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A Glimpse of Family Life in Colonial Mexico: A Nun's Account

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

Kathleen A. Myers
Kathleen A. Myers*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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As interest grows in examining women's lives and writings in colonial Latin America, the autobiographical accounts written by scores of nuns during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been undergoing a reevaluation by historians and literary critics alike. Studies of the literary production and the circumstances surrounding the life of the most famous nun of the period, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), have long been in vogue, but writings by her contemporaries have only recently caught the attention of many scholars. These colonial documents illustrate a well-established feminine literary tradition and reveal the female experience with religious institutions and spirituality: the appeal of the religious life for many women, the roles they played in the convent, and the relationships among nuns, confessors, and other members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Less frequently, autobiographical accounts include significant details about the author's life before taking the veil. Although rare, such manuscripts provide information on the makeup of upper-class creole households and the roles of women in the family that helps fill the gaps in knowledge about women's daily lives in Latin America. The focus of this article is the first volume written by an Augustinian Recollect nun describing her secular life on an agricultural farm (hacienda de labor) from 1656 to 1687.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , 1993 , pp. 63 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

∗

I am indebted to Muriel Nazzari and Carla Pestana for reading and commenting on an early draft of this article. All translations from Spanish were done by Amanda W. Powell.

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