Emily Aikens, Contributing Photographer

Teacher and anti-eugenics activist Stacy Cordova Diaz gave a talk at La Casa titled “The Long Shadow of Eugenics” on Nov. 8. Diaz is the great-niece of Mary Franco, who was forcibly sterilized in 1934 under California’s eugenics laws. 

Franco’s picture was projected throughout the event.

“I love to have her picture with me when I’m presenting because I feel like she is here in spirit,” Diaz said. “I just know she would be so proud to know that anti-eugenics advocacy has come so far and that people want to know about it.”

In her talk, Diaz explained the history of the forced sterilization movement, told her family’s story and described her advocacy efforts toward ending coerced sterilizations.

From 1909 to 1979, more than 20,000 patients in California state-run hospitals, prisons and institutions were forcibly sterilized. These sterilizations took place under California’s eugenics laws, which allowed the state to forcibly sterilize patients deemed “feeble-minded” or “unfit.” Although the laws were repealed in 1979, forced and coerced sterilizations continued to take place in prisons and correctional facilities. 

In March 2023, the California state government announced that it would allocate $7.8 million to compensate victims and raise awareness about the forced sterilization movement. 

Diaz first found out about forced sterilization when she interviewed Franco for a class assignment at Marymount University. Diaz said that, during this interview, she learned that Franco was molested at age 13 and then institutionalized by the state after being labeled a “sexual deviant.”

“I was floored by what I had heard. I couldn’t believe this happened to a family member,” Diaz said. “At the time, I didn’t know the history. I just thought this was a shameful family secret that was revealed to me.” 

It was not until 2017, after Franco’s death, that Diaz learned that her aunt’s case wasn’t an anomaly. 

While driving on the highway, she heard a radio broadcast about the forced sterilization movement and realized that her aunt was a victim of a much larger tragedy. 

“I was blown away,” Diaz said. “I had to get off the freeway and pull over.”

After listening to the radio show, Diaz reached out to Alexandra Stern, the author of “Eugenic Nation,” and worked with her team of researchers to learn more about Franco’s story. 

Diaz is still working to uncover information about the forced sterilization movement, she said. During her talk, she explained that she visited the Yale Archive to review manuscripts by Robert Yerkes, a prominent 20th-century psychologist and eugenicist. 

Although many individuals, including her family members, asked her why she would want to engage with such unsettling records, Diaz commented on the importance of confronting history. 

“I want to touch them because [Yerkes] wouldn’t want me to touch them,” said Diaz. “I have the beauty of touching these papers and sharing how horrible they are.”

Students at Yale are also working to confront the history of eugenics, particularly as it pertains to the University. 

In her introduction, one of the event’s student organizers, Amelia Winn ’25, explained why Diaz’s talk is relevant to the Yale community.

“Eugenics as we know it was founded here at Yale,” she said. “Talks like these are important for how we will reckon with the afterlives of eugenics and decide whether we will be complicit or not in this system.”

The American Eugenics Society was founded at Yale in 1926. Although the Society has not been active at Yale since 1938, the Anti-Eugenics Collective’s website notes that “this history is integral to the story of the University.”

Other student organizers included Tara Bhat ’25, Mia Velez ’25, Jocelyn Perez ’25 and Yakeleen Almazan ’25. 

When asked why she worked to organize the talk, Almazan emphasized the importance of creating awareness about Yale’s historical ties to the eugenics movement. 

“Given many students and Yale community members are not aware of this heinous past, talks such as Cordova Diaz’s shine light onto those realities,” she told the News. 

Daniel HoSang, professor of American Studies and of Ethnicity, Race and Migration, was the event’s primary organizer. He currently serves as the faculty advisor and founder of the Anti-Eugenics Collective at Yale, an organization that informs the public about Yale’s historical ties to the eugenics movement.

HoSang attended the talk and stayed afterward to converse with students and other audience members. 

“In the 1920s, a Yale faculty member leading a new institute associated with eugenics declared that the project would ‘make New Haven and the surrounding territory its major laboratory.’ These unequal relations between campus and community continue to be worth our attention today,” HoSang told the News. 

The Anti-Eugenics Collective is currently working with local public school teachers, medical students and Yale undergraduates to “explore the enduring impact of eugenics logics and policies in many institutions and academic disciplines,” according to HoSang. 

Diaz also spoke on how her eugenics research has informed her work as a special ed teacher. Although she has used IQ tests in her classroom, she said that her research into the forced sterilization movement helped her discover the tests’ roots in eugenics. 

According to Diaz, the tests were often used to determine the “mental fitness” of women in state institutions and used as a rationale for sterilizing “unfit” women.

“I’m not saying that IQ tests don’t have their place in Special Ed, but I feel teachers are cheated by not knowing the history of these tests,” Diaz said. “I’m an advocate for teaching teachers the history of what we are doing because, if we don’t know the history, we are bound to repeat it.”

Diaz ended the talk by encouraging the audience to conduct independent research into the forced sterilization movement. 

Although she does not have a release date yet, Diaz is currently working on a book that will tell Mary Franco’s story and describe Diaz’s own experience as a teenage mother.