Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a nun, poet, and scholar in colonial Mexico who became one of the greatest writers of her time, despite living in an era when women were rarely allowed to study or publish. She reportedly taught herself to read by age three and, as a nun, built a personal library of thousands of books, one of the largest in colonial Mexico. She taught herself an enormous range of subjects and wrote powerful poems and essays defending women's right to education. She is remembered today as one of the most important writers in the Spanish language.