Juan de Espinosa Medrano

During his lifetime, Espinosa Medrano acquired widespread recognition for the stylistic sophistication and conceptual rigor of his work, which conformed to the dominant scholastic and Baroque epistemological standards of the period. His polymathy, erudition, and rhetorical skill—particularly evident in his sermons and literary compositions—earned him several epithets, including Sublime Doctor and Indian Demosthenes, as well as the less common titles of Criollo Phoenix and Tertullian of the Americas.{{cite book |last=Matto de Turner |first=Clorinda |author-link=Clorinda Matto de Turner |title=Bocetos al lápiz de americanos célebres |publisher=Bacigalupi |year=1890 |pages=16–40 |language=es |translator-last=Ramos Chacón |translator-first=Milton André (quotes) |chapter=Don Juan de Espinosa Medrano |chapter-url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/bocetos-al-lapiz-de-americanos-celebres-tomo-primero--0/}} These epithets appear in contemporary ecclesiastical sources and later biographical accounts, including sermon records,{{Cite web |title=LA NOVENA MARAVILLA. EDICIÓN DE LUIS JAIME CISNEROS Y JOSÉ A. RODRÍGUEZ GARRIDO. ESPINOSA MEDRANO, JUAN DE. Libro en papel. 9786124075216 Librería El Virrey |url=https://www.elvirrey.com/libro/la-novena-maravilla_89846#:~:text=La%20novena%20maravilla%20es%20un,la%20ortograf%C3%ADa%20y%20la%20puntuaci%C3%B3n. |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=www.elvirrey.com |language=es}} seminary archives, and the 19th-century biography by Clorinda Matto de Turner, reflecting the wide admiration Espinosa Medrano received for his scholastic rigor, classical erudition, and Indigenous nobility.

Baltasar Gracián, one of the most prominent literary critics of the Spanish Baroque, echoed this admiration in his Arte de Ingenio, describing Espinosa Medrano as:Baltasar Gracián, Agudeza y arte de ingenio, discurso V (Gracián 1648: 26).

he who was a swan, an eagle, a phoenix—in song, in sharpness, and in the extraordinary.Arte de Ingenio, Discurso 3, fol. 11

In his study of the Apologético, Pedro Lasarte confirms the existence and authorship of the original 1662 edition held at Yale University’s Beinecke Library.Pedro Lasarte, "Poética y modernidad en Juan de Espinosa Medrano, el Lunarejo," in Estudios sobre Juan de Espinosa Medrano (El Lunarejo), eds. J. Agustín Tamayo and Rodríguez, Lima: Ediciones Biblioteca “Studium”, 1971, p. 221. http://smjegupr.net/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/17-Poetica-y-Modernidad-en-Juan-de-Espinose-Medrano.pdf He transcribes Espinosa Medrano's full self-identification as printed on the frontispiece, where the author publicly presents himself as:

Spanish: Colegial Real en el insigne Seminario de San Antonio el Magno, Catedrático de Artes y Sagrada Teología en él; Cura Rector de la Santa Iglesia Catedral de la Ciudad del Cuzco, cabeza de los Reynos del Perú en el nuevo Mundo.

English: Royal Fellow of the illustrious Seminary of San Antonio the Great, Professor of Arts and Sacred Theology therein; Rector Priest of the Holy Cathedral Church of the City of Cuzco, head of the Kingdoms of Peru in the New World.

Lasarte accessed the original imprint personally, confirming this title appears in the first edition printed in Lima in 1662, not just the later 1694 edition more commonly reproduced. His self-identification affirms both Espinosa Medrano’s elite ecclesiastical status and his symbolic role as a representative of Peruvian cultural and religious authority within the Spanish Empire.

The Seminary of San Antonio Abad, where he held the title of Colegial Real, was one of the most prestigious ecclesiastical institutions in colonial Peru.{{Cite journal |date=2008-03-03 |title=The Cathedral and the Seminary of San Antonio Abad |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1114/chapter-abstract/153938/The-Cathedral-and-the-Seminary-of-San-Antonio-Abad?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=The Cathedral and the Seminary of San Antonio Abad. Duke University. |language=en |doi=10.1215/9780822388753-003}} According to historian Pedro Guibovich, it was "an institution controlled by a small group of affluent criollos and mestizos, many of whom were connected to the ecclesiastical administration and claimed a certain noble status."Pedro Guibovich Pérez, "Como güelfos y gibelinos: los colegios de San Bernardo y San Antonio Abad en el Cuzco durante el siglo XVII," in Espacios de saber, espacios de poder: Iglesia, universidades y colegios en Hispanoamérica (siglos XVI–XIX), eds. A. Guedea, M. Martínez, and J.E. Serrano Ortega (Madrid: Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2015), 277. As noted in Espacios de saber, espacios de poder, such ecclesiastical institutions were established to serve the educational needs of nobility.{{Cite web |title=Espacios de saber, espacios de poder: Iglesia, universidades y colegios en Hispanoamérica, siglos XVI-XIX 9783954879175 |url=https://dokumen.pub/espacios-de-saber-espacios-de-poder-iglesia-universidades-y-colegios-en-hispanoamerica-siglos-xvi-xix-9783954879175.html |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=dokumen.pub |language=en}}

Part of his biography has been preserved in the oral tradition of the Apurímac region—where it has acquired unique characteristics—as well as in Cusco and within the Peruvian literary canon. However, knowledge of his life and work is largely limited to scholars of Colonial Spanish American literature. Although long overlooked by traditional historiography, recent scholarship has reaffirmed Espinosa Medrano’s importance as both a literary innovator and a mestizo intellectual whose nobility was inseparable from his Indigenous identity, reflecting a lineage in which ancestral prestige and Indigenous heritage were one and the same.

