In this “dog and pony show” (Alicia is the Dog, Alma the Horse), the author and the artist discuss the historical figure of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th-century Mexican nun/poet/scholar known the world over as “the first feminist of the Americas.” Alicia’s presentation, “[Un]Framing “La Décima Musa” explores Sor Juana’s veiled identity as both a feminist and a lesbian nun who challenged and defied the gender codes imposed on all women, regardless of class or caste, in the colonial society of New Spain. Alma’s presentation, “Sor Juana,” a series of 3’ x 4’ color digital photographs inspired by Alicia’s historical novel, Sor Juana’s Second Dream hopes to open a dialogue on Sor Juana that not only humanizes her as a body as well as a mind, but also constructs a new community of “sisters” for Sor Juana composed of Chicana feminist and Chicana lesbian writers, scholars, students, activists, and poets who embody or in-habit the nun’s identity in the 21st century to create a more inclusive sisterhood of “bad women.”
