Writing as Claim and Inheritance

Sor Juana's works—her poems, plays, theological essays, and letters—persist as her claim to have existed, thought, and mattered. Through writing, she created a form of property that survives her body and institutional erasure. Writing is a claim: *I was here, I thought this, I matter.* For libertarian justice, writing and creative work are forms of property that deserve protection precisely because they extend the self beyond the present moment and the reach of silencing institutions. To suppress someone's writing is to erase their claim to existence and thought. To prevent publication is to deny them this form of property and inheritance. Writers claim intellectual space in the world and leave a record that future generations inherit and must reckon with. Sor Juana's *Respuesta* and *Primero Sueño* are acts of claim-making that no institutional authority could legitimately prevent. For libertarian justice, protecting the right to write, publish, and have one's work preserved is protecting the deepest form of human freedom and property: the right to matter, to be heard, and to persist beyond one's lifetime.