In the first half of the 20th century, Medrano's critical appreciation was poor and influenced by the ideologies of the pioneers of academic criticism in Peru: José de la Riva-Agüero and José Carlos Mariátegui. Both of them failed to understand the Baroque aesthetics and underrated the work of the Cuzco clergyman.{{cite web|access-date=23 March 2018|date=26 July 2007|first=Juan M|last=Vitulli|title=Instable puente: una aproximación transatlántica al barroco colonial a través de la obra de Juan de Espinosa Medrano|url=http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-06272007-122812/|website=etd.library.vanderbilt.edu}}

This undervaluation is also noticeable in the assessment of Medrano's work by indigenous critics in Cuzco in the late 20th century (Yépez Miranda and Ángel Avendaño). They discarded Medrano's work in literary historiography with limited scientific rigor, primarily due to its Baroque nature and Western culture. Finally, in the second half of the century, writers Luis Loayza and Martín Adán had inaccurate approaches to Medrano's work. It was only recently that Luis Jaime Cisneros reclaimed the figure of Medrano as an indispensable part of the Peruvian literary canon. Cisneros conducted pioneering documentary work to recover Medrano's identity and valued the work of the Cuzco preacher for its intrinsic worth.

Luis Jaime Cisneros published several articles in the 1980s about Espinosa Medrano's biography and work. He also edited two of the author's works: Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora (2005) and La Novena Maravilla (2011).

José Antonio Rodríguez Garrido, on the other hand, deepened the philological work on Medrano's life and work. Garrido was responsible for writing an introduction to the author's work in the collection Historias de las literaturas en el Perú. In this collection, the inclusion of Medrano in the section of the 'Founders' of Peruvian literature (alongside Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala) demonstrates the historical achievement of recognizing the cultural importance of Medrano's work, especially for the history of Peru and Hispanoamerica.{{cite web | url=https://www.casadelaliteratura.gob.pe/?p=22982 | title=Historia de las literaturas en el Perú: Volumen 1 y volumen 2 | date=11 April 2017 }}

Juan de Espinosa Medrano’s Indigenous identity—documented through oral tradition, visibly present in his portraitures, and reinforced by his lived experience as a mestizo intellectual navigating both Indigenous nobility and elite Castilian spheres—has too often been marginalized or questioned by historians.Cisneros, Luis Jaime. Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora. Lima: Universidad del Pacífico, 2005. However, contemporary scholarship increasingly acknowledges that his noble and Indigenous ancestries were not mutually exclusive, but coexisted powerfully in the person of 'El Lunarejo,' representing a fusion that redefines the understanding of colonial nobility in the Andes.{{cite book|last=Echevarría|first=Roberto González|title=Celestina's Brood: Continuities of the Baroque in Spanish and Latin American Literatures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oxucHe8U2r0C&q=roberto+gonzalez+echevarria+celestina's+brood|access-date=2018-03-27|date=1993|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0822313715|language=en}}

File:Miniatura de Juan de Espinosa Medrano del Jardín Alegórico del Seminario de San Antonio Abad.jpg of Juan de Espinosa Medrano from the Allegorical Garden of the Seminary of San Antonio Abad. The writing below the miniature features a short poem that reads: "The Archdeacon you see here is Medrano, that giant who in the field of good letters and sciences has no equal."]]

According to Luis Jaime Cisneros, Calcauso, 1630 appears to be the most precise point of reference for establishing the birthplace of Juan de Espinosa Medrano.{{Cite web |title=Mindat.org |url=https://www.mindat.org/feature-3946171.html |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=www.mindat.org}}

Juan de Espinosa Medrano was a contemporary and relative of Sebastián Francisco de Medrano, founder of the Poetic Medrano Academy{{Cite journal |last=Urgoiti |first=Soledad Carrasco |date=1965 |title=Notas sobre el vejamen de Academia en la segunda mitad del Siglo XVII |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30206976 |journal=Revista Hispánica Moderna |volume=31 |issue=1/4 |pages=97–111 |issn=0034-9593}} and close friend of Luis de Góngora, whose literary style Espinosa Medrano defended in his Apologético.{{Cite journal |last=Carro |first=Elena Martínez |date=2021 |title=Límites estilométricos en una miscelánea áurea: «Favores de las musas» de Sebastián Francisco de Medrano* |url=https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5175/517567144010/html/ |journal=Hipogrifo. Revista de literatura y cultura del Siglo de Oro |language=es |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=159–174|doi=10.13035/H.2021.09.01.11 |doi-access=free }} His Apologético, dedicated to Luis Méndez de Haro, reflects the intellectual and political alignment of his family, notably shared by his relative Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros, who also addressed Haro in his political treatise Heroic and Flying Fame of Luis Méndez de Haro.

His maternal lineage, the House of Medrano, included high-ranking imperial officials such as Bishop Diego Ros de Medrano, who served as the captain general and governor of the Kingdom of Galicia,{{Cite web |last=Proyectos |first=HI Iberia Ingeniería y |title=Historia Hispánica |url=https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/39163-diego-ros-de-medrano |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=historia-hispanica.rah.es |language=es}} along with Juan de Medrano, colonial governor of the province of Chametla, Sinaloa.{{Cite web |last=Proyectos |first=HI Iberia Ingeniería y |title=Historia Hispánica |url=https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/28948-diego-de-medrano |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=historia-hispanica.rah.es |language=es}} Doctor Gaspar de Medrano was the second-ranking Councilor of Castile and member of the Council of the Inquisition during Juan's lifetime.Fernández Gimén, María del Camino. "El Origen y Fundación de las Inquisiciones de España" by José de Rivera. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, vol. 23, pp. 11–46. ISSN 1131-5571. At the time of Juan's rise, one of the most powerful members of the Medrano lineage, García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos—regent of the Kingdom of Navarre and a member of the Council of Castile and Councilor of the Indies and Inquisition—held some of the highest offices in the empire, further affirming the prominence and influence of Juan's family.{{Cite web |last=Proyectos |first=HI Iberia Ingeniería y |title=Historia Hispánica - García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos |url=https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/30279-garcia-de-medrano-y-alvarez-de-los-rios |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=historia-hispanica.rah.es |language=es}}

Consequently, Agustín Cortés de la Cruz's —disciple and first biographer of the author— assertion about the origin of Espinosa Medrano should be taken as true: "in his first stages, scant favor he received from what the vulgus calls Fortune."{{cite book|last=Cortés de la Cruz|first=Agustín|title=La Novena Maravilla|year=1695|page=xi-xix|language=es|chapter="Prólogo a los aficionados del autor y de sus escritos"}} Quotes translations by Milton André Ramos Chacón. Likewise, Clorinda Matto de Turner's novelization of the author's life as:

He who entered the world in humble cradle, set foot on the steps of book and prayer... Then ascended to reach the literary skies of the America of the South, as king of stars there he shined.

