Convivencia Across Difference

Convivencia, the concept of coexistence across religious and cultural difference, gained new urgency in Sor Juana's diverse Mexico. Climate crisis makes global convivencia essential—we must live together on one planet regardless of ideology, nationality, or economic interest. This concept moves beyond tolerance toward genuine respect for different worldviews while maintaining commitment to collective survival. Sor Juana's life demonstrated that intellectual exchange across difference strengthens rather than weakens truth-seeking. Applied to climate justice, convivencia means engaging stakeholders with competing interests—Indigenous peoples and conservation biologists, workers in fossil fuel industries and clean energy advocates, Global South communities and wealthy nations—in dialogue grounded in shared planetary stakes. It rejects both domination and fragmentation. Climate solutions require unprecedented cooperation across difference. Sor Juana's example shows that such cooperation demands intellectual humility, genuine listening, and recognition that complex problems require multiple perspectives working toward just outcomes.