The practice of Curanderismo or healing through natural means and ancestral methods is explored her Botanical series. With reverence for the life of the mid 1600s Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, Mesa-Bains underpins her work with tribute to the lives of Mexican women. Sor Juana’s room in the monastery was filled with evidence of her erudition: maps, books, mathematical and scientific instruments, gems, art objects and her own writing.