Writing the Women We Admire: The Duchess of Aveiro from Sor Juanas Poetry to the Missions in California, Guam,

and China
900 SAMLA 2011 Jeanne Gillespie, PhD The University of Southern Mississippi In the Respuesta a Sor Filotea, (1691) Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz mentions the Duchess of Aveiro, as one of the three contemporary women she admires. The other two are the Empress Christina Alejandra of Sweden and the Countess of Vllaumbrosa: pues en nuestros tiempos est floreciendo la gran Cristina Alejandra, Reina de Suecia, tan docta como valerosa y magnnima, y las Excelentsimas seoras Duquesa de Aveyro y Condesa de Villaumbrosa. (La respuesta) The Duchess of Aveyro, or Aveiro y Arcos, Maria Guadalupe de Lencastre, was the cousin of Sor Juanas friend, Maria Luisa, Countess of Paredes and wife of the Viceroy of New Spain. Sor Juana dedicated the 1689 publication of her collection Inundacin castalida to the countess, and one of the romances contained in the collection was dedicated to the Duchess. Georgina Sabat de Rivers and others have written about the literary allusions and aspects of the Romance 37 as well as the Duchesss inclusion in the Respuesta. Monica Morales has recently published an excellent study of the transatlantic nature of this poem, highlighting Sor Juanas construction of America as a place* desde el cual se corrige la clasificacin que lo hegemnico ha hecho con la ayuda del conocimiento producido por la exploracin y la cartografa. El nuevo mundo pasa a ser un espacio desde el que se reclama un derecho epistemolgico natural que ha sido usurpado.

Sor Juana constructs an extended metaphor in perfect baroque sensibilities that establishes the legitimacy of a voice for America. Moraless analysis is spot on, but what I am interested in is the selection of the Duchess as Sor Juanas European counterpart. This study examines the historical context of the Duchesss fame and the reasons that Sor Juana may have included her in the Respuesta and in the Romance as an example of a woman on equal footing with the Jesuit administration in Spain and the colonies. Through correspondence between the Duchess and various missionaries working from California to Guam to China, celebrating her indefatigable support for the missionary enterprise, we will be able to tease out some details of this woman that might have interested Sor Juana. In addition to the brief mention in the Respuesta and the Romance 37, we will examine letters to and from the Duchess related to news of the various colonial enterprises and other important themes of the late seventeenth century Spanish empire. If we begin with the three contemporaries mentioned in the Respuesta, we might notice that Queen Cristina Alejandra, like Sor Juana, refused to marry. She took the throne at the age of 16 and while several attempts to arrange a marriage for here were made, she refused to marry. In 1654 after 21 years as queen, she converted to Catholicism and abdicated her throne and dedicated herself to the pursuits of the arts and letters. She spent much time in Rome and was close to many high ranking religious and political figures, including several important Jesuits. The Countess of Villa Umbrosa, Mara Petronila Nio Enriquez de Porres, was a patron of the Jesuit astronomer P. Bernardo Jos (or Benart Josep) Zaragoza. Zaragoza dedicated his Tratado de la Esphera en Comn, Celeste y Terrquea (1675) to the Countess. Zaragoza praised the

Countes for her accomplishments in learning French to perfection in four months, Latin in fewer than six months and mastered arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. While the Maria Guadalupe de Lencastre did marry the Spanish Duke of Arcos, when she received the title Duchess of Aveiro upon the death of her uncle, the Portuguese king would only allow her to claim the title if she returned to Portugal. Her Spanish husband protested, so she legally separated from him and returned to run the affairs of the Duchy alone. In addition, we know from the Jesuit mathematician to the Chinese Emperor, Ferdinand Verbiest, that the duchess was known for her intellectual talents as well as her generosity: he calls her the Most Excellent Muse of all the liberal arts, whose company is eagerly sought for by Philosophy itself and by all Mathematical Sciences. Like Christina Alexandra and the Countess of Villa Umbrosa (and Sor Juana), she was also incredibly smart. Since the respuesta is staking a claim for the rights of women to seek intellectual pursuits, these three women fit well with Sor Juanas long list of scholars, judges, and other women of letters. In addition to her intellectual ability, the Duchess of Aveyro and, because of her conversion that led her to abdicate, we can assume Cristina Alejandra, were devout Catholics. The Countess de Villaumbrosa has a Jesuit devotee, so we can also assume that she was a involved in Catholic life. Since the colonial enterprise for the Spanish crown depended upon the conversion of indigenous peoples in the lands claimed by Spain, success in missionary endeavours was imperative. This also drove the morale of the colonial aristocracy, so good news from the missions was always appreciated. The letters received by the Duchess from the missionaries confirm another of the principal reasons for Sor Juanas admiration of the Duchess, specifically the Duchesss

