Why Sor María de Jesús?
Why this symposium?
...and Why Now?
The rationale for this symposium is partially contained in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese's mission statement:
"The mission of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese is to promote quality teaching and research that integrate the languages, literatures, linguistics and cultures of the Spanish-and-Portuguese-speaking worlds. We share our expertise with the university community, the City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico."
Nowhere is the Spanish nexus between the Old World and the New better seen than in the colonial period of New Mexico. One of the most exciting legends from this period that ties perfectly into this belief is the story of María de Jesús de Agreda.
Who is Sor María de Jesús de Agreda?
Although Sor María's biography cannot be presented in its entirety here, the following summation taken from a study by Nancy P. Hickerson will help serve as orientation. We encourage those interested in a more in-depth and most current understanding of the Sor María phenomenon to attend our conference and to seek out Marilyn H. Fedewa's biography of Sor María.
We also offer the synopsis accompanying the announcement of her book, below. For fuller orientation, on this site, please see Professor Hickerson's entire article in PDF format.
Also, we recommend the Sor María websites we highlight at this website, and especially the website of Marilyn H. Fedewa, one of our distinguished presenters on Sor María.
Finally, we encourage all to witness Puppet's Revenge presentation of "Lady Blue's Dreams" and to consult their informative website as well.
Marilyn H. Fedewa
Maria of Agreda: Mystical Lady in Blue
http://www.cambridgeconnections.net/Maria_Biography.html
Puppet´s Revenge
The Blue Lady - A Brief History
http://imageevent.com/puppetsrevenge/theblueladyabriefhistory
Our Sisterhood with Ágreda
Finally, we think it an honor and timely that Governor Bill Richardson has seen fit, as of 2 December 2008, to place the State of New Mexico in sisterhood with Ágreda, Spain specifically because of this special tie between the two places that Sor María creates. See:
Governor Bill Richardson Signs New Mexico Sisterhood Agreement (pdf)
http://www.governor.state.nm.us/press/2008/dec/120208_01.pdf
See also from the Spanish perspective:
Las relaciones EE.UU.-España se estrechan en Ágreda, Soria
Of Additional Interest
Nancy P. Hickerson
"The Visits of the Lady in Blue:
An Episode in the History of the South Plains, 1629."
Journal of Anthropological Research 46.1 (Spring 1990): 67-90.
"A remarkable– and seemingly inexplicable– episode in the early history of the Southwest consists of the reported appearances of a mysterious figure, a ‘holy woman' (santa) wearing the habit of a nun with a blue overgarment. This ‘Lady in Blue' was said to have proselytized and made converts among several Indian tribes. Contemporary theologians identified the visitant as Mother Maria of A, a cloistered Spanish nun who claimed to have been mystically transported, while in a trance state, to the New World on a number of occasions between 1620 and 1631. The ‘Lady in Blue' became a legendary figure over a wide area in the Southwest; the earliest account, however, was contained in the 1630 Memorial of Fray Alonso de Benavides, who recounted events in 1629 involving the Jumano Indians of the South Plains, east of New Mexico. The series of events is recapitulated and discussed as it relates to the interests of the principal parties involved– chiefly, Franciscans and Jumanos" (67).
Download Article in PDF [536kb].
Maria of Agreda: Mystical Lady in Blue - by Marilyn H. Fedewa
"News of María of Ágreda's exceptional attributes spread from her cloistered convent in seventeenth-century Ágreda (Spain) to the court in Madrid and beyond. Without leaving her village, the abbess impacted the kingdom, her church, and the New World; Spanish Hapsburg king Felipe IV sought her spiritual and political counsel for over twenty-two years. Based upon her transcendent visionary experiences, Sor María chronicled the life of Mary, mother of Jesus of Nazareth, in Mystical City of God, a work the Spanish Inquisition temporarily condemned. In America, reports emerged that she had miraculously appeared to Jumano Native Americans--a feat corroborated by witnesses in Spain, Texas, and New Mexico, where she is honored today as the legendary "Lady in Blue." Lauded in Spain as one of the most influential women in its history, and in the United States as an inspiring pioneer, Sor María's story will appeal to cultural historians and to women who have struggled for equality against all odds."
From University of New Mexico Press