The Right to Defend Oneself

Sor Juana's Reply to Sor Filotea stands as a powerful act of self-defense: she refused to accept another's narrative about who she was and what she deserved. In punitive justice systems, the accused often lacks genuine opportunity for self-defense; they must navigate legal procedures designed to extract confession rather than understand context. Restorative approaches rooted in Sor Juana's tradition affirm the right to tell one's own story. This is not the same as evading accountability; rather, it means restoration requires that people involved in harm can speak about their motivations, constraints, circumstances, and growth. For those harmed, it means being believed and supported to articulate the full scope of their experience without scrutiny designed to minimize harm. For systemic harm—such as colonialism or patriarchy—it means communities can publicly defend their own interpretations of history against official narratives. Self-defense as a right shifts justice from judgment to understanding, creating space where accountability can be genuine rather than coerced.