Epistemic Authority and Self-Witnessing

Sor Juana insisted on her right to interpret scripture, philosophy, and truth—positions traditionally reserved for male ecclesiastical authority. Epistemic authority means claiming the right to know, to interpret, and to be believed about one's own experience. For those in poverty, marginalization often includes being told that their understanding of their own circumstances is invalid—that poverty is their fault, that their problems are self-inflicted, that they lack the capacity to solve them. Self-witnessing involves documenting one's own knowledge, creating one's own record, and insisting on one's credibility. Sor Juana's writing did exactly this: she witnessed her own intellectual development, her struggles, her understanding. This practice counters the epistemic injustice that poverty enables—the systematic dismissal of the poor person's authority over their own life. By developing intellectual voice and written record, individuals assert that their interpretation of reality matters and must be reckoned with.