Two key events from Espinosa Medrano’s adult life demonstrate the high esteem in which he was held by powerful figures within the Spanish Imperial system. According to written accounts, the Viceroy of Peru, Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro, 10th Count of Lemos, was so impressed by his works that he ordered they be copied and sent to Spain for publication:

File:Pedro Fernandez de Castro.jpg.]]

"The first event corresponds to the visit to Cuzco by the Viceroy Count of Lemos in 1668, a step that allows the Viceroy to read (or listen to) lyrical and sacred works by Juan de Espinosa Medrano, which were perhaps prepared for his reception. The event is essential in the author's biography, as it demonstrates official recognition of the distinction of his Baroque production (whose uniqueness was praised by his compatriots). According to the testimony of the aforementioned first biographer and executor, Agustín Cortés de la Cruz 'as soon as the Count of Lemos heard in Cuzco some works and verses [by Espinosa Medrano] with which the San Antonio College celebrated him, he had them copied, and there was not a single page that was not worthy of his esteem, in order to have them published in Spain. Unfortunately, nothing concrete is known about the truth and the whereabouts of this transfer of his work to Europe'."{{cite book|last=Cortés de la Cruz |first=Agustín |title=La Novena Maravilla |year=2011 |orig-year=1695 |page=xi-xix |language=es |chapter="Prólogo a los aficionados del autor y de sus escritos"}}

A second major episode occurred in 1678 and reflects his growing stature in ecclesiastical and literary circles:

"The second important event in the biography of Juan de Espinosa Medrano corresponds to the sending of a letter to Carlos II, King of Spain, by the Bishop of Cuzco, Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo in 1678. This event clearly demonstrates the admiration and high regard the author enjoyed, both within religious circles and among the literati in the city. The name of Juan de Espinosa Medrano began to be disseminated beyond the colonial bishopric of Cuzco and the Viceroyalty of Peru. In the letter, the bishop recommends the assignment of a position in the Cuzco Cathedral for Espinosa Medrano and writes to the king: 'He is the most worthy individual in the bishopric due to his extensive and outstanding knowledge and virtue'."{{cite book|last=Cisneros, Luis Jaime y Guibovich|first=Pedro|title=Apuntes para una biografía de Espinosa Medrano|url=http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletinira/article/download/9508/9913|year=1987|location=Fénix (32/33)|pages=96–112|language=es}}

These official affirmations of esteem—from both the Viceroy and the Bishop of Cuzco—not only attest to Espinosa Medrano’s intellectual stature, but also resonate with broader ideals associated with his maternal lineage.Julián de Medrano, José María Sbarbi y Osuna (1878). La Silva curiosa (in Spanish). University of Michigan. A. Gomez Fuentenebro. p.23{{Cite book |last=Medrano |first=Julian Iniguez de |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=msdcAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP7&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=La silva curiosa, en que se tratan diversas cosas sotilissimas ... |date=1608 |publisher=Orry |language=es}} The emphasis on virtue, wisdom, and public service in these communications echoes the values promoted by other notable members of the House of Medrano,{{Cite web |title=Medrano family heraldry genealogy Coat of arms Medrano |url=https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/cognomi/Medrano/idc/665528/ |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Heraldrys Institute of Rome |language=en}} such as Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros and Tomás Fernández de Medrano, whose writings similarly asserted moral authority, eloquence, and the responsibilities of leadership within the Spanish imperial framework.{{Cite book |last=Medrano |first=Juan Fernandez de |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=DJ7Uw6xczpEC&pg=PP5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=República Mista |date=1602 |publisher=Impr. Real |language=es}}

In an imperial society in which access to intellectual enterprise was circumscribed to the nobles and highborns, Espinosa Medrano achieved prominent instruction, indicating his high and noble status. The details about his first years of life are—almost in their entirety—unknown. The absence of significant biographical data put forward in the will written by the author himself days before his death{{cite journal|url=http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/historica/article/view/7928/8208|title=El testamento e inventario de bienes de Espinosa Medrano|last=Guibovich Pérez|first=Pedro|date=1992|journal=Histórica |volume=16 |issue=1}} has further led to speculation about his ethnicity and identification. It has also led to manipulation and tendentious interpretations of the data preserved about his existence; such interpretations have often introduced distortions pronounced in the many works of biographers, critics or commentators, akin to the political agenda of Criollo and Indigenismo in Peru.{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/35243055|title=Transmigracion Austral: Prefiguración inmaculista y celebración del triunfo español en el Cuzco en Amar su propia muerte de Juan de Espinosa Medrano, una comedia bíblica americana|last=Ramos Chacón|first=Milton André|journal=Tesis de Licenciatura|year=2017}} What is incontrovertible, however, is that Espinosa Medrano—while of Indigenous and noble descent—often operated within the ideological and cultural frameworks of the Spanish Empire; this is reflected in his writings, where he frequently characterizes Native populations as 'barbarous' or 'idolatrous'.

