Hunger's Brides
Page 121
Small, hunchbacked figure exits the Palaces of the Inquisition, crosses the street. Here Father Núñez needs no guide. Shuffles across the plaza; little knots of people part for him. Enters the Church of Santo Domingo–his favourite in all of Mexico.
INSIDE THE CHURCH
Dark reddish light. Red stained glass, pillars of the same meaty marble, walls of red igneous rock. To one side, a coral-coloured altar. Red stone and gold, the Conquistador’s harvest.
Núñez shuffles up the aisle and sits on a bench near the altar. Face lost in thought. Time passes.
INSIDE THE CONVENT LOCUTORY–EARLY EVENING
NÚÑEZ
Name.
JUANA
¿Perdón?
NÚÑEZ
Your name.
JUANA
Sor–
NÚÑEZ
The one your father gave you!
JUANA
Juana Inés Ramírez de Asbaje.
NÚÑEZ
Were you not born into bastardy–illegitimate?
JUANA
Fui hija natural de la Iglesia.
NÚÑEZ
As I said, a bastard. Did your father not leave you suddenly and without warning?
JUANA
You know this to be true.
NÚÑEZ
Were you baptized? Have you heard the Christian doctrine predicated? Have you communicated it to others?
JUANA
[she pales]
Why do you use the formulas of the Inquisition against me?
NÚÑEZ
Did he not flee because he was a secret Judaizer?
JUANA
Is this now about heresy?
NÚÑEZ
We have already bet on your apostasy. Did you think we could not raise the ante?
Do you believe in the reality of dreams? Have you sought visions in the taking of banned plants and substances?
JUANA
There is no need for this.
NÚÑEZ
Have you attempted to take auguries by means of hags or false seers, in the readings of palms or stars or in playing cards–
JUANA
This is nonsense.
NÚÑEZ
Or by means of weasels, or pinauiztli beetles?–or by the throwing of corn grains, or the mixing of blood and ashes.
JUANA
Truly Father, this is unworthy of you.
NÚÑEZ
You seem offended, Sor Juana.
Have you sought omens in the hooting of owls, the breaking of mirrors, the paths of black butterflies? Or in the patterns of the épatl’s urinations on the ground–
JUANA
Will you please desist from these puerilities!?
NÚÑEZ
Such fearlessness, Sor Juana, such haughty defiance!–or is that indignation?
JUANA
Surely we have more important matters–
NÚÑEZ
So eager to do philosophical battle–it is precisely your intellectual pride that offers the first point of attack. How quickly you would dispense with all this pettiness and bring us directly to loftier, infinitely more dangerous matters. Saint Catherine stretched upon the wheel! Perhaps your breath quickens at the thought of torture–
JUANA
Might yours, if our positions were reversed?
NÚÑEZ
My position … is awkward. As your former confessor and as an officer of the Inquisition, I think you can see my testimony, my involvement in this case–
JUANA
Case? I asked you here to help me renew my vows.
NÚÑEZ
Every case is different. Think of these sessions as a dress rehearsal. There will be many such insults to your pride. Clearly you are unprepared.
If we are unsuccessful, you and I, at least you will be well-drilled for the next step.
[pauses; eyes turning vaguely toward the light]
But as is natural with you, you are only thinking of yourself. Think of this: confiscation of all your family’s properties as a precaution against flight.
JUANA
Yes, property. I have heard the man your Inquisitors most fear is the Holy Office’s accountant.
NÚÑEZ
As an accountant yourself, you understand such things. Then consider this the audit of your soul.
How good that you can still make jokes about the Inquisition. Make a joke of what the priest will say in private the next time someone comes to ask that una sobrina or nephew or grand-niece of yours be baptized.
But of course you can joke because you believe there can be no charges.
JUANA
What charges?–tell me, Father Núñez.
NÚÑEZ
You scheme to win back my protection, yet you should also understand that I cannot protect you in there.
Let us suppose for a moment–only a moment–that I can be persuaded to disqualify myself from testifying against you. You should hope for that. Yes, hope for that. Though that would in turn necessarily preclude my intervening in your behalf.
Yet what I am not sure you grasp completely–your inexperience in these matters is understandable–is that the Inquisition, you see, does not need my testimony.
Testimony never lacks.
JUANA
They would solicit false statements? You would be party to this?
NÚÑEZ
Calumnies from the envious, from those who stand to gain … what could be more natural?
But, in fact, the most effective testimony comes not from those who bear false witness but instead from those who have seen wonders. All will want to tell the miracles they have seen, the prodigies of your own childhood, even when they have seen nothing at all. Your fellow sisters will fall all over themselves to testify that verily! they have seen you levitating.
So our Inquisitors will ask you to levitate for them….
They do what they can to sort the evidence.
JUANA
But they’re only human, after all.
NÚÑEZ
Good, good. I see even on the threshold of tragedy, irony does not quite desert you. And what a powerful weapon you shall fashion of it when you face down your accusers!
