Collective Memory as Intersectional Archive

Sor Juana's work survives because it was preserved—and because researchers later chose to recover and center it. Yet countless intersectional thinkers remain absent from dominant archives, their contributions fragmented or attributed to others. This concept recognizes that archiving is a political act. Collective memory-keeping practices—oral tradition, community documentation, informal genealogies, cultural transmission—are how marginalized communities maintain knowledge of resistance, survival, and intellectual achievement. In intersectional practice, this means actively building and protecting archives that reflect multiple perspectives and identities. It involves asking: Whose work is saved versus forgotten? Which narratives become official history? How do communities counter archival erasure? This includes supporting community historians, validating oral transmission, ensuring that knowledge persists in accessible forms, and recognizing that the archive itself is a site of intersectional struggle. Collective memory is not nostalgic—it is fuel for present action.