The Right to Remain and Resist

Sor Juana refused to disappear, to be silenced, or to conform to expectations that would erase her intellectual identity. The right to remain is Indigenous peoples' parallel assertion: we will not leave our lands; we will not be relocated, disappeared, or absorbed. This concept recognizes that staying itself is resistance and assertion of sovereignty. Throughout history, colonizers have offered relocation packages, promised assimilation benefits, or used force to remove Indigenous peoples from territories. The right to remain means Indigenous communities insist on their place on ancestral land despite pressure, violence, or economic incentive to leave. This right encompasses physical presence and cultural continuity: the right to speak native languages, practice traditional spirituality, and maintain social structures on one's own land. Following Sor Juana's intellectual stubbornness, the right to remain is a refusal to negotiate away existence itself. It grounds all other rights in territorial presence and self-determination.