Sor Juana, the most radical decolonial thinker

In his Allegoric Neptune (Neptuo Alegórico) the Mexican philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz offered the first decolonial argument. For her, Spain had no originary and legitimate claims on Christianity. The latter was a religion coming from the Far East. The only credit of Spain was to have offered Christ shelter in the Iberic Peninsula. There are no national gods. On the contrary, gods are always foreigners, seeking for a temporary home. But the nun went even further. Not only was Spain’s national religion imported from the Far East. The names of Christ and Mary were already signs of hospitality of older gods. Before Mary, there was Isis. But such as Isis turned into Mary, the Spanish Mary couldn’t be the last goddess. In the New Spain virgin Mary was highly revered. But her figure absorbed the old mother-god of pre-Columbian societies. Mary was, at the same time, Tonanztin. In Puebla you can find a church dedicated to Santa María Tonanzintla. This was no longer the Spanish, but a Mexican Mary-Tonantzin. Her argument was double. On the first hand, she claimed that the very faith of Spain came from foreign gods. On the other, se claimed that once in America, Christ and Mary and God would transform and intermingle with local gods. Being a Christian nun, she relativized the Christian monopoly on religion framing it in a universal history of religion. She relativized the Spanish claims on Christianity. And she said that Christianity would necessarily transform where it was taught or even imposed. This makes Sor Juana probably the most radical decolonial thinker to date.