Helen Rodrigues Trias

 Hi Everyone!

Here is another woman who deserves to be known. This post is a bit long but the information vital.

 

Helen Rodriguez Trias 

July 7, 1929 – December 27, 2001) was an American pediatrician, educator and women's rights activist. She was the first Latina president of the American Public Health Association (APHA), a founding member of the Women's Caucus of the APHA, and a recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal. She is credited with helping to expand the range of public health services for women and children in minority and low-income populations around the world.  

This is a very short video and ends abruptly but some excellent information of what Helen accomplished. 

 

Rodríguez Trías's parents had been living in New York during the early 20th century. After Rodríguez Trías's birth in 1929 on July 9th, her family moved back to Puerto Rico. Her family returned to New York once again when she was ten years old, where she experienced racism and discrimination.  

Even though she showed great academic abilities, having good grades and being bi-lingual, she was placed in a class for children with learning disabilities. The NYC public school system in the 1930s has many stories of open and systemic racism.   It wasn't until she participated in a poem recital, her teacher realized how  intellectually gifted she was, and sent her to a class for gifted children. She later choose the medical career path because it "combined the things I loved the most, science and people." 

In 1948, she began her academic education at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan where she earned her BA degree. In 1957 she entered the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. She earned her medical degree in 1960, at the age of 31. While at University she joined the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party 

Her family didn't approve of her activism. 

 She returned to New York after her brother threatened to cut off her college expenses.

In 1949, returning to the University of Puerto Rico, she reinserted herself as a student activist on issues such as freedom of speech and Puerto Rican independence. 

She fought for women's rights.

From 1937 to 1960, one third of the population of mothers on the island of Puerto Rico were sterilized through manipulation and misinformation, while others became part of the first clinical trials for the first birth control pill after being misled to believe that the drug was already proven safe. The doctor who helped bring an end to these abuses, Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias. She was a pioneer for reproductive rights, and her work changed medical ethics across the globe.

After attending the conference, during her years in Puerto Rico, Rodríguez Trías became aware of U.S. sterilization campaigns located there.  During the 1960s and 1970s, many programs popped up around the United States, specifically targeting women of color (African Americans/Latinas) to perform non-consented sterilizations. This could happen as doctors would tie women's fallopian tubes postpartum without telling the patients what they had been doing. 
The United States was also using Puerto Rico as a laboratory for the development of birth control technology.  In 1970, she was a founding member of Committee to end Sterilization Abuse and in 1971 a founding member of the Women's Caucus of the American Public Health Association. 

 She supported abortion rights, fought for the abolishment of enforced sterilization, and sought neonatal care for under-served people. In 1979, she became a founding member of the Committee for Abortion Rights and against Sterilization Abuse and testified before the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for passage of federal sterilization guidelines. She describes events at a 1974 Boston conference:  

"We had a panel on sterilization abuse, which had to do with disrespect for women's needs, wishes, and hopes. We brought up the Relf suit, brought on behalf of 2 Black, allegedly retarded girls, Minnie Lee Relf, age 12, and Mary Alice Relf, age 14, who had been sterilized without their knowledge or consent in a federally funded program in Montgomery, Alabama."

Please watch this it's only 2 minutes

 The guidelines, which she drafted, required a woman's written consent to sterilization in a language they could understand and set a waiting period between the consent and the sterilization procedure. She is credited with helping to expand the range of public health services for women and children in minority and low-income populations in the United States, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

In the 1980s, Rodríguez Trías served as medical director of the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. She worked on behalf of women from minority groups who were infected with HIV. In the 1990s, she served as health co-director of the Pacific Institute for Women's Health, a nonprofit research and advocacy group dedicated to improving women's well-being worldwide and focused on reproduction. She was a founding member of both the Women's Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the first Latina to serve as the president of the APHA 

On January 8, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Rodríguez Trías with the Presidential Citizen's Medal, the second-highest civilian award in the United States, for her work on behalf of women, children, people with HIV and AIDS, and poor people.

Rodriguez Trias died later that year, on December 27 due to lung cancer.

 

According to AMA Education hub

 Reports, research, and legal analyses indicate that involuntary or coerced sterilization still occurs in the United States, with evidence appearing into 2025 and 2026. While the mass eugenics programs of the early 20th century have ended, forced sterilization today persists primarily through legal loopholes, guardianship laws, and coercive practices targeting disabled individuals, people of color, and those in immigration detention or prisons

.  

