Writing as a Practice of Existence

Sor Juana wrote constantly: poems, plays, theological arguments, letters. Writing was how she claimed existence in a world that tried to erase her. For intersectional people, writing—in any form—is an assertion of realness. The enslaved person's narrative, the immigrant's memoir, the transgender person's coming-out letter, the disabled person's medical testimony, the colonized person's history—all are practices of saying I was here, I know, I matter. In digital age intersectionality, this includes tweets, TikToks, blogs, zines, graffiti. Writing creates record, builds community, preserves knowledge that institutions would erase. It is how people refuse the role of silent objects acted upon and claim the role of knowing subjects. Sor Juana's prolific writing was not vanity; it was an act of intersectional survival—making herself impossible to erase.