La Operación is a 1982 documentary that shows the widespread sterilization operation led by the U.S. during the 1950s and 60s in Puerto Rico. Ana María García directed the film which highlights how the U.S. pushed for increased female sterilization in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico has the highest incidence of female sterilization in the world. Over one-third of all Puerto Rican women of childbearing age have been sterilized. So common is the operation that it is simply known as ‘la operacion'. Using newsreels and excerpts from government propaganda films, plus interviews with Puerto Rican women, doctors, birth control specialists, and politicians, this film explores the controversial use of sterilization as a means of population control.
Puerto Rican women and their families were promised success and stability after they underwent “la operación,” or sterilization. These efforts undercut the agency of women over their bodies as they may have been drawn to the procedure and its false promises out of economic necessity/social pressure. 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.