Naming and Claiming Your Story

Sor Juana actively named and claimed her intellectual identity, her spiritual vocation, her creative authority. She did not wait for others to grant these descriptions but asserted them through her work and her words. For adopted individuals, this concept addresses the power of self-naming: the right to describe your own adoption, your belonging, your identity in language that feels true to your lived experience. Others may offer their version of your story—biological narratives, genealogical facts, psychological interpretations—but you retain the authority to claim how you integrate these into your own self-understanding. Naming means you move from being named (assigned identity) to being the namer (choosing identity). Sor Juana's self-authorship included literally signing her works and claiming responsibility for her ideas. This practice suggests that adopted identity becomes genuinely chosen when you articulate it in your own vocabulary, your own framing, your own authority.