This essay examines the intersection between the translation / allegorical construction of indigenous alterity and the manifestation of a criollo agency in Sor Juana’s loas that precede the autos “El Cetro de José” (1692) and “El divino Narciso” (1690). Keywords: Cannibalism, Sor Juana, Baroque discourse. I argue that Mary as apocalyptic figure rather than apparitional message-bearer would have resonated strongly with Juana’s Iberian audience, as not only had Mary long been a focal point of devotion during reconquest on the peninsula, but Castilian leaders attempting at establishing an empire in the New World frequently justified their endeavors through apocalyptic rhetoric. Not only did these visions interweave interpretations of apocalyptic symbols with discussions of the fate of individual souls, but Mary herself was presented as an active agent in the otherworld, not simply interceding with Jesus but engaging the devil in battle. This genre of private Marian apparitions designated the seer, Juana, as authoritative, yet disseminated apocalyptic material through publically preached visions of the otherworld. This chapter argues that Juana’s blend of apocalyptic genres was a forerunner of the “Marian apocalyptic” described by E. Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534), abbess of a Clarisan convent outside Toledo, Spain, preached publically for thirteen years, putatively channeling Jesus’ voice through her raptured body. In turn, contemporary terminology can aid in identifying certain subcategories within the celestial gender performances in Juana’s visions, such that analysis of trans, bigender, or genderqueer representations of Jesus, Mary, and the angels permits connections between different sermons that together shed light on Juana’s original theological interventions. Although Juana identified publicly as a nun and therefore as female, such rubrics as trans or intersex can help parse the nuances of the distinctive narratives on which Juana rested her authority. Ecclesiastical support for a Castilian woman preacher during the early decades of the Inquisition is even more surprising, since Juana claimed that she experienced a sex change before birth. For thirteen years, the Clarissan Juana de la Cruz (1481 – 1534) gave public “sermones” during which Christ’s voice was reported to issue from her rapt body, expanding on the biblical record and describing festivities in heaven that feature considerable fluidity in gender and sexuality.
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