When Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz answered the letter of “Sor Filotea de la Cruz” in 1691, she began with an apology: “No mi voluntad, mi poca salud y mi justo temor han suspendido tantos días mi respuesta” (Not my will, but my poor health and my just fear have held back my answer for so many days). She then wondered how such favor could come to a simple nun.
Later in the letter, she explained herself. “Fue tan vehemente y poderosa la inclinación a las letras” (So vehement and powerful was the inclination to letters), she wrote, and she called it “este natural impulso que Dios puso en mí” (this natural impulse that God put in me).