File:Clorinda Matto de Turner.jpg

Clorinda Matto de Turner published her well-known biographical sketch Don Juan de Espinosa Medrano —that is— the Spotty-Faced Doctor in 1887 in Lima, the capital of Peru. Three years later, she reissued the work with minor revisions in Pencil Sketches of Acclaimed Americans (1890), a volume that included a dedicated chapter on Espinosa Medrano.{{Cite book |last=Matto de Turner |first=Clorinda |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009834495 |title=Bocetos al lapiz de Americanos celebres |date=1890 |publisher=Imprenta Bacigalupi |location=Lima}}

Drawing on oral traditions from rural Peru, Matto constructed her portrayal with limited documentary evidence, relying instead on collective memory and popular accounts. While her depiction lacks rigorous historical sourcing, it played a pivotal role in popularizing Espinosa Medrano’s legacy and embedding his image as an Indigenous intellectual within the national imagination.

Clorinda Matto de Turner's biographical account of Juan de Espinosa Medrano, while influential in shaping his popular image in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, has been criticized by modern scholars for its lack of documentary support. In the absence of archival evidence, Matto constructed much of her narrative through literary embellishment and oral tradition.

Though her portrayal of Espinosa Medrano as an Indigenous intellectual hero was instrumental in the early development of Peruvian indigenismo, contemporary historiography regards her work more as a romanticized or symbolic interpretation than a factual biography. Her text is now viewed as part of a broader nationalist and ideological project rather than as a rigorously historical source.

Despite the limitations of Matto’s biography, the Indigenous and noble status of Juan de Espinosa Medrano is today supported by portraiture, family lineage, and contemporary academic studies.

Clarification in place, it is nonetheless necessary to briefly refer to the biography of Espinosa Medrano as it was composed in 1887/1890 by Clorinda Matto via the oral accounts by the people of Peru. For her biography is still the most influential source for Peruvian popular imagination of the author, as well as the most and only known outside of the academic world.

According to Clorinda Matto, Juan de Espinosa Medrano was the offspring of an indigenous conjugal union, that of Agustín Espinosa and Paula Medrano, humble parents that raised their little child "in a shack at the joyous town". At seven, Juan started his education at the class for infants taught by the priest of Mollebamba, class where —besides being a remarkable student— Juan de Espinosa Medrano would also receive instruction to act as sacristan of the parish (the parish is, according to Clorinda Matto's biography, the place in which Espinosa Medrano discovered both the religious and literate vocation that would later flourish in him as time went by).

After a period of instruction and service in favor of the priest of Mollebamba, Juan de Espinosa Medrano would start a life in the city of Cuzco as an indio servant. According to Matto, there he would obtain admission into the Seminary of Saint Anthony the Abbot, precinct where the young Juan de Espinosa Medrano would quickly develop mastery of different musical instruments and skill in seven languages. He would also reach expertise in sciences and grammar, according to this biography, erudition that would cause admiration in his contemporaries.

File:Don Juan de Espinosa y Medrano Portrait.jpg with a wide scarlet collar, reflecting his scholarly and ecclesiastical authority. Embroidered over his chest is a small golden coronet —a subtle but powerful symbol of his inherited nobility, worn not upon the head, but over the heart.]]The portrait of Juan de Espinosa Medrano serves as a visual testament to his dual identity as an Indigenous intellectual and nobleman, combining symbolic elements that reflect both his scholarly stature and his ancestral lineage. His coat of arms, displayed in the upper left of the portrait, is divided vertically: the left half features the emblem of the House of Espinosa, associated with his father, Agustín de Espinosa,{{Cite web |title="Espinoza Coat of Arms/Family Crest" Photographic Print for Sale by William Martin |url=https://www.redbubble.com/i/photographic-print/Espinoza-Coat-of-Arms-Family-Crest-by-carpediem6655/10950224.6Q0TX |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=Redbubble |language=en}} while the right half displays the arms of the influential House of Medrano, from his mother, Paula de Medrano.{{Cite web |title=MEDRANO - Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia |url=https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/medrano/ar-94012/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus |language=en}} His mother's coat of arms displays two recognizable argent Medrano crosses fleury rendered hollow, along with two Or castles on an azure field—the castles are an ancient charge of nobility also found on the coat of arms of the municipality of Medrano, La Rioja.{{Cite web |title=Castle |url=https://mistholme.com/dictionary/castle/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=Mistholme |language=en-US}} This dual design reflects the merging of two noble lineages and visually affirms his dual heritage within the colonial nobility.

Espinosa Medrano’s coat of arms also participates in a broader tradition of colonial heraldry, where Indigenous nobles visually affirmed their status and ancestral legitimacy. Such emblems often fused European and Indigenous iconography to reflect both Christian loyalty and noble lineage.{{Cite journal |last=Paz |first=María Castañeda de la |date=2009 |title=Central Mexican Indigenous Coats of Arms and the Conquest of Mesoamerica |url=https://www.academia.edu/8037630/Central_Mexican_Indigenous_Coats_of_Arms_and_the_Conquest_of_Mesoamerica |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=125 |issn=0014-1801}} This practice was shared by other noble families of mixed descent, such as the Guzmán, placing Espinosa Medrano’s heraldic expression within the wider syncretic elite of colonial Spanish America.

File:Belmond Hotel Monasterio, Cusco.jpg

Documentation found indicates that by the year 1645, when he was about fifteen years old, Juan de Espinosa Medrano was a student in the Seminary of Saint Anthony the Abbot.{{cite book|last=Medina|first=José Toribio|author-link=José Toribio Medina|title=Biblioteca hispanoamericana (1493-1810)|year=1900|publisher=Casa del autor|location=Santiago de Chile|page=77, Tomo II|language=es}}

His tutors in this institution were: Francisco de Loyola, Augustinian prior and cofounder, in 1559, of the Monastery of Saint Augustine in Cuzco —Loyola stated that young Juan was "an exceptional prowess, and also very virtuous"—; Juan de Cárdenas y Céspedes, famous dean of the Seminary of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco (from 1632 to 1702, the year he passed away); and Alonso Bravo de Paredes y Quiñones, sacred preacher and professor of philosophy at the Seminary —Paredes y Quiñones was also a censor of the Apologético).

