Where do rights actually come from and who decides what they are?

Sor Juana lived in a time and place where rights were decided entirely by those in power—the church, the crown, the men in charge. She watched what happened when you questioned that arrangement: you got punished. But she kept asking anyway, because she understood something crucial: rights don't come from permission. They come from being human. From needing dignity, safety, choice, voice. From the fact that you exist and think and have a stake in decisions that affect you. That doesn't mean rights are automatic or safe. History shows us that. But it does mean they're not gifts from authorities—they're claims we make, together, saying this is non-negotiable. Who decides? Officially, laws and institutions do. But really, it's us. Every time someone refuses to accept a boundary that was put on them. Every time a community says: this isn't how we treat each other here. Every time you insist on being heard. Rights exist in that space between what's legal and what's just. Sometimes they align. Often they don't. That's why the fighting matters. That's why you matter in determining what they are.