“Aquí sí que se ha de ver una maravilla nueva”: The Emergence of Creole Consciousness in Poem 24 by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Abstract

This article analyzes the emergence of Creole consciousness in Poem 24 by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, written on the occasion of the birth and baptism of the son of the viceroys of New Spain. By contextualizing the figure of the Creole intellectual in the seventeenth century and considering Sor Juana’s position as a woman, a Creole, and a nun, the study examines how her writing is shaped by a network of cultural tensions. The analysis of the poem identifies the convergence of three main traditions, classical, Christian, and native, articulated through a complex system of references and allusions. Although the text reproduces features of courtly tradition and European models, it also reveals a Creole consciousness that emerges subtly in the exaltation of the American territory and in the incorporation of elements from the Mexica world. Thus, the poem not only responds to the demands of patronage but also projects a situated identity that reconfigures inherited traditions.