Doctor Juan de Espinosa Medrano's studies must have extended until 1649 or 1650, years that provide records of him now in charge of the art classes at the Seminary. Between 1655 and 1657, Espinosa Medrano would acquire the degree of Doctor in Theology (after evaluation at the Jesuit University of Saint Ignatius of Loyola), performing as professor of such sacred discipline at the Seminary starting from 1658.{{cite book|last=Vitulli|first=Juan|title=Amar su propia muerte. Edición, prólogo y notas de Juan Vitulli.|year=2011|publisher=Iberoamericana - Vervuert|location=Madrid|pages=11–25|language=es|chapter=El autor y la época en 'Introducción'}} Espinosa Medrano became a Doctor of Theology at eighteen years old. From that point onwards, Espinosa Medrano advanced within an ecclesiastical system where Indigenous candidates were widely believed to be ineligible for significant clerical office, a prejudice he would go on to challenge through his lineage, appointments and his published works.Raquel Chang-Rodriguez, Hidden Messages: Representation and Resistance in Andean Colonial Drama (Bucknell University Press, 1999), 85.

As a formally recognized Colegial Real (Royal Collegian) of the prestigious Colegio de San Antonio el Magno in Cuzco, he entered an institution whose highest-ranking posts were typically reserved for students of noble lineage. Access to the colegios mayores was restricted to youths who could prove purity of blood and legitimacy of birth, and who often came from families of the nobility or the high clergy.{{Cite journal |last=Bezares |first=Pedro |last2=Ramirez |first2=Clara |title=Bibliografía sobre las universidades iberoamericanas de los siglos XVI al XVIII |url=https://www.academia.edu/31431116/Bibliograf%C3%ADa_sobre_las_universidades_iberoamericanas_de_los_siglos_XVI_al_XVIII |journal=Bibliografía sobre las universidades iberoamericanas de los siglos XVI al XVIII}}

In 1655, Juan de Espinosa Medrano's ecclesiastical career starts. He serves, in the first place, at the Parish of the Sanctum (Parroquia del Sagrario) where he conducts a series of marriage ceremonies and baptisms —a final one documentally registered in 1659.

File:Vista Iglesia San Cristóbal.jpg

Espinosa Medrano further advanced in his ecclesiastical career by acting as priest of Juliaca from 1660 to 1668. That year a miners uprising takes places in the town of Laicacota, the same that is repressed by the Viceroy Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro, Count of Lemos.{{cite journal|url=http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletinira/article/view/9834/10246|title=Para la biografía de Espinosa Medrano : dos cartas inéditas de 1666|last=Guibovich Pérez Pedro y Domínguez Faura|first=Nicanor|date=2000|journal=Boletín del Instituto Riva-Agüero |issue=27 }}

From 1669 to 1676, Espinosa Medrano takes charge of the parish of Chincheros (today part of the Sacred Valley of the Incas). Since 1678 he has been parish priest of San Cristóbal, one of the most important Indigenous parishes in Cusco, a position that he will maintain until 1683 or 1684 when he is named magisterial canon in the city cathedral.

Already appointed archdeacon of the Cathedral and about to take office, in November 1688, the Creole Phoenix died in the city of Cusco, the chronicler Diego de Esquivel y Navia indicates 13 November, while other documents indicate 22 November. The burial takes place in the city's Cathedral "with magnificent pomp" and effusive displays of pain on the part of the people. Among the distinguished attendees at the funeral were Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo and Bishop Juan Bravo Dávila y Cartagena, recently elected to office in Tucumán.

File:20070415 - Monasterio de Uclés - La Aparición del Apóstol Santiago en la Batalla de Clavijo, obra de Antonio González Ruiz, presidiendo la Escalera principal.jpg

In December 1656, Juan de Espinosa Medrano begins his sacred preaching career, delivering his first sermon "The panegyric prayer to Our Lady of Antiquity" ("La oración panegírica a Nuestra Señora de la Antigua") at the University of San Ignacio de Loyola before Pedro de Ortega Sotomayor, the bishop of Cuzco. This is followed by the "First sermon to Saint Anthony the Abbot" ("Sermón Primero de San Antonio Abad"), preached in 1658; the "First Sermon to Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr" ("Sermón de San Blas obispo y mártir"), preached in 1659; and "The panegyric prayer to James the Great" ("La oración panegírica a Santiago") in 1660, at the Cathedral of Cuzco before the city's nobility.

In August 1662, he preached the "Panegyric Prayer to the Renewal of the Blessed Sacrament", again in the Cathedral of Cusco. In 1662, in Lima, the Apologetic in defense of Luis de Góngora (Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora) is published. It is important to highlight, however, that Espinosa Medrano's intellectual activity in the profane had already started in the decade of 1650 —the biblical play To Love One's Own Death (Amar su propia muerte) had been written c. 1650; the autos sacramentales The Seizure of Proserpine and the Dream of Endymion (El robo de Proserpina y sueño de Endimión) and The Prodigal Son (El hijo pródigo) had also been written c.1650 and c.1657 respectively. In 1663, probably in April, Espinosa Medrano preached the "Panegyric Oration in praise of the glorious virgin and seraphic mother Saint Catherine of Sena" at the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Cusco. From 1664 to 1680, Juan de Espinosa Medrano continues writing panegyric sermons to be preached in diverse religious precincts of Cuzco. Among the most important are the "Sermon for the Funeral of Philip IV" ("Sermón a las Exequias de Felipe IV") in 1666 in competition with other preachers who elaborated sermons on the other letters.

File:Mare de Déu de la Mercè - Barcelona 01.JPG at the Church of La Merce. This Marian theme echoes Espinosa Medrano’s Sermon panegyric to the most august and most holy name of Mary in 1688 and exemplifies the Baroque devotion expressed in both word and image.]]

