, was sinful. In one case, a man accused of sodomy and bestiality was
burned at the stake along with his dog while his African lover was publicly
whipped to scare others from committing similar sins. However, there were
some exceptions; the elite were not punished as harshly as the poor and in
Mexico, it appeared that forms of sodomy could occur as long as it was discreet.
8
7. Catalina de Erauso was a cross-dressing female. She was originally sent to a
convent but quickly change her mind before making any vows and escaped to
Seville by dressing as a pageboy. She then made her escape to the New World by
continuing to dress in men’s clothing and arrived in Peru. While in Latin America
she lived an interesting life; she was involved in multiple fights, and was even
captured by Dutch pirates at one point. After discovering that she was a women,
she was given to the Inquisition who issued a special papal dispensation that
allowed her to continue wearing men’s clothing because she had remained a
virgin throughout her strange life.
9
8. Beatriz de Padilla was a morisca that rose in social status and was accused of
poisoning her lover and driving another lover insane through magic. With no
actual proof, she was arguably judged so harshly and in trial for so long with the
Inquisition because the Latin American society could not accept that an Iberian
man could fall in love with a morisca. While it was still common for Spaniards or
Portuguese men to have a colored mistress, it was rare for someone to fall as
deeply in love and show it so publicly as both of Beatriz’s lovers did with her. Her
first relationship was with Don Diego Ortiz and after his death, she was taken in
by Don Diego de las Marinas, who she had a previous relationship with.
10
7
Matthew Restall and Kris Lane, Latin America in Colonial Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011),
197-198.
8
Restall and Lane, 199.
9
Restall and Lane, 200.
10
Mills and Taylor, 179-182.
Document Summary
I would not consider sor juana a feminist. I commend her actions of entering a convent to avoid a marriage that she would not be happy in, as well as her persistence in learning and refusal to give it up. Sor juana certainly wa(cid:374)de(cid:396)i(cid:374)g i(cid:374)to colo(cid:374)ial (cid:373)e(cid:374)"s territory with her love of education, but the reading did not say that she was fighting for her right to an education specifically to raise the bar for all women. If she used her knowledge to help other women realize their own power and worth or to teach other women with the belief that they deserved to know just as much as men, i would consider her a feminist. But just learning and defying social norms does not make her so: identification (20 points, one way for the men to control women in latin america was with casas de recogimiento or houses of seclusion.
