El Tecolote contributor, Johanna Lopez Miyaki, talks to three amazing guests who give us three different perspectives on the ugly history the United States has with eugenics and forced sterilization.
Azadeh Shahshahani
Azadeh is the Legal and Advocacy Director for Project South, one of the organizations that filed the complaint in Sept 2020 that exposed medical abuse against women at the Ice Detention Center in Irwin, GA as well as worked for the release of and filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the Irwin ICE Detention Center survivors.
Kelli Dillon
Kelli’s testimony was key in helping pass the SB 1135 Anti-Sterilization Bill into law. Her story and advocacy was documented in Belly of the Beast released in the fall of 2020. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Back to the Basics Community Empowerment Organization and serves as a commissioner and board member for the Los Angeles Commission for Community and Family Services.
Natalie Lira
Natalie is an interdisciplinary scholar and Assistant Professor in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is an expert on eugenic sterilization, member of the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab, and author of the forthcoming book Laboratory of Deficiency: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900-1950s.