Juana Inés la Cruz

November 12, 1648 - April 17, 1695

Educated at home in Mexico, Sor Juana studied Latin, Nahuatl, philosophy, and mathematics using her grandfather’s vast library. A child prodigy, she learned Latin by three and mathematics by five, remarkable in a society that denied women formal education. Barred from university, she became a nun to preserve her intellectual freedom and emerged as a poet and scholar who fiercely defended women’s right to learn. Though later silenced, her preserved works endure as a testament to her brilliance and courage; she spent her final years caring for the poor before dying in a plague.