In 1668, probably in January, he preached the "Third Panegyric Evangelical Prayer to the Great Father Saint Anthony the Great" in the Chapel of Saint Anthony the Abbot of Cuzco. Also in 1668, he preached the "Sermon panegyric to the most August and most holy name of Mary," at a party celebrated by the clergy of Cuzco in the city's Cathedral. In 1669, probably in March, he preached the "First Sermon to the Incarnation" at the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Cusco.

Also in 1669, probably in August, he preached the "Second Panegyric Prayer to Saint Bartholomew" at the Hospital for Spaniards and Creoles of Saint Bartholomew in Cuzco. He then released the "Panegyric Prayer to the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady" ("Oración Panegírica a la Concepción de Nuestra Señora") in 1670.

In August 1673, he delivered the "Sermón primero de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad o Asunción de María de Santísima, patrona de los excelentísimos Señores Duques de Medina-Sidonia" during a celebration organized by Don Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, the Corregidor of Cuzco, at the city's Cathedral. The event, held at the Cathedral, reflects his integration into elite colonial networks and symbolic alignment with one of the most prestigious noble houses of Spain.Espinosa Medrano, Juan de (2017). Héctor Ruiz, ed. Apology in favor of Don Luis de Góngora, prince of the lyric poets of Spain, against Manuel de Faría y Sousa, Portuguese knight . Paris: Sorbonne Université .

In 1674, probably in August, he preached the "Oración panegírica al glorioso Apóstol San Bartolomé" at the Hospital of San Bartolomé in Cuzco. In 1677, probably in July, he delivered the "Sermón de Nuestra Señora del Carmen" at the Monastery of the Descalzas Carmelitas of San José and Santa Teresa in Cuzco. In 1679, during Lent, he preached the "Sermón del Miércoles de Ceniza" at the Catedral del Cuzco. In August 1681, he delivered the "Re-elección evangélica o sermón extemporal" as part of his competition for the magisterial canonry of the Catedral del Cuzco, which he won.

In 1682, probably in March, he preached the "Sermón de la Encarnación del hijo de Dios" at the Monastery of Santa Catalina in Cusco. Also in 1682, most likely in May or June, he gave the "Oración panegírica de la feria tercia de Pentecostés" at the Hospital of the Natives in Cusco, which is now the Church of San Pedro. In 1684, during the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, he delivered the "Oración panegírica al augustísimo Sacramento del Altar" at the Catedral del Cusco. In 1685, probably in January, he preached the "Sermón panegírico primero al glorioso Doctor de la Iglesia Santo Tomás de Aquino" at the Convent of Santo Domingo in Cusco. In March 1685, he gave the "Oración panegírica segunda al glorioso Doctor de la Iglesia Santo Tomás de Aquino" again at the Convent of Santo Domingo in Cusco. Finally, also in 1685, probably in November, he delivered the "Oración panegírica del glorioso Apóstol San Andrés" at the Women's Hospital of San Andrés in Cusco.Espinosa Medrano, Juan de (2011). Luis Jaime Cisneros y José Antonio Rodríguez Garrido, ed. La Novena Maravilla. Lima: Congreso del Perú. ISBN 9786124075216. OCLC 794702364.

His extensive Baroque production, composed in Spanish, Latin, and Quechua—using an aesthetic register distinct from contemporary dialects—was published in both the Americas and Europe, although it reached the latter only near the end of his life. Its influence remained largely confined to the Viceroyalty of Peru, partly due to coordinated opposition by Jesuit priests in Rome in the late 17th century, which impeded the dissemination of his Latin philosophical treatise Philosophia Thomistica in Europe.

At the time, institutional tensions existed between the Jesuit University of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Seminary of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco, where Espinosa Medrano was a prominent figure. The seminary asserted exclusive rights to confer doctoral degrees in theology to its Thomist-trained students. However, due to Jesuit influence, candidates were required to present themselves before a jury of Jesuit theologians—adherents of the Suárezian tradition—for evaluation prior to receiving their degrees.{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/12760392|chapter=La defensa del tomismo por Espinosa Medrano en el Cuzco colonial|last=Rodríguez Garrido|first=José Antonio|date=1997|title=Pensamiento Europeo y Cultura Colonial |page=115 |editor1=Karl Kohut |editor2=Sonia V. Rose }}{{cite journal|url=http://revistadeindias.revistas.csic.es/index.php/revistadeindias/article/view/362/433|title=Como güelfos y gibelinos: los colegios de San Bernardo y San Antonio Abad en el Cuzco durante el siglo XVII|last=Guibovich Pérez|first=Pedro|date=2006|journal=Revista de Indias}}

This tension limited the broader recognition of Espinosa Medrano’s Latin scholastic work outside the Americas, despite its adherence to prevailing European theological standards.

File:Portada La Novena Maravilla.jpegHis works include:

• El robo de Proserpina y sueño de Endimión (c. 1650)
• The Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora (1662) dedicated to Luis Méndez de Haro, Count-Duke of Olivares.
• panegyric sermons —compiled after his death in a volume called La Novena Maravilla (1695)
• Philosophia Thomistica (1688), a course in Latin of thomistic philosophy, the first volume of a tract devoted to the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which was published in Rome in 1688, suppressed by the Jesuits
• La Lógica (1688)

As a young student in the Seminary of Saint Anthony, he wrote many of his plays.Raquel Chang-Rodriguez, Hidden Messages: Representation and Resistance in Andean Colonial Drama (Bucknell University Press, 1999), 84.