Legal Standing. According to research from the National Women's Law Center, 31 states and Washington, D.C., have laws that allow for the sterilization of people with disabilities against their will, often when they are under guardianship. 

Disabled Individuals and Minors: Courts can and do grant petitions from guardians to sterilize people with disabilities, including children, on the grounds that it is for their own benefit. 

Detention and Prison Settings: Reports continue to surface regarding pressure on incarcerated women to undergo sterilization. A notable case in 2020 involved allegations of coerced hysterectomies on immigrant women at a Georgia ICE detention center. While a June 2024 court ruling found there were no "mass hysterectomies" at that specific facility, concerns regarding coercion persist. 

Investigation in New Mexico (2026): In February 2026, New Mexico lawmakers approved measures to investigate the history and ongoing impact of forced sterilization of Indigenous women and women of color by the Indian Health Service and other providers, acknowledging that these practices have left a lasting impact on reproductive health choices. 

Coercion in Medical Settings: Studies have shown that people with chronic conditions, such as sickle cell disease, have reported feeling pushed toward sterilization by doctors without being provided with full information, a pattern affecting women of color in particular. 

There is no federal law banning forced sterilization, leaving regulation to the states and creating legal gray areas in many jurisdictions.  

 

The fight for women's rights is never ending. Now, with the "thing" and his SCOTUS the fight is even more imperative.  

Nicole 

sited; LiberalCurrents, Wikipedia photos from google. Source NM 

Syracuse University Law Review  

 

Spring Cleanig and getting old

 Hi Everyone!

Just a few short years ago I was able to deep clean my entire house in 2 days. The downstairs one day the upstairs the next. OMG! I hate being old. I now have to do one room a day. I started with the bathroom then today got most of the kitchen done. I just need to do a bit of painting. We will see how I feel tomorrow,

if I can do another room or not. 

 

She looks a bit manic. 

Mr M. tells me, quite often, I can't hear. I always have to have him turn up the TV and he does repeat himself to me. So, I have a hearing test in April. Ohhh, can't wait. The last time I had a hearing test was in 2012 and I was told I had the hearing of a youngster. Another thing about getting old. 

So, do I really want to see this guy with two arms and hands on the same side???? EEEKKKK. 

Well that's enough of my bitching about being old.

The nice things about being old........ Well when I think of something I will let you know. 😁 

Have a nice Tuesday.

Nicole 

 

 

Monster Monday

Welcome to

 

 

Before I get into monsters I wanted to share this totally fantastic walker. I want this even though I don't need a walker. LOL

 

Now for some monster

 

 

For those who like the pretties. 

 

That's it for me. Wishing all of you a happy Monday and a great week 

 

Nicole 

Sunday in the Art Room

 Welcome To

SITAR is about ANYTHING art. Your art, someone else's art, writing, photography, the art of cooking, the art of sewing and textiles. Sharing historical art, street art, a story about art. Do you have a question or need help with art? Write a blog post and link it up here. We will all try to help with it. My only rule is that if someone asks for critique it must be done with generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of learning, encouragement and inspiration.

Most of you know, along with monster, I really love surrealism art. Today I want to share with you a woman who broke barriers in the US art world.

Gertrude Abercrombie
(1909–1977)

 Gertrude Abercrombie was an American painter renowned for her contributions to the Surrealist movement in the United States. Her work, characterized by its dreamlike landscapes, enigmatic figures, and autobiographical elements, distinguished her as a prominent voice in a predominantly male-dominated art world. As a woman artist operating within the mid-20th century, Abercrombie's success and recognition were not only a testament to her exceptional talent but also an act of defiance against the gender norms of her time. Her influence extended beyond the canvas, as she became a central figure in the Chicago art scene, nurturing a community of artists, musicians, and writers. Abercrombie's legacy as an innovator within Surrealism and her role in paving the way for future generations of women artists underscore her impact on the art world.

 Gertrude Abercrombie lived and worked in Chicago and was a prominent member of Chicago's Hyde Park arts community. 

