Recognizing that those excluded from power often perceive and articulate truths that privileged actors cannot or will not see, and creating space for such testimony.
Sor Juana, as a woman without formal position or institutional authority, nonetheless possessed insight and truth-telling capacity that challenged her era's dominant narratives. Her marginality was not a deficit but a vantage point: she could see injustices and contradictions that those invested in existing systems could not acknowledge. In anti-corruption work, the voices of those harmed by corrupt systems—the poor, the excluded, those denied justice—are often more reliable witnesses than official narratives. Corruption typically harms the vulnerable most severely while benefiting the powerful, creating a structural incentive for the powerful to deny or minimize wrongdoing. Creating mechanisms through which marginalized people can testify, be heard, and have their experiences validated is fundamental to identifying and addressing corruption. This includes support for grassroots monitoring, community accountability processes, and leadership development among those most affected by corrupt systems. Sor Juana's insistence on her own authority as a knower, despite her marginalized status, models how anti-corruption requires expanding whose voices count as credible witnesses to injustice.
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