Sunrise in San Jose

Cuties

Dreams

Life is tasty dreams

Sweet dream, bitter dream

Tender dream, whacked dream

Fruity dream, rotten dream

Tasting the dessert first

Life is diverse sleeps

Complete sleep, fragment sleep

Consistent sleep, cripple sleep

Daydreamed sleep, nightmarish sleep

Pursuing the creativity first

            On September 13, 2015, at the Ojai Foundation in Ojai, California, Doctor Deborah Conway de Prieto, a Professor of English specializing in Mythology at California State University Los Angeles shared with her audience her journey to the study of Mythology on a peaceful afternoon, on a mountain in a warm, domed atmosphere. Doctor Conway said that when she taught at California State University Hayward, once she had a chance to watch the six-part video series The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, about the interaction of human choice and human lives. The Power of Myth made Doctor Conway cry, and she then knew her fate—to marry Mythology. During the journey toward the PhD degree in Mythology, she met Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, O.S.H., a Spanish Catholic nun, poet and writer from the seventeenth century. Sor Juana’s life was Doctor Conway’s staple that urged her to read Sor Juana’s original work in Spanish, paint many paintings about Sor Juana, and write a book about Sor Juana with the hope to spread the word of Sor Juana’s intellectual power to the world, to help the young generation (especially women) to gain the power to succeed.

            Sor Juana read voluminously on a variety of subjects in her early age. She lusted for learning, so she chose to be a Catholic nun to imprison herself in a small room in a convent to read throughout her life. There she wrote the long poem El Sueño (The Dream), about a woman who sleeps at night and writes about her dream during the days. Sor Juana’s The Dream is a valuable piece, a unique multiple-faceted diamond that she generously offered to readers from generation to generation. Sor Juana’s The Dream attracts many scholars to study, research, and write about its diverse faces: philosophy, education, politics, religion, society, science, and intellect. The Dream has been translated into several languages.

            Albert Einstein states, “Learn yesterday, live today, and dream tomorrow.” Sor Juana’s shared learning was the infinite power of her determination to overcome female educational restriction in the seventeenth century. She sacrificed her freedom, her ordinary female life, to live for herself, and devoted her life to education that empowered females. Sor Juana’s life is the token of female rights in an early time. She indirectly advocated and encouraged women’s’ equal rights to learn, and proved that women possess the same intelligence of men. Although Sor Juana’s physical body was in darkness, her soul was a shooting star with brilliant rays launching to the sky. The Dream is a reflection of Sor Juana’s spirit, like a nocturne brought to bright reality. The Dream is a perception of the human psyche and experiences. She wrote poetic fiction derived from her knowledge and her subconscious, inspiring the title of Doctor Conway’s concentration of the presentation in the narrow frame of two hours: “The Dream as Dream Text: Sor Juana as Creature of Fiction or Creature of Reality.”

            Sor Juana’s self-education is the extreme power to go far beyond self-perfection and self-imposition and is the unlimited margin of gender. Sor Juana’s reading was the enlightenment to connect her with the outside society. She did not fear execution to defend a woman’s right to receive an education, when an archbishop condemned her writing. Sor Juana is considered the pioneer of early Mexican literature. The Dream is poetic, full of imagery, conceives feminine expression, political construction and historical transformation. Doctor Conway showed the audience a picture of the convent where Sor Juana lived, which became a university, and her image on the 200-peso bill.  Sor Juana’s The Dream passes her estate to future generations from century to century. Sor Juana is the first woman to practice and prove woman’s rights in the world. She is the pride of the Mexicans.

Doctor Conway’s eyes sparkled while talking about Sor Juan’s The Dream. Doctor Conway has studied Sor Juana’s work for many years, and it took her almost two years to complete the manuscript. Doctor Conway’s dream is for the American people to know and learn about Sor Juana’s The Dream.  

Learn, live, and lift are the three golden keys that the audience learned from Doctor Conway’s presentation.