Juana Ines de la Cruz

“I, Worst of All” depicts the life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, who has been hailed the first Latin American Poet. The movie begins in 1680 with the arrival of a new Viceroy and his wife as well as the new misogynic Archbishop. The movie opens with the performance of a play Juana has written and the Viceroy and his wife are taken with Juana’s passion and gift for writing. Where as the Archbishop promptly denounces the nunnery “a bordello.” Juana became a nun in order to access the knowledge and books ordinarily forbidden to women. She had a passion for learning and had amassed the largest library in Latin America. Then, sin of sins, she had the audacity to express herself and her own ideas through the written word. She quickly became popular for her poems and plays and gained the protection of the Viceroy and his wife. For a time, Juana received not only the protection but friendship of the Viceroy’s wife and the two became involved in sort of a passionate, yet chaste love affair. When asked why she never wanted children, Juana responds by pointing to her books, sundial, astrolabe, and telescope claiming these were her children.  She believed she possessed the sort of freedom that would have been denied her had she gotten married and had children as was expected. However, not everyone was so enthralled by her work or her voracious desire to learn, which was considered the province of men and the Archbishop was not to be dissuaded from his goal of bringing the lascivious poet down Viceroy or no. When the Viceroy was dismissed from his position and sent back to Spain, Juana was left without vulnerable and without defense. Manipulated and betrayed, Juana faced the anger of the Inquisition and suffered the consequences of stepping outside her conceived gender role.

This movie sums up some of the worst aspects of a “male dominated” society, even as women found ways to circumvent convention and express themselves in a way that did not involve matrimony or having children, they still ran the risk of losing everything even their lives when the Inquisition was in full swing. Although, it was interesting that she was supported by so many prominent political and religious men. She unfortunately also made powerful enemies who saw to her eventual fall.