Identity as Constructed and Reconstructible

Sor Juana occupied multiple, sometimes contradictory identities: nun and intellectual, colonial subject and cultural authority, woman and scholar in a male-dominated hierarchy. Rather than resolving these tensions into a single identity, she inhabited and explored their contradictions, demonstrating that identity is fluid and self-authored. This concept is crucial for those experiencing poverty, who may internalize limiting identities—poor, unsuccessful, disadvantaged—as fixed and inherent rather than as temporary social positions. Sor Juana's model shows that individuals can actively reconstruct their self-understanding through conscious reflection, education, and creative expression. Identity as reconstructible means that present circumstances need not determine future self-conception. By engaging with intellectual traditions, artistic practice, and critical dialogue, individuals can author new narratives about who they are and what they might become, resisting the determinism that poverty narratives often impose.