In 1692, Sor Juana’s three autos sacramentales were published together in the second volume of her complete works. These one- act plays – designed for performance as part of Corpus Christi celebrations, in honour of the Sacrament of the Eucharist – were on vastly different topics (Hermenegild, a 6th century Visigothic martyr-prince; Narcissus, and the Old Testament story of Joseph) but their introductions, or loas, explored the ‘discovery of the so-called ‘New World’’, and the ‘conquest’ and ‘conversion’ of Mexico by Spain. Despite Sor Juana’s modern-day reputation as a subversive upstart, when read in sequence – in their original order within the volume that was published 200 years after Columbus’ landing in the Caribbean – her plays appear to celebrate the imperial project, presenting the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, as having been responsible for saving the Nahua from the Devil.

About the speaker

Dr Amy Fuller is Senior Lecturer in the History of the Americas at Nottingham Trent University. She was awarded her PhD in Spanish Studies from the University of Manchester in 2010, and her first book, Between Two Worlds: The autos sacramentales of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was published by MHRA in 2015. Aside from her work on Sor Juana, she has written on topics such as the Conquest of Mexico; Mexican folklore; the Day of the Dead, and conversion and religious drama in colonial Mexico.