La Operación (Directed by Ana María García)

Source: http://bambinoides.com/8-atrocities-committed-against-puerto-rico-by-the-usa/

La Operación is a documentary from 1982 that shows the widespread sterilization operation led by the United States during the 1950s and 60s in Puerto Rico. Ana María García directed the film which highlights how the United States pushed for increased female sterilization in Puerto Rico. She mixes in the documentary a blend of interviews with women from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds but the interviews are not the only focus of her work; she also incorporates scenes showing a sterilization procedure in addition to other historical and contextual parts.

Source: https://www.cwluherstory.org/health/

The cartoon above is an example of U.S. propaganda advertising population control as a means of ensuring future success and alleviating poverty. Puerto Rican women and their families were promised of success and stability after they underwent “la operación”, or sterilization. These efforts undercut the agency of women over their own bodies as they may have been drawn to the procedure and its false promises out of economic necessity/social pressure.

Source: The film

The above account from the documentary displays the same message as the propaganda above, that there are prosperity and good living associated with sterilization, based on the belief that too many kids lead to a perpetual state of destitution. These false beliefs led many women to give up their agency over their bodies and cave into getting sterilized—except they did not know all the time what they were signing up for.

Maddy’s comment is spot on—the agency of Puerto Rican women was muddied and subverted by the United States as they imposed sterilization as a measure of population control. Some argue that the women consented to the procedures but ultimately they were ill-informed of the ramifications of getting sterilized and were denied their reproductive rights.

Source: The film

Many of the women, such as the one featured above, did not know what they were getting themselves into. The operation was marketed as a solution to poverty and many women thought that once their tubes were tied, they could be “untied”. This was not the case and they ended up losing their reproductive rights to give birth to more children. The film portrays these women as victims of this lack of knowledge and forced sterilization. While this is true, the film doesn’t really show the perspectives of the Puerto Rican women past being just victims. There are more dimensions to their identities and experiences before and after sterilization that needs to be accounted for by allowing more of their voices to be heard in the documentary.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG2pRtPOUrE

La Operacion shows Puerto Rican women as simply casualties of U.S. colonialism and sterilization. The women were not afforded much of their own perspectives and were shown in a light where they were not speaking for themselves and were rather just victims. However, for an early film especially, it does a remarkable job of linking colonial policies and their impacts on the lives of Puerto Rican women, a perspective that is often left out of discussions about the U.S. led sterilization.