But you will never face your accusers, Juana Inés, never even know their names. Your judges then: confront your judges at the trial! Which brings us to the key point–for you, though not for them, or me. Your innocence. Know this: Your ‘innocence’ will hold not the slightest interest.
The sole purpose of your trial or trials … shall be to extract and properly record your confession–
JUANA
You are enjoying yourself.
NÚÑEZ
Yet if we are already at the trial, it means we have skipped over your months or years in the Inquisition’s secret prisons. And have passed over the gross familiarity of the contact there. But, there it is, we have glossed over the truly essential point for long enough: your humiliation. For you the humiliation will be the worst.
From the moment of your arrest you will be led by your vanity and arrogance into a widening gyre of resistance, rebellion and provocation. From there to insolence, thence to impudence and on to blasphemy until, far from forcing a confession from you, they will not be able to prevent you from favouring them with your most unorthodox and original ideas, on God’s love, for example.
But then perhaps to prolong your agony they will instead suspend judgement. And release you until such time–years may pass–as it pleases them to reopen the proceedings.
JUANA
Truly, you are in fine form Father. They said you were frail.
But we have already gone over this.
NÚÑEZ
Only to return to where we have been all along, and to what you have long known: your best chance, your best bet–
JUANA
Is here with you.
NÚÑEZ
So … choose.
A long silence … that she refuses to break.
NÚÑEZ
Before I return to this place–if I return–I want it stripped bare. Everything but the enconchada of Guadalupe. The Archbishop should have taken all this away in the first place.
And take away these chairs.
Next time I will have you on your knees! And next time you will not come to me fat and powdered and perfumed like you were receiving your aristocrats.
JUANA
I am wearing no scent.
NÚÑEZ
Meditate well during my absence. I will have much more from you than this, or my next time here will be my last….
At the door, Núñez pauses, turns to Gabriel.
NÚÑEZ
Is the arrangement of this locutory not somehow different from the others Gabriel?
GABRIEL
Yes, Father.
NÚÑEZ
How, exactly?
GABRIEL
In the others are metal grates…. Here, a wooden lattice separates the sisters from their visitors.
NÚÑEZ
And is this lattice elaborate and ornate, or does memory deceive?
GABRIEL
Very beautifully made.
NÚÑEZ
[without turning to face her]
Sor Juana, why is this locutory different? Some special reason?
JUANA
No. No special reason.
NÚÑEZ
No special function? Nothing extraordinary takes place in here?
JUANA
No.
NÚÑEZ
In the past, perhaps.
JUANA
Not special.
NÚÑEZ
[pause]
Make it like the others, Juana.
Do you understand me?
JUANA
Yes, Father, I understand you.
NÚÑEZ
Supervise the work yourself.
The workmen, they say, will do anything for you.
JUBILEE, DAY 17: LODESTONE
EXT. STREETS, DUSK
Guided through the dusk by Gabriel, Núñez makes his way past a blacksmith’s shop. Dim eyes drawn to the light. He pauses to watch a blacksmith hammer away at a white-hot iron, each blow casting off a shower of sparks.
INT. UNKNOWN LOCATION–NIGHT
Two young women make love by candlelight, loving, tender. bed of soft cushions….
INSIDE THE LOCUTORY–NIGHT
Instead of waiting outside the door, this time the young monk follows Núñez into the empty room. Sor Juana waits on her knees. Núñez approaches the newly-installed iron grate, stops, stands leaning on a cane.
NÚÑEZ
Have you checked, Gabriel? Is this grate now like the others?
GABRIEL
Yes.
NÚÑEZ
Exactly?
GABRIEL
Exactly like the others.
NÚÑEZ
[to Juana]
Gabriel will see you do not take advantage of my blindness.
Gabriel, what do you see?
GABRIEL
She is beautiful.
NÚÑEZ
Not that–does she move freely?
GABRIEL
She seems … in pain.
NÚÑEZ
You see Juana, your body betrays you, as always.
And by the time we are finished here, you will have betrayed everything and everyone you hold dear–because all that you hold dear has already betrayed you.
Do you doubt it?
JUANA
Yes I doubt it.
NÚÑEZ
Do you not feel the least bit betrayed that your friend Becerra Tanco stopped coming to see you?
JUANA
I asked it.
NÚÑEZ
He obeyed so readily! Have you heard the rumours that he, also, may be charged by the Inquisition? No? You are too isolated in here.
Does it seem implausible?
JUANA
His loyalty to the Indians … it has always seemed to me dangerous.
NÚÑEZ
As it has been for others. You understand that your friend Carlos will be called to testify. And since he will not be permitted to leave this time–testify, he will.
[raising a hand to forestall her]
Before you deny this, you will recall how faint he has been in your defence. You do not answer–should he or should he not have been more forceful in warning you that day with Bishop Santa Cruz?!
