La Operación documents sterilization – a film about the systematic sterilization of Puerto Rican women by their government, often without their knowledge – Operation Bootstrap 30s to the 80s (I had no idea)

“As part of the Latina/o Heritage Month program at Baruch, the Omicron Chapter of The Senoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority, Inc. presented a screening of La Operación (The Operation). The film, produced and directed by Ana Maria Garcia, is a fascinating look at the systematic sterilization of Puerto Rican women by their government, often without their knowledge.

The forty-minute documentary explores how sterilization was a government-sponsored method-not only of population control-but also economic reform. Beginning in the 1930′s and well into the 1980′s, the Puerto Rican government, with the full knowledge and blessing of the U.S., began a systematic program called Operation Bootstrap. Aimed primarily at low-income women, the plan was designed to keep poverty at bay. “

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