Once you went in, you never came out. Santa Catalina, a pretty prison, but a prison nonetheless. Painted letters over the entrance to the first courtyard, urge SILENCE, yet noise from the city surrounds you, the cries of street vendors, the clop of horses hooves, the hum of voices, the sound of life. There are forty-foot-high walls, but your prison is open to the air; you are separated from, but remain a part of the world. A similar fate awaited every second child born under Spanish colonial rule in the New World. They were raised to 'embrace' the religious life; to pray for their family and their well-being. Sons became priests and daughters became nuns. Sister Ana (Ana de los Angeles Montegudo) entered at the age of 3. More commonly, girls entered at the onset of
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