Defending the Commons Against Enclosure

Sor Juana lived in a moment of colonial resource extraction where indigenous knowledge and lands were being enclosed and privatized for European profit. She herself defended knowledge as something not fully contained by institutional authority. Ethical consumption today includes supporting models that defend commons—locally-adapted agricultural knowledge, open-source information, community-managed resources. This means favoring agroecological farmers over corporations patenting seeds, supporting cooperative models over extractive multinationals, choosing businesses that share knowledge openly rather than hoarding it. It means resisting the enclosure of biodiversity and indigenous practices as intellectual property. By supporting producers and enterprises committed to commons-based approaches, consumers participate in a different economic logic—one that recognizes some things should not be privatized or commodified. This aligns with Sor Juana's implicit conviction that knowledge and dignity belong to humanity broadly, not to those with power to enclose them.