The intentional use of concealment, coded language, and selective disclosure as survival strategies within oppressive structures while maintaining intellectual and spiritual autonomy.
Sor Juana's careful negotiations with ecclesiastical authority—her strategic deference, her choice of what to publish and what to keep private—reveal how the oppressed navigate tyrannical systems without surrendering core commitments. James C. Scott's concept of hidden transcripts applies directly: Sor Juana maintained public compliance while privately sustaining her intellectual projects and radical questioning. In postcolonial contexts, colonized subjects develop coded languages, double consciousness, and strategic performances to resist without triggering lethal retaliation. This is not mere accommodation but tactical wisdom. Decolonization involves recognizing these survival strategies as legitimate forms of resistance rather than capitulation, and eventually creating spaces where hidden transcripts can become public without penalty. Sor Juana's life demonstrates that intellectual and spiritual autonomy can persist even when external freedom is constrained.
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