When the Portuguese and Spanish colonized Latin America, they created a caste system. The sistema de castas (or the sociedad de castas) classified both men and women under a socio-economic platform, according to their race, color, or ethnicity. Due to customs that transferred from Iberian gender relations, Iberian and African women became socially and culturally restrained to private sphere occupations. For instance, Sor Juana de la Cruz, was prejudiced for not committing to the private work of nuns. Common women, such as Maria de Carranza in “The Women as a Settler,” was restrained to her household and family. While Honorata, a female slave in “A Master Abuses His Adolescent Slave Girl: A Court Case of 1882-1884,” and mulatas in “The Influence
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A clear example is found in “Reply of the Poetess to the Very Illustrious sor Filotea de la Cruz,” where Sor Juana uses an intellectual approach to argue against the opinion of the Bishop of Puebla. Sor Juana did have the opportunity to advocate for herself and her self-interest, so she expresses why women were in every way as intelligent and capable as men. Sor Juana questions the educational institutions: “(...since we see that in fact women are not permitted to read publicly or preach in the church), why do they reprehend women who study privately?,” and reveals that the public and private sphere were founded as an excuse to dominate women. (Red 172). Men only restricted women to the private sphere so that they can continue to exercise power over women. In reality, when the Bishop of Puebla judges Sor Juana it only shows how men did not care if a woman obtained an education or not, they only wished for women to remain in the their in shadows. This is the reason why the Bishop suggests Sor Juana to stop writing verses and instead commit to the church. The church itself can be blamed for cultivating the inequalities of Iberian …show more content…
passive paradigm that the social system established. The court case of Honoratas deflowering exposes the social control that the Brazilian law (property rights) exercised over slaves. Honorata tries to act against this crime by providing the court with enough evidence to convict Henriques Ferreira (the testimony of the slave Tiburcio and the trauma found in the hymen membrane). However, the nullification of the case and Frietas Henriques statement: “... the act of deflowering...escapes incrimination under Art. 219 of the criminal code if it does not involve free persons, especially when it is between a master and his slave women” emphasizes the legal restrictions that prevented slaves from being involved in society (CGF 280). In this manner, Henriques and other male slave holders were able to justify their crimes with their active status. These non-consensual sex patterns were clearly brought over to Latin America for the same purpose they existed in Iberian society, to establish the patriarchal ‘double
A clear example is found in “Reply of the Poetess to the Very Illustrious sor Filotea de la Cruz,” where Sor Juana uses an intellectual approach to argue against the opinion of the Bishop of Puebla. Sor Juana did have the opportunity to advocate for herself and her self-interest, so she expresses why women were in every way as intelligent and capable as men. Sor Juana questions the educational institutions: “(...since we see that in fact women are not permitted to read publicly or preach in the church), why do they reprehend women who study privately?,” and reveals that the public and private sphere were founded as an excuse to dominate women. (Red 172). Men only restricted women to the private sphere so that they can continue to exercise power over women. In reality, when the Bishop of Puebla judges Sor Juana it only shows how men did not care if a woman obtained an education or not, they only wished for women to remain in the their in shadows. This is the reason why the Bishop suggests Sor Juana to stop writing verses and instead commit to the church. The church itself can be blamed for cultivating the inequalities of Iberian …show more content…
passive paradigm that the social system established. The court case of Honoratas deflowering exposes the social control that the Brazilian law (property rights) exercised over slaves. Honorata tries to act against this crime by providing the court with enough evidence to convict Henriques Ferreira (the testimony of the slave Tiburcio and the trauma found in the hymen membrane). However, the nullification of the case and Frietas Henriques statement: “... the act of deflowering...escapes incrimination under Art. 219 of the criminal code if it does not involve free persons, especially when it is between a master and his slave women” emphasizes the legal restrictions that prevented slaves from being involved in society (CGF 280). In this manner, Henriques and other male slave holders were able to justify their crimes with their active status. These non-consensual sex patterns were clearly brought over to Latin America for the same purpose they existed in Iberian society, to establish the patriarchal ‘double