Juana Ramírez de Asbaje sat before a panel of prestigious theologians, jurists, and mathematicians. The viceroy of New Spain had invited them to test the young woman's knowledge by posing the most difficult questions they could muster.
But Juana successfully answered every challenge, from complicated equations to philosophical queries. Observers would later liken the scene to "a royal galleon fending off a few canoes."
The woman who faced this interrogation was born in the mid-17th century. At that time, Mexico had been a Spanish colony for over a century, leading to a complex and stratified class system.
Juana's maternal grandparents were born in Spain, making them members of Mexico's most esteemed class. But Juana was born out of wedlock, and her father — a Spanish military captain — left her mother, Doña Isabel, to raise Juana and her sisters alone.
Fortunately, her grandfather's moderate means ensured the family a comfortable existence. And Doña Isabel set a strong example for her daughters, successfully managing one of her father's two estates, despite her illiteracy and the misogyny of the time.
It was perhaps this precedent that inspired Juana's lifelong confidence. At age three, she secretly followed her older sister to school.
When she later learned that higher education was open only to men, she begged her mother to let her attend in disguise. Her request denied, Juana found solace in her grandfather's private library.
By early adolescence, she'd mastered philosophical debate, Latin, and the Aztec language Nahuatl. Juana's precocious intellect attracted attention from the royal court in Mexico City, and when she was sixteen, the viceroy and his wife took her in as their lady-in-waiting.
Here, her plays and poems alternately dazzled and outraged the court. Her provocative poem Foolish Men infamously criticized sexist double standards, decrying how men corrupt women while blaming them for immorality.
Despite its controversy, her work still inspired adoration, and numerous proposals. But Juana was more interested in knowledge than marriage.
