No Más Bebés documents  the experiences of a group of Latina women who were unknowingly sterilized while in labor at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the 1960s and 70s. The lawsuit brought on by the women against county doctors, the state, and the United States government is a landmark event in reproductive justice, paving the way for significant reforms in medical care for immigrant women and communities.

Dr. VIRGINIA ESPINO is a native daughter of California, born and raised in northeastern Los Angeles. She is an oral and public historian whose research focuses on health activism, motherhood and the uses of public space. She earned her PhD from Arizona State University writing about population control politics and reproductive injustice during the 1970s. Her research has been published in the Chicano Studies Journal, Aztlán and her investigation into the history of coercive sterilization at the Los Angeles-USC Medical Center provided the impetus for the documentary film, No Más Bebés, for which she is a Producer and Lead Historian. As a series leader for Latina and Latino History at UCLA’s Center for Oral History Research she developed oral history series that document the California Latina/o community and helped the Center build a valuable archive for scholars and the public at large.

CONSUELO HERMOSILLO was one of the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit and featured in the documentary No Más Bebés.

* This event is being co-sponsored by the Pasadena Universalist Unitarian Church. Special thanks to Clyde D. Derrick, Luis Sierra Campos, and an anonymous donor for their gracious support.

No Más Bebés: A Conversation with Dr. Virginia Espino and Consuelo Hermosillo