Catarina de San Juan

Catarina de San Juan (birth c. 1607/place unknown; death 5 January 1688, Puebla, Mexico) known as the China Poblana was an Asian slave who, according to legend, belonged to a noble family from India. She was brought to Mexico through the Spanish East Indies and has been credited since the Porfiriato with creating the China Poblana dress. After converting to Catholicism in Cochin—an Indian city where she was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates—Mirra was given the Christian name Catarina de San Juan, the name she was known as in Puebla de Zaragoza where she worked as a slave, married, and eventually became a beata - a religious woman who took personal religious vows without entering a convent (see anchorite). Upon her death, Catarina de San Juan was buried in the sacristy of the Jesuit Templo de la Compañía de Jesús in Puebla, in what is popularly known as Tumba de la China Poblana.