In an article for PBS American Experience Professor Natalie Lira discusses her research on the impact eugenics had on the sterilization of Mexican American women in California during the early decades of the 20th century. Lira begins the article by focusing on the case in 1930 of Concepcion Ruiz, a 16-year-old Mexican-American girl who was arrested and tried in California Juvenile Court on charges of sexual delinquency and later sterilized as punishment, being deemed “mentally deficient.”

“Legal officers brought the young woman before Superior Court Judge Robert H. Scott because she ran away with a boyfriend and was allegedly ‘subnormal”…Ruiz was one of approximately 20,000 people sterilized in California institutions between the 1920s and the 1950s. Between 1907 and 1937, 32 states passed eugenic sterilization laws. California was the most prolific proponent of eugenic sterilization, performing one third of the 60,000 operations recorded nationally. Under the state’s law, passed in 1909, individuals committed to any of the 11 state institutions for the “insane” or “feebleminded” could be sterilized at the discretion of institutional authorities. While young women deemed sexually wayward like Ruiz were often targets for sterilization, almost half of the people sterilized in California institutions were young men who were declared “insane,” disabled or accused of a crime. While the law did not require consent, institutional authorities often sought signatures from parents or guardians but never from patients. If consent could not be obtained, the Medical Superintendent simply acquired permission for the operation from the Director of Institutions.”

To read the full article, go to PBS American Experience.