Abstract

The life and work of Santa Teresa of Jesus had a great influence on the New Spain spiritual atmosphere by enabling a more intimate and direct relationship of women with God and contribute to the proliferation of nuns and beatified. In the Wonders of the Omnipotence and Miracles of the Grace in the life of the Venerable Servant of God Catharina of San Joan, Alonso Ramos writes the biography of Catarina of San Juan, a free slave considered saint, to whom in many passages compares with Santa Teresa. The purpose of Ramos was to create a female life model based on Teresian spirituality and values.

Abstract

This article offers a comparison between two plays: Mudarse por mejorarse by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mudarse por mejorarse by Fernando Zárate Castronovo (ca. 1663) in order to examine the authors’ Jewish origins, personalities and biographies. Both of them suffered harassment from other authors (Alarcón) and from Spanish Inquisition (Zárate). Alarcón, who was an isolated but peaceful man, died in Madrid the 4th of August 1639. On the contrary, Zárate, who was rebellious and defeated, died at Sevilla’s Inquisition Palace, the 18th of March 1663. As a conclusion, we can confirm that Zárate Castronovo just copied the title of Alarcón’s comedy to be able to relate it to the unconscious desire of «change» the physical appearence (Alarcón) or the fate (Zárate).