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Unequal WordsSor Juana and the Poetics of Money in New Spain Alina Sokol (bio) In the fall of 1680, the church council of Mexico City asked Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695) to design one of the two ceremonial arches with which the colonies celebrated the arrival from Spain of the new viceroy, the count of Paredes, marquis of Laguna. The result of this request was Sor Juana's Allegorical Neptune, an elaborate comparison of the new governor to the mythological sea ruler. Following the established practice for building triumphal arches, the physical archway decorated with paintings on the theme of the chosen allegory was accompanied by a written testimony that both justified the reasons for its construction and explained its meaning. A humanist but also a poet, Sor Juana enhanced this custom by adding to the traditional preliminary narrative an "Explication of the Arch" ("Explicación del arco") in verse (Cruz 436–47). The entire project was an instant success with the new court, and in recognition of her accomplishment, the church council presented the poet with two hundred pesos.1 To this reward, a fortune by contemporary standards, Sor Juana replied with the following four decimas: Esta grandeza que usaconmigo vuestra grandezale está bien a mi pobrezaperomuymal a mi musa.Perdonadme si, confusao sospechosa, me inquietael juzgar que ha sido tretala que vuestro juicio trata,pues quien me da tanta plata,no me quiere ver poeta. [End Page 455] No ha sido arco, en realidad,quien mi pobreza socorre,sino arcaduz por quien correvuestra liberalidad.De una llave la lealtada ser custodia se aplicadel caudal que multiplicaquien oro me da por cobre,pues por un arco tan pobre,me dais una arca tan rica. Aun viendo el efecto, dudoque pudiese el tiro erradode un arco mal disparradoatravesar tanto escudo;mas a mi silencio mudosólo obedecer le toca,pues, por si replico locacon palabras desiguales,con tantos sellos realesme habéis tapado la boca. Con afecto agradecidoa tantos favores, hoygracias, señores, os doyy los perdones os pidoque con pecho agradecidode vuestra grandeza espero,y aun a estas décimas quierodar, de estar flojas, excusa;que estar tan tibia la musaes efecto del dinero. (Cruz 261) This greatness that uses /with me your greatness / suits well my poverty / but very badly my muse. / Forgive me if, confused / or suspicious, I am worried / to judge that has been a trick / what your judgment intends / since who gives me so much money / does not want to see me a poet. [End Page 456] Has not been the arch, in reality, / what remedies my poverty / but a conduit through which flows / your generosity. / Of a key the loyalty / to safeguard procures / the capital that multiplies / who gold gives me gold for copper, / since for an arch so poor / you give me a chest so rich. Even seeing the effect I doubt / that could a missed shot / from an arch badly fired / pierce so much shield; / but to my mute silence / only to obey is suitable, / since, should I respond, mad, / with unequal words, / with so many regal seals / you have covered my mouth. With grateful affect / for so many favors, today / thanks, gentlemen, to you I give / and pardons from you I ask / that with grateful heart / from your greatness I await / and even to these decimas I want / to give, for being flawed, an excuse; / for so tepid being the muse / is the effect of money.2 In seventeenth-century Mexico, the expression of thanks to superiors for a commission is a social obligation that calls for affected modesty. Sor Juana is famous for her use of self-humiliation, and this poem is another example of the skill with which she diminishes hermerits in order to praise the generosity of her patrons. Her ingenuity manifests itself already in the opening stanza, in the decision to ground her gratitude in reproach. The generous reward that recognizes the poet's achievement apparently "está bienami pobreza / peromuymalamimusa" ("is good for my poverty / but very bad for...
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