 Abercrombie was known for surrealist oil paintings featuring dreamlike landscapes and fantasies. Her wide circle of friends included locally and nationally known artists, writers, and jazz musicians who made her home a popular avant-garde salon. She was the inspiration for Richie Powell's "Gertrude's Bounce" and, appeared as a fictional character in Malcolm, Eustace Chisholm, and as herself in Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue all by James Purdy.

The only child of Tom and Lula Janes [Jane] Abercrombie, Gertrude was born in Austin, Texas in 1909, while her opera singer parents were in town with a traveling company. In 1913, the family relocated to Berlin to further Jane's career, but the outbreak of World War I forced their return to the United States. They lived with Tom Abercrombie's family in Alledo, Illinois, before permanently settling in Chicago.

Gertrude Abercrombie had a facility with language and possessed musical and artistic talents. After graduation from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a degree in romance languages in 1929, she studied figure drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a short time. She then enrolled at the American Arcademy of Art, also in Chicago, for a year long course in commercial art. Her first job was drawing gloves for Mesirow Department Store ads, followed by a stint working as an artist for Sears. 

By 1932, Gertrude began painting seriously. The following summer, she participated in an outdoor art fair in downtown Chicago where she made her first sale and received favorable mention in a newspaper review of the event. Abercrombie's work that featured self-portraits 

Self portrait 1935

 and recurring images of personal symbols - trees, horses, owls, keys, shells, doors, stairways, ladders - began to attract attention. Beginning in 1934,  Abercrombie was employment as a painter in the WPA Federal Art Project in 1934, enabling her to feel validated as an artist and move from the home of her conservative, Christian Scientist parents to her own apartment. The Chicago Society of Artists presented a solo exhibition of Abercrombie's work in 1934, and in 1936 she showed at the Katharine Kuh Gallery (along with Rita Stein and Nicola Ziroli). In 1936 and 1938  Abercrombie won prizes at the Art Institute of Chicago's Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity.  

She left the WPA in 1940 and married lawyer Robert Livingston. Their daughter, Dinah, was born in 1942, and they soon moved to a large Victorian house on South Dorchester St. where Gertude lived for the remainder of her life. The couple divorced in 1948. That same year she married Frank Sandiford, a music critic whose pen name was Paul Warren. An accomplished improvisational pianist, Gertrude Abercrombie became friends with many prominent jazz artists whom she met through Sandiford; in fact, Dizzy Gillespie performed at their wedding. Abercrombie and Sandiford separated in 1964.

The 1940s through 1950s were Gertrude Abercrombie's most productive and prolific period. Although she no longer painted many portraits, he work remained focused on the same themes and symbols. She believed that art was about ideas rather than technique and insisted that "It is always myself that I paint." During this period, Amercrombie exhibited widely in group shows and had solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Associated American Artists (New York), and Leonard Linn, Inc. (Winnetka, Ill.)

By the late 1950s, Gertrude Abercrombie began a long decline. Alcoholism started to take a toll. She suffered serious financial reverses, and in 1964 separated from Frank Sandiford. Debilitating arthritis eventually landed her in a wheel chair, and she became reclusive. In 1977, very near the end of her life, Gertrude Abercrombie was honored with a well-received retrospective exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago. She was able to attend the reception and enjoy seeing the many old friends who were at the event.

Gertrude Abercrombie died in Chicago in 1977. Her will established The Gertrude Abercrombie Trust that cared for and distributed to various institutions her own paintings and a personal collection of works by other artists to selected institutions, mainly in the Midwest. 

 

With all of  Abercrombie's accomplishments in art her life was also marred by inner turmoil, including loneliness and struggles with alcoholism. Her paintings, with their symbols, hint at the rich inner world of her dreams and personal meanings. “Surrealism is meant for me because I am a pretty realistic person but I don't like all I see.

I think some surreal artists do experience, loneliness, depression, and inner disturbance. It shows in their art and is a way to release the negative. 

There is a book.  

I think I'm going to order it. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about

Gertrude Abercrombie.

sited; Natural Pigments, Art Institute Chicago, Monk Mink Pink Punk,

Smithsonian,  Some photos from google.

 

That's it for now. I look forward to seeing you in Sunday in the Art Room.

Nicole    

Second Time Around. Margret Chung

 Hi Everyone!

OK, my frustration has ended and I'm trying this again.

I saw a poster of this woman in my ophthalmologists office and had to look her up.

