THE STRUCTURE OF CLASS AND CASTE 121
Despite these drawbacks, the convent rep-
resented a heaven-sent opportunity for a young
woman like Sor Juana, who was of a modest family
background and who had no particular religious
vocation. Her intellectual brilliance made it diffi -
cult for her to fi nd a suitable marriage partner, and,
in any case, she lacked the dowry to attract such a
man. The convent, though, offered Sor Juana an
escape from the traps of sexual exploitation and
a way to cultivate her immense talents. A recent
study of Hispanic women in colonial Peru by Luis
Martín describes the Peruvian nunnery as “a for-
tress of women, a true island of women, where...
women could protect themselves from the corrod-
ing and dehumanizing forces of Don Juanism.” But
a caveat is in order: the subjects of Martín’s book
are mostly upper-class Hispanic women who often
scorned and sometimes abused the slaves and ser-
vants who surrounded them.
Much more is coming to light about the lives
of indigenous women in colonial Spanish America.
Evidence suggests that despite the damaging im-
pact of Spanish patriarchal social relations, native
women were far from passive victims. They enjoyed
economic importance as producers and traders of
goods, owned property in their own right, litigated,
countered male abuse with a variety of strategies
ranging from mobilization of kin to witchcraft, and
played leading roles in the organization of resis-
tance to Spanish measures that threatened their
communities. In his study of 142 native rebellions
in colonial Mexico, William Taylor notes the highly
visible role of women. “In at least one-fourth of the
cases,” he writes, “women were visibly more ag-
gressive, insulting, and rebellious.”Go online for additional
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