Chapter 15 - Cultural Transformations 1450-1750

Ursula de Jesus was born in a wealthy Spanish colonial city of Lima, Peru in 1606. Ursula is the daughter of Juan Castilla and Isabel de los Rios. Isabel de los Rios was a slave leaving Ursula to inherit her mother's status. As a child, Ursula has entered a life at the lowest rung of Spanish colonial society. Due to the fact that her mother was a slave Ursula was luck to have a second chance to have a better life. Her mother's owner was a wealthy  aristocratic woman and around eight years old Ursula lived under her mother’s owner. Ursula was sent to live in the home of her mother's owner and was raised with a reputation for piety and religious visions. Years later, Ursula accompanied a third woman into the Convent of Santa Clara, where Ursula spent the rest of her life with. She also found a place for herself in the world of colonial Peru and Latin American Christianity. Ursula became a slave herself and found herself attending to the personal needs of her mistress and practicing common women labor such as cooking, cleaning, and attending the sick. Even though she was a slave, her mistress was in the high status and allowed Ursula to dress well. During that time, Ursula was known to have a reputation of vanity within the convent and liked to dress well. Ursula saw herself as self-centered, temperamental and vain. In 1642 was a turning point in Ursula's life. When she was out washing her clothes at a well she fell over and lost balanced. She prayed and prayed and lucky she gained her balanced back. For the remainder of her life, Ursula de Jesus sought a life of religious spirituality. In 1645, one of the nuns of the convent purchased her freedom. Although she was denied the ability to become a nun because of her race, she remained at the convent as a donada. She stated that she experienced divine visions, particularly with the souls in purgatory who sought her intercession to gain their release. Throughout her life time, she was notable for her mystical visions and her claims of communicating with the souls of those who died and went to purgatory. She felt she had the ability to do so because of her near death experience. A diary of her visions and life experiences was created between 1650-1661. Throughout Ursula's personal journal she recorded complaints about the demanding nuns and how she was spat upon and ridiculed. She endures an excessive amount of work and chores when compared to the other pampered nuns. Despite the fact that Ursula de Jesus was freed slave and completely devoted herself to serving God was never able to come out of the hovering shadow of discrimination. She was still treated differently for her Afro-descent and dark completion. Often times she showed her vulnerability in her diary when she questioned God why did she have to be the one who suffered. In the end, Ursula died in 1666 and her funeral was attended by many people. She was buried beneath the chapel of the convent she had served.  

When reading this documentary in the textbook about Ursula de Jesus background story made me interested in learning more about the religious about Christianity. At first I have never heard of her name before, but after reading the question I have for Ursula that what motivate her to start journaling about her daily life. Surprisingly her owner was not mad about Ursula doing this. In what ways did Ursula shape her own life and overall the historical forces.