The Sovereignty of Intellectual Labor

Sor Juana's writings—her poems, plays, theological arguments—were her labor, yet the institutions surrounding her claimed authority over their circulation and interpretation. She asserted her right to determine how her work was presented to the world. This reflects a libertarian concept: intellectual labor generates property claims identical to physical labor. The person who thinks, writes, or creates owns the output. No one—not an employer, publisher, or patron—can legitimately appropriate that work without agreement and fair exchange. Sor Juana's insistence on authorship and her resistance to having her ideas misrepresented embodies this sovereignty. In modern applications, this principle opposes exploitative labor contracts that strip creators of rights, supports workers' claims to intellectual output, and challenges corporate appropriation of human creativity. It frames intellectual work as genuine property creation, not a service rendered to institutional owners.