The claim to independent thought and self-directed learning as a foundational act of decolonization, resisting imposed ignorance and epistemic subordination.
Sor Juana's relentless pursuit of knowledge despite institutional barriers models intellectual autonomy as a decolonial practice. Her refusal to accept prescribed limits on what women—or colonial subjects—could know challenged the power structures that used ignorance as a tool of control. In postcolonial contexts, reclaiming the right to think independently, to ask questions, and to construct one's own frameworks of understanding becomes an act of sovereignty. This concept recognizes that decolonization begins in the mind: rejecting internalized hierarchies of knowledge, claiming authority over one's own interpretation of reality, and asserting that marginalized peoples have the capacity and right to intellectual leadership. Sor Juana's legacy demonstrates that the intellectual life itself can be a site of liberation and resistance against colonial domination.
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