talents in providing the strategies and financial resources necessary for establishing missions throughout the world. The letter drafts from the Duchess illustrate her global enterprise and her comprehensive grasp of the political, social, and geographical concerns of the era. ? Elias Ibn Hanna Al-Malawi D. helps him get to Peru We know that the duchess was involved in mission work as early as 1674 when she is credited with facilitating access to the royal court for Assyrio-Chaldean priest Elias Ibn Hanna Al-Malawi. The duchess helped him have an audience with the queen and provided him with letters of introduction to the viceroy of Peru where he traveled to raise money for relief for his community in Baghdad. Hanna Al-Malawi traveled throughout Peru and the Americas, eventually passing through Mexico in 1682 where he purchased a shipment of cochineal. His shipment was lost when pirates sacked the Gulf of Mexico port of Veracruz. 1683 Countess de Paredes baby born/ Sacking of Veracruz Those same pirates were one of the subjects of a letter written by the wife of Viceroy Tomas de Cerda, Maria Luisa de Paredes, to her cousin the Duchess with information about the colonial enterprise. las novedades de por ac ...ver saqueada la Veracruz unos piratas que fue gran lastima y gran desmido de los que deban guardarla el gobernador esta sentenciado a degollara pesado no se en que parara de todo. Tuvo la culpa de detenciar [detener] de flota pues tardo noventa y tanto das y como haba noticias de que venia muchos se engaaron creyendo eran

navos de flota y no hicieran el caso que deban mi primo ha basado all para el despacho, The letter treats other issues as well, including the Countesss newborn baby, her dental problems, the missing/ lost the Manila galleon, which did not arrive at all in 1682, and the missionary efforts of the Jesuits in California. This letter is intriguing because it highlights that these issues were on the minds of not only the men involved in the colonial enterprise, but also items of conversation among women. As a friend of the Countess, Sor Juana would have also been participating in these sorts of conversations. With regard to the missing Manila Galleon, several other efforts were frustrated, including a mission to the Marianas Islands to help provision a budding settlement on the island of Guam: Letter from Mexico City by Guam/ Marianas missionary Baltasar de Mansilla, S.J. (1683) the Manila Galleon has failed us this yearI have no chance to come to the aid of those missions for which I had already such abundant provisionsI express my profound gratitude for the decrees which I received through Fr. Manuel Rodriguez in order to promote in every way trade between the Philippines and the Marianas, and also the free transport of the supplies sent to the missionaries I am including in the present letter one by Father Eusebio Kino written from California (Kino Writes to the Duchess 145-149) What I wanted to touch on here was the strategy for moving the goods around the globe and the frustration expressed by each of the correspondents. At the same time, I would highlight the mechanics for presenting the letter from Kino that would have been

