ABSTRACT
“Se me acabo la cancion“ is a phrase which was repeated quite frequently by one of ten Mexican women who were sterilized without their consent between 1971 and 1974 in Los Angeles, California. The analysis of the social, cultural, and psychological effects of the forced termination of this melody is the focus of the ethnography of this work, but it is not the totality. Within the confines of the Medical Center relatively defenseless Mexican women were selected out for differential negative treatment and hostility exemplified by nonconsenting sterilizations. The “ideology of cultural differences” then is used as the very basis for an unjust and detrimental decision against a group of largely defenseless Mexican women. After all, how could the doctors have been aware that the sterilizations would have such an effect on Mexican women since the hospital in which these operations were carried out is in the middle of the largest Mexican barrio outside Mexico City.
