Resumen de Maternal Landscapes: An Answer to the Problem of Women’s Education in Colonial Mexico

Juan Manuel Ramírez Velázquez

• In Sor Juana’s Respuesta a Sor Filotea (1691), she advocates for the education of women in colonial Mexico through emphasizing the figure of mothers as educators. I contend that Sor Juana uses the figure of the mother and maternal spaces to promote a more inclusive education system for women, enabling the pursuit of higher education, traditionally a male domain. Furthermore, by advancing this inclusivity, Sor Juana criticizes the idea that a mother’s role was solely to give birth. Ultimately, this article shows how Sor Juana reconceptualizes motherhood and femininity as an essential means of transmission and reproduction of culture.