Animals' inability to speak human language has historically silenced their moral claims; reframing silence as a form of testimony that demands justice.
Sor Juana wrote her way through enforced silence, using language as her weapon against institutional powerlessness. Animals face a different silence: they literally cannot articulate their suffering in human terms, yet this linguistic powerlessness has justified their exclusion from moral consideration. This concept inverts that logic, proposing that animals' silence is itself a moral testimony we must learn to read. Their inability to speak in our language does not diminish their capacity to suffer, communicate, and possess interests. Sor Juana's insistence on the power of articulation illuminates what happens to the inarticulate: their claims are dismissed. We must develop new hermeneutics of silence, learning to recognize animal vocalizations, behaviors, and physiological responses as testimony to their inner lives and suffering. Becoming advocates for animals means lending our voices to their voicelessness, not as their representatives but as witnesses to their testimony. This act of moral witnessing mirrors Sor Juana's own project of making the invisible visible through the power of articulate thought.
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