Margret Chung MD.

Margaret Chung in 1909, posing in an automobile. Her love of sports cars would later become common knowledge around San Francisco.  (Shades of L.A. Archives, Los Angeles Public Library)

 

Margaret Chung spent her entire life defying stereotypes. She defied them when she became the first American-born Chinese woman to become a doctor. She defied them when she opened the first Western clinic in San Francisco’s Chinatown. And she subverted them in her personal life—whether she was donning masculine clothes, or taking care of countless “military sons.” Chung knew exactly what she was doing—she often made fun of stereotypes with her particular brand of humor. Stereotype bucking was a lifelong pursuit for Chung and it also made her enormously popular.

Margaret Jessie Chung was born in Santa Barbara in 1889, the oldest of 11 children. Her mother, Ah Yane, had been trafficked from China to San Francisco at the age of five and rescued by the Presbyterian Mission House in Chinatown six years later. Chung’s father, Chung Wong, was a merchant who suffered repeated business failures. Her childhood was spent bouncing around Southern California towns, as her family tried—and failed—to claw their way out of poverty.

At 12, Chung started working herself, slogging her way through long, grueling shifts at a restaurant, after school. Her strong work ethic was evident from the beginning, but being grossly underpaid imbued her with a fiery ambition. Chung even battled her way into a private, prestigious high school by winning a competition to sell the most Los Angeles Times subscriptions. (The paper then paid her school fees.)

After that, Chung went on to attend medical school at USC. One of only two women in her class during most of her time there, she told the Los Angeles Evening Post Record in 1914, “As the only Chinese girl in the USC Medical School, I am compelled to be different.”  That was the period she first began wearing men’s suits—sometimes even referring to herself as  "Mike." She was also responsible for founding the first medical sorority at the university. There were four fraternities when she arrived, but nothing for the female med students.

Margaret Chung (front row, center) with her USC classmates, sophomore year, 1915. (University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC University Archives.)

 

Throughout her schooling, Chung’s ultimate goal had been to become a Presbyterian missionary. She admired the women who’d rescued her mother from a life of servitude, but wanted to incorporate her medical training into the job to be of even greater service. But after graduation, at the age of 26, Chung’s plans were foiled by racist policy. Her three applications to become a medical missionary were turned down purely because she was of Chinese descent. Between 1875 and 1920, all Presbyterian missionaries were white. Chung was so devastated that she abandoned the church altogether. 

My note; good for her. 

To make matters more frustrating, Chung also struggled to get a hospital internship because of her gender, so she initially went to work as a surgical nurse in Chicago. It was there that she found the Mary Thompson Hospital, an institution specializing in the care of female patients by female doctors. 

This is the hospital in 1922 

After three years interning there, she moved onto Los Angeles’ Santa Fe Railroad hospital in 1916, where she became an accomplished surgeon. Chung was so popular there, one of her colleagues once suggested that “some of the men were deliberately getting hurt so that Dr. Chung could take care of them.”

Margret Chung

This was particularly remarkable given that in 1917, Chung’s father, his leg severed in a car crash, was refused admittance by a local hospital on account of his being Chinese. He died from the blood loss, unable to acquire medical assistance.

Looking back in 1939 about her time at Santa Fe Railroad, Chung told the Los Angeles Times: “I think that the [male patients] were so anxious to see what made the wheels go ’round in a woman doctor, much less a Chinese one, that they didn’t feel anything but curiosity for the first few days.”

Chung’s move to San Francisco came in 1921. She was invited to accompany two of her Hollywood patients there on vacation, and found herself immediately smitten with the city. She also saw great opportunity. “There were no Chinese doctors practicing American medicine and surgery in Chinatown,” she noted later, " I thought I saw a great future here.” She opened her office on Sacramento Street, a short walk from where her mother grew up in the Presbyterian Mission House.

Chung struggled to get her office off the ground until fate stepped in. After saving the life of a local businesswoman, Chung found herself overrun with new patients—mostly Chinese women for whom the businesswoman had translated at prior doctor’s appointments. Chung also benefited from the fact that many of these women had been uncomfortable getting physically examined by a male doctor. Soon, because of her office’s proximity to the Hall of Justice, she also had a large clientele of white male police officers.

