Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramirez de Santillana was born the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish captain and a creole woman on November 12th, 1648 in the town of San Miguel Nepantla near Mexico City, Mexico.

Raised by her grandparents in Amecameca, Juana Inés established herself from a young age as a talented thinker and writer. She is reported to have learned to read and write by the age of three, to do accounting by the age of five, to compose re…