Juan de Espinosa Medrano wrote theatrical works in both Spanish and Quechua. His Quechua-language works include:

• El hijo pródigo (a religious play, also known as Auto sacramental del hijo pródigo; The Prodigal Son) in 1657,[http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/e/espinosa_medrano.htm Biografia de Juan de Espinosa Medrano] out of which only the biblical play Amar su propia muerte (c. 1650) is preserved
• El rapto de Proserpina (The Abduction of Proserpina), a mythological piece, published in 1650

The Quechua theatrical piece Ollantay is also attributed to him, and represents the oldest and deepest expression of Quechua literature. Juan de Espinosa Medrano was not only a master of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but also a pioneering voice in the literary use of Quechua, the ancestral language of the Andes.{{Cite web |title=Espinosa Medrano: Novena maravilla |url=https://rarebooks.library.nd.edu/exhibits/durand/indies/medrano_novena.html |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=rarebooks.library.nd.edu}} As the first great Quechua playwright, he composed original dramas, poetic works, and a now-lost translation of Virgil into Quechua, blending European classical forms with Indigenous expression. His oral command of the language was so refined that it became the vehicle for delivering sacred drama and theological ideas to Quechua-speaking communities—bridging worlds through the living word.Espinosa Medrano, Juan de. La Novena Maravilla. Valladolid: Ioseph de Rueda, 1695.

After Medrano's death, one of his disciples, the Cuzco priest Agustín Cortez de la Cruz, compiled and published a volume of thirty of his sermons under the title La novena maravilla (The Ninth Wonder) in 1695. This collection features pangeyrics and doctronal sermons. The collection included his renowned sermon in honor of Santa Rosa de Lima, the first saint of the Americas.Raquel Chang-Rodriguez, Hidden Messages: Representation and Resistance in Andean Colonial Drama (Bucknell University Press, 1999), 84-5. Antonio Cortéz de la Cruz, one of his disciples, collected Espinosa Medrano's sermons and published them posthumously in Valladolid, in a book entitled La novena maravilla (The Ninth Wonder) (1695).

File:Apologetico en favor de Don Luis de Gongora by Juan de Espinosa Medrano.jpg

Juan de Espinosa Medrano's most famous piece is called Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora, Príncipe de los poetas lyricos de España: contra Manuel de Faria y Sousa, Cavallero portugués (1662). The work is dedicated to Luis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán, 2nd Duke of Olivares.{{Cite web |title=Apologético in favor of Luis de Góngora by Héctor Ruiz, 2017 |url=https://obtic.huma-num.fr/obvil-web/corpus/gongora/html/1662_apologetico.html |access-date=2025-03-15 |website= |language=es}}Alborg, Juan Luis (1966). Historia de la literatura española: Epoca barroca. Madrid: Editorial Gredos. p. 856.

Espinosa Medrano’s noble lineage and familial ties to the Medrano tradition of political and literary thought contextualize his decision to dedicate the Apologético to Luis Méndez de Haro, the valido of Spain. Far from a generic gesture of patronage, this dedication reflected a continuity with his relative Diego Fernández de Medrano, Lord of Valdeosera, who had addressed Haro in his own political panegyric-treatise in the 17th century titled Heroic and Flying Fame of the Most Excellent Lord Don Luis Méndez de Haro.

Góngora himself attended the Poetic Medrano Academy in Madrid, which was founded and presided over by Sebastián Francisco de Medrano between 1616 and 1622.{{Cite web |last=Cervantes |first=Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de |title=Favores de las musas hechos a Don Sebastian Francisco de Medrano ... |url=https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/favores-de-las-musas-hechos-a-don-sebastian-francisco-de-medrano--0/html/021e4282-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_23.html |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes |language=es}} Juan de Espinosa Medrano’s Apologético was written in defense of the poet Luis de Góngora, countering the criticisms made by Portuguese writer Manuel de Faría y Sousa and affirms the transatlantic continuity of the Medrano family's political, educational, and cultural authority within the Spanish Empire.

This literary analysis examines Góngora’s originality and brilliance, aligning with the conceptismo tradition praised by Menéndez y Pelayo. Recognized as the clearest expression of gongorismo produced in the Americas, it also stands as a quintessential example of the literary style known as the Baroque of the Indies.{{Cite web |title=Espinosa Medrano: Apologetico |url=https://rarebooks.library.nd.edu/exhibits/durand/indies/medrano_apologetico.html |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=rarebooks.library.nd.edu}}

It is the first Apologético in the Americas. In the Apologético, published in Lima in 1662, Espinosa Medrano eruditely displays his knowledge of classical and contemporary literature. To support his arguments, Espinosa Medrano refers to, among others, the works of Apuleius, Augustine of Hippo, the Bible, Camoens, Miguel de Cervantes, Erasmus, Faria, Garcilaso, Homer, Pedro de Oña, and Lope de Vega—the latter also a member of the Medrano Academy.[http://www.uchile.cl/facultades/filosofia/cestculturales/toro.html El Lunarejo: Identidad mestiza y crítica literaria] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223095316/http://www.uchile.cl/facultades/filosofia/cestculturales/toro.html|date=2007-12-23}} Drawing on figures like Góngora and Lope de Vega, Espinosa Medrano affirms his place within a transatlantic familial tradition of literary authority. In this context, his defense of Góngora has been viewed as:

A plea for recognition on behalf of himself and of writers living and working on the periphery of the Spanish empire.

Espinosa Medrano refers to Góngora, who was born in Córdoba, as the "prince of Spanish lyric poets" (Príncipe de los poetas líricas de España) on the cover of his book. Although he wrote Apologético after the Góngora controversy had subsided, the work remains highly significant for the study of literary theory in Hispanic America. It provides insight into the influence of classical culture in Peru, as Espinosa Medrano extensively cites and analyzes Greek and Latin authors. The text also affirmed a transatlantic intellectual identity that fused noble Andean heritage with European literary tradition, challenging colonial hierarchies by asserting Peru as a legitimate center of literary authority.{{Cite web |title=Apologetic in favor of Don Luis de Góngora de Espinosa Medrano (El Lunarejo) |url=https://estudiosindianos.up.edu.pe/en/indiana-library/apologetic-in-favor-of-don-luis-de-gongora-de-espinosa-medrano-el-lunarejo/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=Estudios Indianos |language=en}}

As a young student, he wrote in Spanish the drama Amar su propia muerte (To Love One's Own Death) (ca. 1645). Amar su propia muerte is based on the story of the sufferings and peregrinations of the Jewish people in Chapter 4 from the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. There they are punished by God for various offences and are oppressed by several Canaanite kings until the judge, Deborah, prophesies that God will liberate them.

