Literacy as Resistance and Right

Sor Juana's literacy was her greatest asset and her constant battleground; authorities recognized that an educated woman represented a threat to hierarchical control. Literacy is never neutral; it is always implicated in power relations. When marginalized children gain literacy, they gain capacity to interpret systems of oppression, to express their understanding, to access resources, and to contest narratives about themselves. Conversely, literacy denial is a strategy of control—it has historically been enforced through slavery, colonialism, and patriarchy. This concept distinguishes functional literacy (decoding words) from critical literacy (analyzing how texts construct meaning and serve power). Children's rights frameworks must protect both. Children need basic literacy to navigate society, but critical literacy to question it. This includes media literacy—the ability to recognize how images, algorithms, and advertisements shape desire and perception—and information literacy in an age of disinformation. Sor Juana's own writing demonstrates literacy as creative resistance: her poems, essays, and arguments pushed against constraints. For contemporary children, particularly those from marginalized communities, literacy education must be explicitly emancipatory. It should equip children to recognize manipulation, assert their voices, and imagine alternatives, not merely prepare them for labor markets.