How were women forced to adapt to traditionally European Christian gender roles in colonial Mesoamerica? How can looking at the tradition of nunneries and Christian girls education help answer this question?
Primary:
Cruz, Juana Inés De La, and Jeremy Dean. “In Reply to a Gentlemean from Peru, Who Sent Her
Clay Vessels While Suggesting She Would Better Be a Man”. Poems Protest and Dreams.
https://genius.com/Sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz-poems-protest-and-dreams-annotated
Secondary:
Bokser, Julie A. “Sor Juana’s Rhetoric of Silence.” Rhetoric Review 25, no. 1 (2006): 6-34.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20176696.
Burkett, Elinor. “In Dubious Sisterhood: Class and Sex in Spanish Colonial America.” Latin
American Perspectives (1977).
Myers, Kathleen. “The Mystic Triad in Colonial Mexican Nuns’ Discourse: Divine Author, Visionary Scribe, and Clerical Mediator.” Colonial Latin American Historical Review (1997).
Myers, Kathleen. “Neither Saints nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish America.” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
I think this question is interesting! I would encourage you to include current theories on indigenous feminism and see what you come up with. I actually have a lot of information about Caribbean feminisms if you want to email me for some other, more concept-based sources. 🙂
Great idea for your research. One thing that you could also think about is marriages between colonizers and native women. Were they forced? How did they bring their own culture into a Christian household? I would also be curious to know if they had trouble adapting to these new expectations and rules. If you happen to find anything on giving birth or pregnancy with these women, let me know!
I think that this is going to make a really interesting presentation! I think that it could be really cool to look into the differences between Catholic orders, and how they may/may not have approached teaching gender roles in nunneries differently. This could bring a really cool comparative perspective to your project. I also think it would be cool to have a sub-focus on a specific person; I think that maybe a vignette about their experiences would be a great introductory hook to your audio slideshow!
For this topic I think it would be cool to examine Dona Marina. Was someone such as herself, who aided the Europeans, forced to abide by such gender norms? Or was she more exempt from conforming due to willingness to help the Europeans. Or perhaps just by aiding the Europeans she was already following the new gender roles in mesoamerica
You get some great ideas from your peers! It might help to focus geographically (at least for your central case study) so you can make a more in-depth analysis. Good, high-quality sources. I like Jaz’s ideas about considering indigenous feminisms as another secondary source.