The Arizona State University Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics held a screening of “No Mas Bebes” on Friday night, opening up a discussion for reproductive rights, immigration issues and civil rights.
Dozens of community members and ASU students gathered at the A.E. England building on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus for the screening of “No Mas Bebes,” a film that tells the story of 10 Mexican immigrant mothers who sued Los Angeles County doctors, the state of California and the federal government after they were unknowingly sterilized in the early 1970s.
“When I tell people that California sterilized 20,000 people in the course of 50 years, or that Mexican immigrant women were sterilized or that California prisons sterilized women, people are shocked,” said Jacqueline Wernimont, an assistant professor at ASU. “They don’t think it happens here in the United States, but it did, and it does.”
Issues of non-consensual sterilization, intersectional feminism and civil rights were brought up throughout the film and led the Q&A with co-producer Virginia Espino.
“This film resonates with so many issues in this country regarding immigrant rights, regarding reproductive politics and who gets to decide how many children you have,” Espino said. “I think they’re relevant to all women because it’s something we all have to decide for ourselves and sometimes that decision is taken away from us.”
Espino, an adjunct professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, had been researching the historic event for nearly 20 years before she and Renee Tajima-Peña, the director and co-producer, began working on the film.
“My purpose in getting involved in this documentary film project was to bring it to a wide audience,” Espino said. “I feel like history sometimes gets lost… there are so many stories that don’t reach a wider audience.”
The film featured testimonies from the women who sought legal action and archived footage of “El Movimiento,” the Chicano Movement of the 1960s.
“This film is wonderful for the ways it shows how history, in terms of social movements, has a real impact on the individual,” said Desiree Garcia, director of Film and Media Studies at ASU. “It’s very important post-election that we open up spaces where we can talk about issues of gender and race in ways that are safe, tolerant and supportive.”
Since the film’s premiere, “No Mas Bebes” has been screened in community centers, high schools and university campuses around the United States.
“We’ve been able to screen this film to high school students as well as to immigrant mothers,” Espino said. “I hope this film addresses that and opens up that conversation and space for people to talk about the different sides of these issues like immigration and reproductive autonomy.”
Contact the reporter at lerman.montoya@asu.edu