 Once Chung’s practice was successful, she began the business of transforming healthcare in Chinatown. She volunteered at a local school, teaching and giving free wellness checks to the 178 children there. Then, in 1925, she co-founded the Chinese Hospital and helmed the Gynecology, Obstetrics and Pediatrics unit there. She also participated in women’s organizations, including the San Francisco Medical Women’s Club and the San Francisco Women’s City Club.

As Chung became a well-known local figure, scandalous rumors spread about her sexuality and loose morals—she was known to date both women and men, and many of them were white. While this prompted some of her more old-fashioned patients to abandon her care, her reputation attracted lesbian couples who could not be open about their relationship status at other medical offices.

  In addition, her reputation as a thoroughly modern woman—she drank in speakeasys and was often seen zipping around the city in smart suits and flashy sports cars—also attracted women seeking birth control, sterilizations and abortions. While Chung did not perform the latter, she offered referrals to trustworthy doctors who did.

 “Around Dr. Margaret Chung has clustered the glamour and romance of both east and west,” an issue of The Californian noted in 1934. “Still well under middle age, this quiet voiced, attractive woman has achieved national fame as a physician and surgeon.” The article also noted that “every inch of wall space” in her consultation room was covered by signed photos of her most famous patients. They included Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.

It was a chance encounter, however, that would most raise Chung’s public profile. In 1931, after Japan invaded Northeast China and bombed Shanghai, a member of the U.S. Navy Reserves, Steven G. Bancroft, approached Chung to see if she knew a way for him to join the Chinese military. She didn’t. But, taking a shine to Bancroft, she invited him and six friends, all pilots, over for dinner. Chung hit it off to such a degree with the men that they were soon all eating, camping and hunting together on a regular basis.

One night, joking with Chung, one of the pilots said, “You’re as understanding as a mother … but hell, you’re an old maid and you haven’t got a father for us.”

Chung replied, “Well, that makes you a lot of fair-haired bastards, doesn’t it?” It was a moniker that stuck. And as word spread about “Mom Chung” and the “Fair-Haired Bastards,” the group became a sort of social club that many other military men quickly joined.

By 1937, Chung had over 500 “sons” serving in the RAF, Army, Navy and Marines. By the end of World War II, there were over 1,500—those of which who served on the sea, she nicknamed “Golden Dolphins.” She lived vicariously through the servicemen, and provided maternal love and support in return, often feeding and housing them before and after missions. She also gave each of them a small jade Buddha pendant, as a means to recognize one another while serving overseas. During the war, she sent care packages and daily letters to raise their spirits. Each Sunday, she held a huge dinner party for her “sons,” their guests, and a variety of celebrities, including John Wayne and Tennessee Williams. Up to 100 people attended each week and, at Thanksgiving, that number increased to 175. 

Chung’s figurative adoptions of so many servicemen attracted a lot of positive press attention, even spawning a story in the Real Heroes comic book series in 1943. All of which raised her profile enough to make huge strides in her charitable campaigns. She co-founded Rice Bowl Parties—fundraising festivals held in seven hundred cities, including San Francisco. These parties went on to raise $235,000—the equivalent of $3.5 million today—to send aid to China. During the war, she also helped create the Women’s Naval Reserve, co-founded the San Francisco downtown Disaster Station, volunteered on its medical staff, and was an active member the Red Cross. In 1942, one newspaper, the Gustine Standard, called her “San Francisco’s Number One United States citizen.”

A 1943 comic book, ‘Real Heroes,’ featured a story about “Mom Chung and her 509 Fair-Haired Foster Sons.” (Parents' Magazine Institute)

At the end of the war, Chung became the first American woman to receive the People’s Award of China. She also received a citation, signed by President Truman, from the Red Cross for “meritorious personal service performed in behalf of the nation.” She continued to look after her “sons” as they adjusted back to civilian life and even personally secured jobs for 20 of them. Her door remained open to them all until her death in 1959, aged 69, from ovarian cancer. Mayor George Christopher was one of her pallbearers.
After her death, one of her “Fair-Haired Bastards” paid tribute to her in his diary. “God bless and rest her very beautiful soul,” Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood wrote. “There will never be another Mom Chung. 

 

Sited; KQED PBS,  EN Wikipedia, Photos via google

 This post just touches the tip of Margret, "Mom" Chung's life. 

I hope you enjoyed this.

Nicole