We inherit systems of animal exploitation without choosing them; ethical response requires acknowledging complicity while working toward transformation.
Sor Juana inherited a colonial world she did not create, yet her writings show deep consciousness of the systems she inhabited. She could not simply exit these structures, but she could resist them intellectually and morally. Modern animal ethics faces a parallel condition: we inherit deep infrastructures of animal use—food systems, medical practices, entertainment—that predate us and structure our daily lives. We cannot opt out cleanly, yet we bear responsibility for conscious complicity. This concept, drawn from Sor Juana's own navigation of constrained conditions, reframes animal ethics away from purity toward honest reckoning. We are all implicated in systems harming animals through diet, consumption, proximity to industries. Intellectual integrity, Sor Juana suggests, means acknowledging this rather than denying it. It means working within constraints while pushing against them: reducing animal use where possible, supporting alternatives, using whatever power and platform we have to question normalized practices. Legacy and inherited complicity is not about guilt but about accountability—recognizing that we benefit from systems we did not invent and bearing responsibility for whether we perpetuate or resist them. This is the difficult, ongoing work of moral seriousness Sor Juana modeled.
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