Author Natalie Lira, The Conversation

Natalie Lira, The Conversation

Natalie Lira's research uncovers the largely neglected racial aspects of California’s eugenic sterilization program by providing evidence of the disproportionate institutionalization and sterilization of Mexican-origin women and men in state hospitals for the disabled during the first half of the twentieth century. Mobilizing an interdisciplinary mix of feminist, critical racial, and historical lenses, Dr. Lira's research illustrates how stereotypes of Mexican-origin women and men as mentally inferior, hypersexual, criminal and unfit for citizenship came together with emerging medical and scientific concepts of deviance, delinquency, and disability to justify institutionalization and reproductive constraint. Through statistical and discursive analyses of thousands of sterilization requests, consent forms, institutional publications, and social science theses her work shows how eugenic ideas about national and racial health, disability, and immigration determined the reproductive future of institutionalized populations. In addition to documenting Mexican-origin women and men's experiences of institutionalization and sterilization, Dr. Lira's research unearths the various ways Mexican-origin patients and their families challenged institutional authorities and sought to prevent sterilization. In doing so, her work figures Mexican-origin women and men's experiences of reproductive constraint, institutionalization, and their anti- sterilization efforts as central to twentieth century histories of racial and reproductive struggles.

Forced Sterilization Programs in California Once Harmed Thousands – Particularly Latinas

Natalie Lira, The Conversation and Nicole L. Novak, The Conversation

Gender Studies, History, Medicine, Science & Medicine, Society & Culture

In 1942, 18-year-old Iris Lopez, a Mexican-American woman, started working at the Calship Yards in Los Angeles. Working on the home front building Victory Ships not only added to the war effort, but allowed...

With Teen Mental Health Deteriorating Over Five Years, There's a Likely Culprit

Racism and the Scourge of Insecurity

Why We’re in Such a Frenzy About Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

I Run ‘Facial Recognition’ on Buildings to Unlock Architectural Secrets

The Weight of the Presidency

Four Crises Facing the President and How History Can Help

Gullibility and the Triumph of the Con-Artists

Is the Era of In-Class Education Coming to an End?

Colonizing Mars Means Contaminating Mars – And Never Knowing For Sure If It Had Its Own Native Life

Dysphagia and Swallowing Disorders How To Manage Them Later in Life

The Advantages of Gene Editing in Agriculture

The Verdict on Sunbathing

Author Natalie Lira, The Conversation

Natalie Lira, The Conversation

Forced Sterilization Programs in California Once Harmed Thousands – Particularly Latinas