I will try to tell it

without remorse or

impassioned language

so you can hear it

deep in your heart forever.

                                         My aunt Florencia Marquez was twenty

                                         when she began working for an American

                                         company in Puerto Rico.

                                         The company was taking advantage of a

                                         cheap-wage, tax-free economic program

                                         called Operation Bootstrap created in the

                                         fifties to get Puerto Ricans back in the work-

                                         force after having their agricultural jobs

                                         eliminated by industry.

                                                                         My aunt Florencia Marquez

                                                                         had river-green eyes and

                                                                         mountain-brown skin.

Sometimes the women who worked

For the company would take maternity leaves

and the officials did not like this.

so Operation Bootstrap implemented an

island-wide sterilization program since

it was cheaper than day-care centers.

The women would go to the hospital,

give birth and have their fallopian tubes

tied in the process without their consent.

                                                               This was done to my aunt after

                                                              my cousin Anita was born and

                                                              after grieving for a while, my

                                                              aunt went back to work.

                                                              She eventually saved money,

                                                              moved to Chicago and got a better job.

My cousin Anita and I grew up

together on the city’s north side.

Around 1961 when Anita was sixteen,

she got pregnant and died from a coat-hanger

operation because abortions were illegal

at that time.

                   She had river-green eyes

                   and mountain-brown skin.

                                                             After grieving for a while

                                                             my aunt returned to Puerto Rico

                                                             where Anita was buried and went

                                                             back to work for the same company

                                                            that sterilized her years before.

My aunt Florencia Marquez

is an old woman now who enjoys

the island breezes from her

rocking chair on the veranda.

                                                           But if you place your ear

                                                           close to her chest,

                                                           you can hear the ocean

                                                            like a hollow seashell on the sand.

I have nothing more to say.