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Happy birthday Michael Alan Hornick Jr.!

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Choosing books over babies &#8212; in her 17th-century world, she couldn&#8217;t have both &#8212; a Mexican teenager entered a convent so she could read and study to her heart&#8217;s content.</p><p>Today, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz is recognized as a champion of women&#8217;s right to an education, and her image can be found on 200-peso currency.</p><p>Among the scholars who admire the writings of Sor Juana Inez is Wilkes University professor Paola Bianco, who included the nun&#8217;s essay, &#8220;Matrimonio o Convento&#8221; in a book she has written to showcase the stories of Spanish-speaking women.</p><p>Bianco intends to use her new book, &#8220;Mujeres Con Voz Propia,&#8221; which translates to &#8220;Women in Their Own Voices&#8221; as a textbook for her advanced Spanish classes beginning in the fall semester.</p><p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t wait. I put passion into it,&#8221; said Bianco, who hopes other professors will want to use the book as well.</p><p>Students who are just beginning the &#8220;Hello, my name is &#8230;&#8221; phase of a new language might be intimidated by the idea of reading essays in that language. But the chance to experience historic testimony, poignant poetry and imaginative fiction as originally written might be the incentive they need to persevere beyond Spanish 101.</p><p>Published by Panda Publications in December, Bianco&#8217;s book spans several centuries and continents.</p><p>Contributions represent Equatorial Guinea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico &#8212; anywhere that Spanish is spoken &#8212; and topics range from bilingualism and domestic violence to women entering politics and women seeking an education.</p><p>That last goal wasn&#8217;t always easy for a woman to achieve, Bianco said, describing women who disguised themselves as boys so they could attend school or who chose to enter a convent where they wouldn&#8217;t have to devote themselves to housekeeping, child care or keeping a husband happy.</p><p>In 17th century Mexican society, Bianco added, Sor Juana Inez would not have been eligible for a &#8220;good marriage,&#8221; because she had been born out of wedlock. That might have made the convent seem even more attractive to her.</p><p>Another woman whose work Bianco included in the book is Evangelina Guerrero Zacarias, who lived in the Philippines from 1873 to 1929. Guerrero Zacarias wrote about the emotions a woman feels when her husband believes she has been unfaithful.</p><p>&#8220;Her husband takes the child and leaves,&#8221; Bianco said, &#8220;and she looks at the child through a window. It ends with a tear rolling down the mother&#8217;s face.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Some of the writings are true; some are fiction,&#8221; Bianco added.</p><p>The voices in the women&#8217;s stories tend to be serious rather than light-hearted, Bianco said, describing the testimony of a Bolivian miner&#8217;s wife who sells homemade tortillas to supplement her husband&#8217;s income from a silver mine, where he is paid not for the large cartloads he fills but for the tiny amount of silver he is able to separate from rock in those cartloads.</p><p>&#8220;When they write about poverty,&#8221; she said, &#8220;it is scavenging-in-the-garbage poverty, not &#8216;we have to buy a third-hand car&#8217; kind of poverty.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;The women talk about feminism but (the differences in society are not just between) men and women,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It is ethnicity, high class and low class. In Chile, still the maid opens the door and answers the phone (in a wealthier household). They&#8217;d rather have that than another car or a vacation.&#8221;</p><p>Bianco, who lives in Laflin, grew up in Italy and Chile. Her father worked as a consul in Naples, and her family lived in Rome for several years before moving to Santiago, Chile, where her father served as director of Catholic Relief Services.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m Italian and American. I have dual citizenship,&#8221; said Bianco, who speaks Spanish, Italian, French and English.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes University professor Paola Bianco, Ph.D., has written a book filled with women&#8217;s writings that span several centuries and continents. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL030418paola1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes University professor Paola Bianco, Ph.D., has written a book filled with women&#8217;s writings that span several centuries and continents. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL030418paola2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Mujeres Con Voz Propia&#8217; translates to &#8216;Women in their Own Voices.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL030418paola2.jpg</photo1><caption1>&#8216;Mujeres Con Voz Propia&#8217; translates to &#8216;Women in their Own Voices.&#8217; </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes University professor publishes book that celebrates women’s voices