Sor Juana — "Sister Juana" — was the religious title of **Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695)**, the **greatest poet and intellectual of Spanish colonial America**. **Born illegitimate, she taught herself to read at three**, mastered Latin in twenty lessons, and entered the convent to pursue scholarship. **Her *Respuesta a Sor Filotea* (1691) is the first feminist tract written in the Americas**, defending women's right to learning. Hailed by contemporaries as **"the Phoenix of Mexico" and "the Tenth Muse."**
**On the Mexican 200-peso bill.**
Sor Juana reduces to seven — the number of the Tenth Muse.