The Archive of Erasure

Sor Juana's works were suppressed, her letters destroyed, her intellectual contributions minimized by Church authorities who saw her learning as threatening. The archive of erasure is not empty space—it is a record of what was deliberately removed. Across cultures, this pattern repeats: women's intellectual work attributed to men, colonized peoples' knowledge systems dismissed, LGBTQ identities hidden from family records, minority languages excluded from literary canons. This concept asks us to recognize that identity across cultures is shaped not only by what is recorded but by what has been systematically deleted. Understanding name and identity requires examining these absences. When searching for one's ancestors' names, why are some people missing? When learning history, whose voices are absent? The archive of erasure is a justice issue because names and identities matter—they prove existence, claim inheritance, establish connection. Sor Juana's recovery from historical invisibility demonstrates that resistance includes excavating what was buried, insisting on naming what was erased, and refusing the erasure that dominant systems impose on marginalized identities.