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As a new widow, Sarah Rosas Garcia was already struggling to support her nine children when her oldest daughter was picked up by local authorities.
丈夫新丧，萨拉·罗萨斯·加西亚抚养九个孩子已是十分不易，她的长女又被地方政府盯上了。
Andrea Garcia had been accused of skipping school and being sexually promiscuous,
安德莉亚·加西亚被指控逃学和淫乱，
so the authorities responsible for juvenile delinquents committed her to a state hospital.
负责管理少年犯的政府部门因此将她送往州立医院。
After being administered an IQ test and assigned a low score, the doctors made their verdict.
在她按要求完成智力测验并被判低分后，医生们宣布了结果。
They told Sara her 19-year-old daughter would be sterilized to prevent passing on what the state saw as a mental deficiency.
他们告诉萨拉，她19岁的女儿会被实施绝育手术，以免将在该州被视为“存在心理缺陷”的基因遗传给下一代。
This horrific tale may sound like a story from an authoritarian regime.
这个故事听起来耸人听闻，就像是在专制政权下才会发生的事。
But in fact, it took place in Southern California in 1938.
但它确实在1938年的南加州真实上演过。
And Andrea Garcia was one of thousands of poor women of color targeted by the state's relentless campaign of eugenics.
数千名有色人种贫困女性都是该州残酷优生运动的受害者，安德莉亚·加西亚只是其中一员。
Since ancient Greece, there have been efforts to control human populations via reproduction, retaining some traits and removing others.
从古希腊开始，人们就通过节制生育控制人口，延续或截断某些基因的遗传。
But in the 19th century, the discovery of evolution and genetics inspired a new scientific movement dedicated to this endeavor.
19世纪，进化论的提出和遗传学的发展诱发了一场致力于将之付诸实践的科学运动。
In 1883, British scientist Sir Francis Galton named this idea eugenics, drawn from the Greek word for "to be well born."
1883年，英国科学家弗兰西斯·高尔顿爵士将这一想法命名为优生学，取自希腊语“优生”。
This wave of modern eugenicists included prominent scientists and progressive reformers
这波现代优生学家包括一些杰出的科学家和改革派人士，
who believed they could improve society by ensuring that only desirable traits were passed down.
他们坚信只要确保好的基因得到遗传，就能借此改造社会。
However, their definition of what traits were and were not desirable was largely determined by the prejudices of their era.
然而，他们对好特质的定义很大程度上受时代偏见的局限。
Entire categories of people were considered "unfit" for reproduction, including immigrants, people of color and people with disabilities.
被他们认为是“不适合生育”的人，包括移民、有色人种和残障人士。
Meanwhile, their ideal genetic standard reflected the movement's members: white Europeans of Nordic or Anglo-Saxon descent.
而他们心中理想的基因标准则反映了这场运动参与者的身份：有北欧或安格鲁-撒克逊血统的欧洲白人。
As the influence of eugenics spread in the early 20th century, many countries restricted immigration and outlawed interracial unions.
20世纪早期，优生学影响范围更广，当时很多国家都限制移民，禁止跨种族通婚。
These measures to improve so-called "racial hygiene" were taken to their horrific conclusion in Nazi Germany.
这些实现所谓的“种族优生”的举措，使得德国的纳粹分子得出了令人瞠目结舌的结论。
The Nazi eugenics campaign systematically killed millions of Jews, as well as individuals from other groups, including Roma, gay men, and people with disabilities.
纳粹优生学运动系统性地杀害了数百万犹太人，以及包括罗姆人、男同性恋和残障人士在内的其他群体的人。
Outside their extreme brutality, however, Nazi eugenic policies reflected similar standards across the globe.
且不论其残暴程度，纳粹优生政策其实是当时全球优生标准的缩影。
Throughout the mid-20th century, many countries enacted eugenics policies, and governments in Sweden, Canada, and Japan forcibly sterilized thousands of individuals.
整个20世纪中期，很多国家实行优生政策，瑞士、加拿大、日本三国政府强行对数千人进行了绝育。
Sterilization was exceptionally common in the US.
绝育在美国尤为普遍。
From 1907 to 1979, US policies enforced the sterilization of over 60,000 people,
从1907年至1979年间，在政策要求下，超过6万人被强制绝育，
with 32 states passing laws that mandated sterilization for men and women deemed "mentally defective."
当时32个州通过了对“有心理缺陷”的男女进行强制绝育的法案。
This label was typically applied based on superficial mental health diagnoses and the results of IQ tests,
只进行简单的心理健康诊断和智商测验，就依据结果给人贴上这样的标签，
which were linguistically and culturally biased against most immigrant populations.
而这些测试往往展现出对大多数移民语言或文化上的偏见。
These racist standards were particularly problematic in California.
在加州，这些种族歧视性的标准问题尤为突出。
From 1920 to 1945, Latina women were 59% more likely to be sterilized than other women.
1920年至1945年，拉丁裔的女性比其他女性接受绝育手术的概率要高出69%。
And the rate of sterilizations in California was incredibly high -- this single state performed over one third of the country's sterilization operations.
加州的绝育率非常之高--仅仅在加州进行的绝育手术就超过了全国绝育手术总数的三分之一。
Such was the case of Andrea Garcia, whose story reflects thousands of individuals with similar fates.
这就是安德莉亚·加西亚的故事，她的故事是成千上万个个体的缩影。
With the help of famed civil rights lawyer David Marcus,
在知名民权律师大卫·马库斯的帮助下，
Andrea's mother argued that California's sterilization law violated the US Constitution, depriving Andrea of her rights to equal protection under the law.
安德莉亚的母亲诉称加州的绝育法案违反了美国宪法，剥夺了宪法保障的安德莉亚受法律平等保护的权利。
However, while one of the three judges overseeing the case voted to spare Andrea, the other two did not.
但是，负责该案的三位法官中只有一位赞成释放安德莉亚。
Records suggests it's possible Andrea escaped the impending surgery, but many more victims of these policies did not.
从当时的记录来看，安德莉亚很可能逃过了即将面临的手术，但其他受这些政策迫害的人就没有这么幸运了。
Although eugenics acquired negative connotations after the horrors of World War II, many of its practices, including sterilization, continued for decades.
尽管经历了二战的恐怖后，优生学被赋予消极内涵，但其推行的许多做法，如绝育手术，仍然持续了数十年。
By the late 1960s, research into human genetics was more nuanced, and bioethics had begun to blunt eugenics' influence.
20世纪60年代末，针对人类基因的研究发生了细微变化，生物伦理学开始削弱优生学的影响力。
Yet Sweden and the US continued to pursue involuntary sterilization well into the 70s.
而瑞典和美国仍然坚持强制绝育政策直至20世纪70年代。
Finally, class action lawsuits and protest marches in the US galvanized lawmakers, and California's sterilization laws were finally repealed in 1979.
最终，美国国内的集体诉讼和示威游行震惊了立法者，加州最终于1979年废止绝育法案。
Unfortunately today, the legal and illegal sterilization of many oppressed communities still continues around the globe.
不幸的是，对被压迫群体实施合法或非法绝育手术的现象，在当今世界依然存在。
