Santiago contra Santa Teresa: Beatriz Ramírez de Mendoza o la redención de cautivos

Abstract

Beatriz Ramírez de Mendoza, great-granddaughter of Beatriz Galindo, the Latina, was a cultivated, energetic and brave woman who faced the political and religious lobbies of her time with the arms that her gender allowed: shrewdness, tricks and deftness. Between 1600 and 1605 she commanded the male reform of the Discalced Mercedarian and Trinitarian Order, and was part of a conspiracy against the duke of Lerma. She was compelled to seclusion during her last years of life as the only means to escape from the numerous enemies whom her previous actions had afforded her. Today we recover her memory from oblivion as reminder of the fact that, in spite of the ferocious political and social repression of her time, this intrepid woman paved ways of tolerance at the heart of the obstinate religious struggles that surrounded her.