My annual physical is fast approaching. Honestly, I am afraid to go to the doctor, regardless of how critical routine check-ups are. 

But my fear of doctors is not for the same reasons that most Euro-Americans find it frightful. My fear is based on a history where “Do no harm” does not apply to me or my people.

To mitigate my fear, I usually begin my appointments by asking my physician to pretend I’m an Anglo-Saxon. Why? Because historically, Latines– and other communities of color– have not fared well at the hands of white doctors.  

Many are familiar with James Marion Sims, considered the father of gynecology. Sims operated on enslaved Black women without anesthesia under the assumption they didn’t feel pain to the same degree as white women.

Others may know about the infamous forty-year-long (1932–1972) Tuskegee research study conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) on 412 poor black sharecroppers in the late stages of syphilis. However, few are familiar with similar medical malpractice conducted on Latines, specifically Latinas and the constant and consistent effort to sterilize them.

The world’s first eugenics-based sterilization law occurred in Indiana in 1907. Soon, similar legislation was enacted in thirty-one other states. Approximately