Decolonial Literacy Beyond Reading

Sor Juana's reading practice was decolonial: she consumed canonical texts but questioned their authority, read indigenous histories alongside Spanish chronicles, and taught others to think critically. Decolonial literacy extends beyond the ability to read words; it means developing the cognitive capacity to decode colonial ideology embedded in language, education, media, and institutions. In postcolonial contexts, decolonial literacy enables people to recognize how colonialism persists through subtle forms—cultural values that privilege European aesthetics, economic systems that extract wealth, historical narratives that marginalize indigenous agency. This literacy is taught and cultivated; it requires access to alternative texts, critical pedagogies, and communities of interpretation. Educational decolonization prioritizes developing this capacity rather than passive knowledge consumption. Decolonial literacy empowers postcolonial peoples to become active interpreters of their own realities rather than passive receivers of dominant narratives.