Language, Naming, and Narrative Power

Sor Juana used language strategically: her poetry and essays named injustice, claimed intellectual authority, and challenged narratives limiting women's roles. Language shapes reality; whoever controls naming controls what becomes thinkable. Climate discourse demonstrates this: calling climate catastrophe a 'crisis' suggests temporary emergency rather than systemic collapse. Using passive voice ('emissions are released') obscures responsibility. Calling indigenous lands 'wilderness' erases stewardship. Labeling fossil fuels 'natural resources' naturalizes extraction; calling them 'stranded assets' frames differently. When indigenous peoples name their territories in original languages, they assert sovereignty and epistemology Western maps erase. Global responsibility requires attention to language: How do we name climate injustice? Do we center indigenous place-names? Do we name fossil fuel executives as perpetrators rather than speaking of 'the industry'? Do we call indigenous resistance as 'rights' or 'activism'? Sor Juana's commitment to language as intellectual tool teaches that reframing—naming extraction as theft, calling climate catastrophe what it is, centering indigenous nomenclature—enables new possibilities for justice.