Intersectional Climate Justice Framework

Sor Juana inhabited multiple marginalized identities—woman, mestiza, intellectual in a patriarchal colonial system—and her work reveals how systems of oppression interconnect. Contemporary climate justice must apply this intersectional lens: climate impacts disproportionately harm women, Indigenous peoples, and Global South communities already experiencing colonial exploitation. This concept demands that climate solutions address root causes of inequality rather than impose top-down interventions that replicate historical power imbalances. Sor Juana's insistence on naming her own complex position within power structures becomes a model for climate movements that center voices of those most affected. The framework acknowledges that environmental destruction and social injustice share origins in systems that devalue both nature and marginalized people, requiring simultaneous liberation struggles.