Documentary on the mass sterilization of Puerto Rican women during the 1950s and '60s.
Writing
Interviews that let survivors speak without exploitation — radical for 1982.
Direction
García's unflinching gaze refuses to aestheticize suffering.
Director
Ana María García
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ana María García made this as her thesis film at NYU — it became one of the first widely distributed docs on Puerto Rican women's experiences.
The term 'la operación' itself became coded language; women would say they were 'going for the operation' without ever specifying sterilization, normalizing the violence through euphemism.
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