Summary Of The Documentary La Operacion

La Operacion is a documentary film that talks about the massive sterilization campaign that occur in Puerto Rico and left one-third of the Puerto Ricans woman population sterilize. The documentary is complete in a sense that it shows maps, data, people speaking of their personal experience, but the most important aspect of it that it shows footage of the surgery. The repetition of the surgery scene gives an idea that this surgery was a common practice of everyday life in Puerto Rico.

In 1898 the United State invaded Puerto Rico and two years later the first governor complains that there were a lot of people living in the island, and not enough man of capital. In 1937 the law 136 legalized sterilization based on the breathing of the fit, so in other words the poor and people of color were exterminated. The doctors could perform this practice if they thought it was necessary based on law number 136. This law was passed in a time where woman labor was the only source of income of the Puerto Ricans family, on this time man were drafted to fight on World War 2. The sterilization campaign used to meet with these businessmen and convinced them that if they would give

one-hour break to their employees to go to the family planning clinics and get sterilized, they were saving lots of money on maternity license and salary. Eventually the woman where working on a lower salary wage than men while the men were resting.
The women of Puerto Rico were not informed of the meaning of this practice, they were told that it was a method of child birth control, but some of them thought that whenever they wanted they could have a child.

A woman in the film explains that, she lack of so much information that in the day after the surgery, she was cut and sew with black thread and she said “O my God” what have they cut me. In addition, she mentions that she was a total ignorant, but she feels that she wasn’t forced to do it that she went on her own free will, but if she would have been told of other childbirth methods she would have done it. Also, another woman said that the gynecologist told her that she was going to have the tied tube procedure that consisted of having her Fallopian tubes tied, but she didn’t know it was also

cut.
The United State government took advantage of the poor Puerto Rican population lack of education. They were exterminating the population in a way that the citizens would think that, they have taken the best decision by their own free will. In a scene of the film the mayor named Vicente Acosta mentions that the program of sterilization has given good results because in the census of 1970 the population didn’t grow. It was so that tons of primary school had to close because there weren’t any first graders in his neighborhood. Between the years 1956 and 1976 20,000 women were sterilized.
In conclusion, this film incorporates interviews with women of differing racial and ethnic backgrounds who have undergone this procedure. Rather than rely solely on interviews the documentary is mixed with action sequences and historical footage and data that make this film a thought-provoking film.