Reframing Dependence as Interdependence

Sor Juana depended on others—on the convent for shelter, on patrons for resources, on her community for intellectual engagement. Yet she was not passive; she gave intellectual labor in return. Disability identity often becomes burdened with shame about dependence, as though needing assistance is uniquely shameful. Sor Juana's model and broader feminist analysis reveal all humans are interdependent: we depend on infrastructure, caregivers, communities, accumulated knowledge. Disabled people's interdependence is simply more visible, more acknowledged. This concept reframes dependence from individual failure to human reality. A disabled person using a personal care attendant is not uniquely dependent but participating in universal interdependence. Importantly, interdependence is not one-directional; disabled people contribute, create, think, lead, and care for others. Disability identity becomes stronger when understood as position within networks of mutual dependence and contribution. This dissolves the false binary of independence versus burden. Justice means creating systems of interdependence where disabled people's roles, contributions, and needs are all honored equally with non-disabled people's.