A Wild Country out in the Garden: The Spiritual Journals of a Colonial Mexican Nun (review)

A Wild Country out in the Garden: The Spiritual Journals of a Colonial Mexican Nun. Selected, Edited, and Translated by Kathleen A. Myers and Amanda Powell. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1999. Pp. xxxv, 386. $39.95.)

This book represents an important moment in the evolution of historical and literary studies of Hispanic nuns' writings. The pioneering research and writings of the historians Josefina Muriel and Asunción Lavrin first brought attention to the field of Hispanic nuns' writings, as did the groundbreaking work of literary scholars and critics Electa Arenal and Stacey Schlau. Arenal and Schlau's 1989 bilingual anthology and critical and literary study of Hispanic nuns' writings (Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works) was a seminal project for which Amanda Powell provided translations of the primary texts included in the book.

Myers and Powell divide the major part of their book into two chapters. They preface them with an introduction focusing on the style and language of the selected texts, whose translation and order present formidable stylistic and organizational obstacles. The first chapter contains a compilation of translated and edited selections taken from Sor María de San José's twelve volumes of writings held in the John Carter Brown Library archives. The passages are chronically ordered and offer examples of different genres and types of spiritual and personal accounts. Each selection highlights themes that offer an interesting and informative representation of colonial life in New Spain and a species of (auto)biography. In part the autobiographical structure results from the chronological order of the selections, which begin with Sor María de San José's formative years, her entrance into the Augustinian convent in Puebla, and her departure from there to assist in the foundation of a sister convent in Oaxaca. Subsequent selections highlight thematic elements and well-known literary tropes in nuns' and lay religious' spiritual writings such as difficulties with daily conventual life and relationships with sister nuns, spiritual struggles with demons, and personal doubts that characterize religious life. Thus, spiritual and secular institutions are revealed in a very personal way, and cultural values are presented in a constructive and engaging manner.

The second chapter is a well-documented and thorough study of literary and historical themes and colonial interests in the New Spain era of Mexico's history. In addition to the period's history, we learn of the parameters and expectations of colonial Spanish-American religious life. Scholars and students in history and literature will most likely take advantage of this second chapter although the general reader, especially one unfamiliar with the period, may wish to read it first. The book ends with a glossary intended for the non-specialist reader, an extensive bibliography, and two appendices. The first gives a chronology of the writing of the volumes and of Sor María de San José's life; the second presents a history of the Augustinian nun's writing career.

This book is accessible to English-speaking specialist-scholars, students, and educated general readers. It is significant because it offers the non-Spanish reader an opportunity to appreciate a remarkable woman's talents and life. It also serves cross-disciplinary interests and gives students and scholars an opportunity to understand the cultural and social pressures and institutions that dictated much of colonial Mexican mores and ideas, especially in regard to women and their writings.

 

Jennifer L. Eich
Loyola Marymount University

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