While it has until recently been customary to read Latin American literature through the works of its internationally celebrated male authors, the fact is that women writers have made equally important contributions to the region's literature, as well as to the different national and local traditions that constitute it. From Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, whose poetry, plays and letters founded the region's literary tradition in the 17th century, to current authors such as Mariana Enriquez or Fernanda Melchor, women authors have not only penned some of the most relevant works in Spanish and Portuguese, but their works also constitute a rebuke to the region's patriarchal values and mores. In addition to the previously mentioned writers, authors studied may include Clorinda Matto de Turner, Clarice Lispector, Silvina Ocampo, and Rosario Castellanos.