Knowledge as Survival Literacy

Sor Juana's voracious reading was not academic luxury; it was survival. She learned language, theology, science, and rhetoric because knowledge was her path through a system that offered women almost no paths. In intersectional contexts, survival literacy is knowing how systems work, knowing your rights, knowing the history of resistance, knowing how to read people and institutions. It is the mother who learns healthcare systems to advocate for her disabled child, the immigrant who masters bureaucratic language, the queer youth who finds community through underground networks. Sor Juana models survival literacy not as passive adaptation but as active mastery—learning the master's tools while planning their transformation. Education becomes a practice of intersectional resilience.