Identity and Intersectional Vulnerability

Sor Juana's lived experience as a woman, a person of mixed heritage, and an intellectual outsider illuminates how corruption exploits identity-based vulnerabilities. Marginalized groups—women, minorities, the poor, the colonized—face heightened risk of corruption precisely because they have less power to resist exploitation and fewer channels for grievance. Corrupt actors deliberately target the vulnerable, knowing they face barriers to justice. Sor Juana recognized this intersectional reality: her gender, race, and intellectual ambitions placed her simultaneously outside power structures and exposed to their abuses. Anti-corruption work rooted in justice must address these patterns explicitly. This means: protecting vulnerable populations from targeted exploitation, ensuring they have access to reporting mechanisms and justice, diversifying power structures so marginalized groups gain voice and oversight capacity, and recognizing that corruption often takes gendered, racialized, or class-specific forms. Strategies that only address abstract institutional corruption while ignoring how it harms particular communities will fail. Sor Juana's example shows that fighting corruption means fighting for the dignity and safety of those most vulnerable to its abuses.