Virginia Espino

Virginia Espino is a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Chicano Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her PhD from Arizona State University, focusing on population control politics and reproductive injustice during the 1970s. Her research examines health activism, motherhood, and the uses of public space, with publications in the Chicano Studies Journal and Aztlan. Espino served as Producer and Lead Historian for the documentary film No Más Bebés, which investigated coercive sterilization at the Los Angeles-USC Medical Center. As a series leader for Latina and Latino History at UCLA’s Center for Oral History Research, she developed oral history projects documenting California’s Latina/o communities and contributed to public archives. Her work intersects with themes of reproductive justice, racial equity, and social movements in 20th-century U.S. history.