The framework examining how colorism passes between generations within families and communities, and how intellectual tradition and knowledge can interrupt this cycle.
Sor Juana's own life was shaped by colonial colorism and gender oppression, yet her intellectual work created a legacy that could inspire resistance. Colorism transmits intergenerationally through family preference systems (favoring lighter-skinned children), community hierarchies, partner selection, and internalized beliefs about who deserves resources and respect. Within intraracial identity, family becomes both a site where colorism is enforced and where it can be interrupted. Parents, elders, and community leaders transmit either colorist values or anti-colorist consciousness to younger generations. Sor Juana's example demonstrates that intellectual and artistic traditions can carry counter-narrative: her words survive, teaching that darker-skinned women can be brilliant, authoritative, and worthy. Building knowledge traditions that center darker-skinned voices, telling family histories that honor all skin tones equally, and consciously refusing to privilege lighter-skinned children are practical ways to interrupt intergenerational colorism. Justice requires both acknowledging the depth of colorism's transmission and actively building alternative narratives and practices within families.
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