JUANA
Yes.
NÚÑEZ
Your life seems to have become a lodestone for conspiracies and betrayals. Does it ever seem that way to you, Juanita? Carlos, Santa Cruz–your father’s, your mother’s.
And Antonia’s second notebook–did you really think we would not know there were two?
[pause]
Many will be called to testify against you. Some will go reluctantly, and it will go hard with them. Still, none of them is innocent. Is this not so?
Sor Juana has little to say this evening, Gabriel. Is she unwell?
GABRIEL
She seems pale, more pale.
NÚÑEZ
We are told by other informants here that you have mortified your flesh.
JUANA
With precision and restraint. As you once instructed.
NÚÑEZ
You weaken yourself deliberately.
JUANA
I am committed to this course.
NÚÑEZ
They tell me you have been ill. With fainting fits and seizures.
JUANA
They make too much of it.
NÚÑEZ
[rising to his feet]
Justifications, evasions–have you anything else to say before I leave you?
JUANA
I have curried favour and used it to obstruct the wishes and injunctions of my betters. I have discovered deep within myself an antagonism towards the fathers of this Church.
NÚÑEZ
This is better.
Against the express wishes of the Church fathers, you once formed a sort of academy here in the convent.
JUANA
Yes.
NÚÑEZ
Admit that its purpose was to undermine our exclusivity in the instruction of its nuns.
JUANA
Yes.
NÚÑEZ
By teaching against the express and sagacious will of the Church you have subverted her authority.
Aside from the incalculable damage you have done teaching simple nuns mathematics and letters and the new ‘science’–but beyond teaching them disobedience, you have taught them Sapphism.
JUANA
Her poetry, not her practices.
NÚÑEZ
You taught Sapphic love. ¡Amor nefano!
JUANA
The love I spoke of was Platonic–
NÚÑEZ
More sophistries!
JUANA
No.
NÚÑEZ
Did you not incite the women in your charge to break their vows of chastity with each other?
JUANA
No!
NÚÑEZ
We have obtained statements from two of your former … students.
CUT TO: INT. PRISON CELL–NIGHT
Same two women, now in chains, clinging to each other for solace by lamplight. Jailer enters, leads one towards an interrogation room. Through the open door a brief glimpse of an engine of torture.
CUT BACK TO: CONVENT
Juana pacing anxiously at the back of the locutory. Núñez standing near the grate at the window, his face tilted to an evening breeze.
NÚÑEZ
Let us begin again.
It appears one of these students is your own niece …
You still disavow any knowledge of this?
JUANA
Is she all right?
NÚÑEZ
You disavow their actions?
JUANA
I tried to be clear–that none of them should misunderstand–
NÚÑEZ
>
But they were less discerning.
JUANA
Is Belilla all right?!
NÚÑEZ
Less discriminating in their judgements …
JUANA
Yes …
NÚÑEZ
Do you know they both claimed inspiration from your Sapphic Hymns?
JUANA
They’ve never seen a word–
NÚÑEZ
Do you understand what you have done? You were their teacher.
JUANA
What they would not learn from me was servility.
NÚÑEZ
Our nuns are given the essentials! We have learned what is dangerous to teach them.
But you know better. And this bitter fruit is the result.
You are a freak of nature–did you think just anyone could follow you?
Did you think they could follow you?
JUANA
No.
NÚÑEZ
Yet you led.
JUANA
Yes….
NÚÑEZ
You are the most celebrated nun in Christendom, the most celebrated since Teresa herself. And even she did not have your fame while she lived.
Your example has the power to do great good, and even greater harm.
It would not take much to encourage the Archbishop to undertake, as the mission of his final years, the extirpation of teaching in all the convents of New Spain. Nor would he lack allies in Europe. The example of your apostasy would be sufficient to make a start. Suppress or curtail teaching in convents, and the priesthood will have to take over the everyday instruction of young girls. If you would turn your back on your sisters, your niece, would you betray also your entire sex?
After all the righteous defences you have made of women’s learning?
Each time a girl reaches for a book, a pious elder or priest will remind her of poor Sor Juana, apostate.
By dying unreconciled with the Church, you would make it impossible for the women who would follow you….
HUMMINGBIRD
Teotihuacan, Mexico, 1 Jan 1995
I’VE FOUND A PLACE TO REST at the tip of a pyramid in this city of dragons, old as Rome, Teotihuacan. The roiled road to Old Mexico is paved in security guards / one old one wakes as I stumble over him—where are my tiger eyes now? This site is closed, you can’t go up there. No, no more dead ends! Señorita do you know how much money this is? I accept this for my family. But if you cause any damage in this city of my people I will die of shame, do you understand? Tell me it is for the full moon.
It is for the full moon, se lo prometo, Abuelo.
I have your promise then … ‘tonces, niña, vaya con ciudado—take care there are snakes. If you are still around in the morning, child, I will guide you myself for free.