My Broken Language: A Memoir

Before Quiara was born, her mother was a carpenter. However, in Philadelphia, she lived across the street from a pair of feminists from whom she began learning about unions and workers’ rights. Virginia became involved in organizing and cofounded a group called Tradeswomen in Nontraditional Jobs. Organizing and advocacy “made her come alive” (44), and soon, Virginia began working for a reproductive health and childcare hotline called CHOICE.

Quiara recounts how her mother’s passion for advocacy began in her youth. While giving Abuela a massage, Virginia noticed a scar on her mother’s belly. She learned that, in the 1950s, many towns in Puerto Rico, including her hometown of Arecibo, offered poor women cash incentives for “cutting-edge birth control” (45). Women were sterilized with no mention of the procedure’s permanence at a rate that became the highest in the world. The government knew that no Puerto Rican woman “would publicly declare her barrenness” (46), so there were no ramifications. 

When Quiara learns the story of Abuela’s “operación,” she is in fourth grade, helping her mother prepare a conference on sterilization abuse. She has trouble believing that the story is true. However, she understands that her doubts add to the “silence” that allowed this abuse to occur.