Intersecting Oppressions and Voicelessness

Sor Juana occupied a unique intersection of marginalization: woman, intellectual, colonial subject, religious woman. Her work illuminates how beings are systematically silenced and excluded from power structures. Animals face this voicelessness intensified—they cannot petition for rights, articulate their suffering, or participate in systems that govern their lives. Sor Juana's analysis of how institutional power silences dissent applies powerfully to animals' position in human-dominated systems. They cannot testify to their own experiences, defend their interests, or challenge the narratives we construct about them. This concept reveals animal rights as fundamentally about representation and voice: who speaks for the voiceless, and whose narratives dominate? Sor Juana's own struggle against silencing extends naturally to advocacy for creatures who cannot speak for themselves, demanding that moral consideration include amplifying perspectives of the powerless and challenging systems that deny them agency.