The Eugenic Sterilization of Puerto Rican Women: A Case of US Interests and Religious/Spiritual Freedom
Between the 1930s and 1970s, approximately one-third of Puerto Rican women of childbearing age (20–49) were sterilized— the highest rate in the world during that time. Driven by U.S. political and economic interests, and underpinned by eugenic ideology, Governor Blanton Winship and President Franklin D. Roosevelt championed sterilization as a solution to the island’s perceived "overpopulation" and its associated problems: unemployment, disease, and poverty. While Puerto Rican women were exploited as instruments of U.S. policy, sterilization paradoxically became widely accepted as a form of birth control on the island. This thesis critically examines the power dynamics and collective responses that framed the sterilization of Puerto Rican women as a successful U.S. policy initiative. Employing an interdisciplinary framework—drawing from social sciences, theology, and literature—the study offers a multifaceted examination of the political agendas, lived experiences, and resistance strategies of Puerto Rican women affected by sterilization. It begins by exploring Puerto Rico’s political relationship with the U.S., using primary historical documents to reveal the mechanisms behind the sterilization campaign. The study then integrates Latin American feminist theology to illuminate the spiritual and religious dimensions of Puerto Rican women’s resistance—an essential yet often overlooked aspect in existing theoretical models, such as Teresa Delgado’s A Puerto Rican Decolonial Theology. Personal testimonies from Iris López’s Matters of Choice: Puerto Rican Women’s Struggle for Reproductive Freedom further highlight the limitations of conventional frameworks in capturing the full complexity of Puerto Rican women’s agency and resilience. This thesis contends that spirituality is a crucial lens for understanding how Puerto Rican women resisted reproductive oppression—an experience that resonates across Latin America and is echoed in contemporary Latina literature. The final chapter explores Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, illustrating how political history, spirituality, and religion are inextricably woven into the Latina lived experience. By employing an interdisciplinary approach, this study centers Puerto Rican women, shedding light on their systemic marginalization, constrained democratic citizenship, and resilience that has sustained their resistance over time.
Eugenics, Sterilization, Population control, Spirituality, Religion, Latin American feminist theology, Latin American Studies, Puerto Rican Studies
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations