Isabel reigns from San Cristobal de las Casas, a small town in Chiapas known for its role in the Zapatista movement that took flight in 1994. Having witnessed her fascination with Primero Sueño, a seventeenth-century poem by the nun and writer Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Isabel was encouraged to pursue Ancient Studies (with a focus on Latin and Greek) at Barnard before coming to Brown. 

Originally planning to work on classical reception studies in colonial Mexico with a main focus on Sor Juana, Isabel’s plans began to shift when graduated doctorate CompLit student and peer Mariajosé Rodríguez-Pliego suggested she learn Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. While enrolled in intensive Nahuatl courses at the University of Utah, Isabel began studying the sixteenth century with a focus on bridging the multilingual archive of the region. 

At Brown, Isabel studies texts from and about colonial Mexico written in Latin, Spanish, and Nahuatl, tracing how the three languages interacted with one another in a violent and hierarchical environment. The last chapter of her dissertation includes Sor Juana in a beautiful full circle moment. Her class, “Writing and Resistance in the Indigenous Americas” allows her to engage in conversation about her studies with her students, encourages her to step outside of her own area of expertise, and broadens her approach to Indigenous studies.