{{quote box

| width = 23em|"The troop of his crags hesitated, / as my warlike Damascus blades trembled, / and to the furious cry of my troops / the treetops of their poplars bent."|—Sísera, Jornada I, Scene 1, Amar su propia muerte.

}}

Characters of this play include Sisera, a general of Canaan; Jabín, king of Canaan; Jael; Barak, a general of the armies of Israel. Deborah signals the time to attack the enemy and plays a crucial role in the divine intervention, which was needed to free the Israelites from unjust bondage. But the work is much more than a mere recitation of this Bible story into the tale, Espinosa Medrano weaves a complex plot of love, betrayal and political intrigue between the Canaanite king, Jabin, his captain, Sisara, who are both in love with the Hebrew, Jael, and her jealous husband, Cineo. As the central character, Jael feigns love for both Canaanite men only to deceive them both in the end to free her people.

File:'Jael and Sisera' Alessandro Turchi, Dayton Art Institute.JPG

Espinosa Medrano skilfully includes Cineo’s desire to fight the Canaanites as a way to link the main biblical plot with the sub-theme of marital honour. The outstanding edition of Amar su propia muerte by Juan Vittulli fills an enormous gap in scholarship on Espinosa Medrano’s work.Espinosa Medrano, Juan de, and Juan M. Vitulli. Amar Su Propia Muerte Published in 2011 https://catalogo-teologia-granada.uloyola.es/Record/162441Sabena, J. (2014). [Review of Amar su propia muerte, by J. E. Medrano & J. M. Vitulli]. Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, 40(79), 442–444. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43854836 It situates the play in all the ambiguity, ‘otherness’, and contradiction of a young Juan de Espinosa Medrano, an Indigenous Andean writer who would leave his small town and enter into the cloisters, classrooms and pulpits of the ‘lettered city’ in seventeenth-century Cuzco, Peru. As Vitulli signals in his prologue, the Spanish playwright, Antonio Mira de Amescua, also wrote a similar work based on the same passages, thus, Espinosa Medrano is not only able to imitate but also compete with the great dramatists from the Spanish Golden Age of the seventeenth century.CHARLES B. MOORE, Gardner-Webb University, North Carolina. Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume XC, Number 7, 2013 https://www.academia.edu/21409432/HELEN_GRAHAM_The_War_and_Its_Shadow In Espinosa Medrano's opinion, there would be only one possible aspect of imitation, which would be what "great eloquence" has in common and is "mediocre." More specifically, there are "two aspects in style: one, born of Nature, which cannot be attained, and the other, born of Art, which can be achieved".Eduardo Hopkins. "Poetica de Juan de Espinosa Medrano En El ‘Apologetico En Favor de D. Luis de Gongora.’" Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, vol. 4, no. 7/8, 1978, Page 107. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4529872. Accessed 28 Oct. 2023.

The district of Juan Espinoza Medrano is one of the seven districts of the province of Antabamba located in the department of Apurímac, under the administration of the Regional Government of Apurímac, in southern Peru.{{Cite web |title=Juan Espinoza Medrano (District, Peru) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/peru/apurimac/admin/antabamba/030304__juan_espinoza_medrano/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=www.citypopulation.de}} It is bordered to the north by the district of Sabaino and the district of Huaquirca, to the west by the district of Antabamba, to the south by the department of Ayacucho and the department of Arequipa, and to the west by the province of Aymaraes.{{Cite web |title=Juan Espinoza Medrano District - Population and Demographics |url=https://www.city-facts.com/juan-espinoza-medrano-apurimac/population |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=www.city-facts.com |language=en}} From the hierarchical point of view of the Catholic Church, it is part of the Diocese of Abancay, which, in turn, belongs to the Archdiocese of Cusco. The district was created through Law No.9690 of 12 December 1942, in the first government of President Manuel Prado Ugarteche. Its first mayor was D. Florentino Suárez Rea. It bears the name of Juan Espinoza Medrano, in recognition of this writer born in Calcahuso, one of the annexes.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

{{reflist}}

• Atlas departamental del Perú, varios autores, Ediciones Peisa S.A., Lima, Perú, 2003 {{ISBN|9972-40-257-6}}
• El Perú en los tiempos modernos, Julio R. Villanueva Sotomayor, Ediciones e Impressiones Quebecor World Perú S.A., Lima, Perú, 2002.
• Historia de la República del Perú, Jorge Basadre Grohmann, Diario "El Comercio", Lima, Perú, 2005. {{ISBN|9972-205-62-2}}.
• Nuevo Atlas del Perú y el Mundo, Juan Augusto Benavides Estrada, Editorial Escuela Nueva S.A., Lima, Perú, 1991.

• {{in lang|es}} [http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/e/espinosa_medrano.htm Juan de Espinosa Medrano]
• {{in lang|es}} [http://www.elhablador.com/resena8_1.htm Juan de Espinosa Medrano: Apologético en favor de don Luis de Góngora]
• {{in lang|es}} [http://www.andes.missouri.edu/andes/Especiales/CP_Lunarejo.html La Panegírica Declamación de Espinosa Medrano o el discurso peruano de las armas y las letras]
• {{in lang|es}} [http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/78038409873470573265679/index.htm Amar su propia muerte] (online digitized text)
• {{in lang|es}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20071223095316/http://www.uchile.cl/facultades/filosofia/cestculturales/toro.html El Lunarejo: Identidad mestiza y crítica literaria]

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