news for many in Mexico City and later in Spain. It is possible that both of these letters, as well as the enclosed letter from Kino, arrived to the Duchess at the same time. The missionary efforts to California was one of the most important details of the time, one that everyone was talking about, the Countess obliges her cousin with a few words about this and the recent good news that they had received from the Jesuits. dios traiga las bienes de la que viniere de California se ha tenido noticias de que entraron y parecen los indios muy dciles haban ya fabricado una ermita de nuestra Seora de Guadalupe para ir los industriando y para decir misa los padres de la compaa. After spending time in Mexico at the court and getting to know Sigenza y Gngora and other Mexican intellectuals and elites, in 1681 Kino, accompanied by a battalion under the command of Isidro de Atondo set off to settle in California. Kinos hope was for success in California and then on to China to set up missions to convert the emperor. Trained as an astronomer as well as a cartographer, Kino published a book on the behavior of comets after two comets appeared, one in 1681 and another (later to be known as Halleys Comet) appeared in 1682. There was much concern that this comet was the portent of dangerous times, and Kino approached his study from a very traditional perspective, which conflicted with Sigenza y Gngoras more progressive scientific approach. We know that Aveiro requested 100 copies from the missionary in a letter in 1682. We also know that sor Juana was intrigued by astronomy and that she predicted that the Earths trajectory around the sun was elliptical and not circular from her own experiments with gravity and a gyroscope.

While the treatise on comets was important and interesting, the bottom line for the duchess was the success of the missionary enterprise, so it is not a surprise that Kino would send her good news from his efforts in California: Kino letter from San Bruno, California (1683) Best of all, we discovered infallible proof of many tribes and many souls as could be inferred from the recent traces left behindAt the first signs of us, all the natives scrambled from the highest crags in the mountains and one of their chieftainswith sixteen others come to speak with us in all peace and friendliness, putting their weapons on the ground and giving us permission to continue inland by river(Kino Writes to the Duchess 151-153) Unfortunately, the Atondo expedition suffered a setback when the soldiers massacred a group of Amerindians. Concerned for the fate of the mission, the Duchess penned a memorandum (or at least drew up a draft) about several options that would garner continued support for Padre Kinos efforts: California is one of the vastest regions of AmericaIts discovery, a desired goal for many years, was recently attempted by Isidro de Atondo, but as no really useful and signal Enterprise is easy, it suffered a severe blow by his killing some of its inhabitants, through the failure to discover the riches expected, because of his Majestys considerable outlay of money and his need elsewhere of the soldiersit is feared [the mission] will be ordered withdrawnit is up to the Viceroythat he should promote the protection and attention of those missions by ordering the Jesuits to continue therethree or four of their missionaries[with an]

escort of a few soldiers, carefully picked. (Kino Writes to the Duchess 215)

1685 Verbiest reads the Duchesss letter to the Emperor of China 6) Verbiest, Ferdinanad, S.J. Letter (1685) I received your letter I perused it again and again with the strongest feeling of gratitude, and according to Chinese rite of veneration, that is, with my face turned westward, and with my hear bowed to the groundI have read your letter, translated into the language which is most useful in use and I have openly declared it to be the letter with you, as the Most Excellent Muse of all the liberal arts, whose company is eagerly sought for by Philosophy itself and by all Mathematical Sciences, has deigned to send me(Classica japnica 83)

7) La mision de la China no se puede du[d]ar en ser la de maior consequencia para la iglesia en tda el Asia assi por lo dilatado de su imperio como por la exacta politica del que todos los mas reynos circumvecinos procuran imitar o emular a porfia =la necessidad de operarios evangelicos es igual a lo vasta de aquellas provincias y a las grandes disposiciones en que se hallan para recibir la fee que el emperador favorece el riesgo que los mahotmetanos se multipliquen yy los griegos seimaticos se intoduzgan por las pazes nuevamente celebradas ya entre el Sino y Moscovita * es urgentissimo para pasar a la China religiosos por

via de Philipinas tiene embarcaos y ningun sugeito puede lograrlo sin el coste de mil pesos desde Espaa a Manila solamente la via de Portugal padece [matores] inconvenientes porque la navegacin es dificil y tarda (Draft of letter to Jesuit Maria Francisco de Salerno in Palermo 1690 Lilly Library, Boxer Collection) *Treaty of Nerchinsk 1689

1689 C.de Paredes brings Divino Narciso to Spain Inundacin castlida The Duchess was an able administrator as well as a devoted Catholic who committed her energy and her resources to the causes in which she believed. She also supported a successful, entrepreneurial, and pro-indigenous, colonial missionary effort.

Jeanne Gillespie, Ph.D. University of Southern Mississippi Jeanne.gillespie@usm.edu