Green Mountain Blues

Eugenics policies were “designed to break apart entire families and to basically get rid of them over several generations, whether that be segregating them in an institution, whether that be sterilizing them, whether that be inflicting so much trauma that the family no longer comes together,” de Guardiola told VTDigger last week, in conversation about her book Vermont for the Vermonters: The History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State. Published by the Vermont Historical Society, the book was originally written as part of de Guardiola’s undergraduate thesis. 

The history major, who lives in New York, is considered a leading expert on Vermont’s eugenics movement and testified before the state legislature ahead of its formal apology in 2021.