Isabel González born - May 2, 1882

On this day in 1882, Puerto Rican activist Isabel González was born. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi. Everyone, Welcome to This Day in History Class,
where we uncover the remnants of history every day. Today
is May second, nineteen. The day was May second, eighteen

(00:25):
eighty two. Puerto Rican activists Isabel Gonzalez was born in
San Juan, Puerto Rico, to her parents, Several Gonzalez and
Antonia da Villa. When she traveled to the US in
nineteen o two, new immigration laws affected the status of
Puerto Ricans, and she became a so called alien. Isabel's

(00:47):
subsequent challenges of U s immigration laws and advocacy for
the rights of Puerto Ricans contributed to Puerto Ricans gaining
US citizenship in nineteen seventeen. Her nineteen oh three SO
Preme Court case, Gonzales versus Williams, was a move towards
the US addressing the citizenship status of people in territories

(01:08):
the US acquired in the late eighteen hundreds, but the
issue was still not settled. At the time of Isabel's birth,
Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony, but under the Treaty
of Paris of eighteen ninety eight, Puerto Rico was annexed
by the United States. It became an unincorporated territory, which

(01:30):
meant that it was controlled by the U. S government,
but it was not part of the U S. The
Foraker Act, enacted in nineteen hundred, replaced the military regime
in Puerto Rico with the civilian government. It also invented
a Puerto Rican citizenship for island born Perto Rican inhabitants
and required them to renounce their allegiance to the US

(01:51):
in order to get US citizenship. That contradictory requirement meant
that Puerto Ricans were effectively barred from getting U S citizenship.
On the other hand, Spanish born Puerto Rican inhabitants were
able to keep their Spanish citizenship or acquire Puerto Rican
or U S citizenship. Racial and social prejudices largely contributed

(02:16):
to Americans unwillingness to give Puerto Rican's U S citizenship.
Not much is known about Isabel's life before she left
Puerto Rico. It is known that she had a child
with her first husband, who died, and when she was
twenty years old, she became pregnant with her second child.

(02:37):
One Francisco Torres was the child's father and Isabel's fiance.
He was a Native Islander, but he moved to New
York for work before he knew Isabel was pregnant. Isabel
planned to join Torres in New York so they could
marry and find a place to stay. So in nineteen
o two, Isabel worded a steamship to leave Sam Jane

(03:00):
and head to New York. But while she was on
the S S Philadelphia, the U S. Treasury Departments Immigration
Commissioner General FP Sergeant changed U S immigration policy. Puerto
Ricans became classified as aliens. When Isabel arrived in New
York on August four, she was sent to Ellis Island

(03:22):
in New York Harbor, where an immigration station was located.
Their immigration officials detained her as a quote alien immigrant
with the intention of deporting her. At Ellis Island, policy
was to detain unmarried pregnant women for further investigation and
bar them from entering the mainland unless they were claimed

(03:43):
by a family member. Since Isabel was unmarried and she
was pregnant, she was deemed quote likely to be a
public charge. The next day, Isabel's uncle, Domingo Cojazo and
her brother Luis Gonzalez showed up for her hearing, they
attempted to prove that she could be financially responsible and

(04:04):
that she was not coming to the US for a
moral reason, but those attempts did not work. Not to
mention her fiance could not be in attendant due to work,
Isabel was not allowed to leave. Cojaso issued a habeas
corpus petition for Isabel, and in circuit court, the judge
ruled that Isabel could not enter the mainland. Courts continued

(04:28):
to deny her entry to the mainland US, so Gonzalez
eventually appealed her case to the Supreme Court, arguing that
all Puerto Ricans were US citizens and should not be
treated as aliens. Fun In fact, US officials misspelled Isabel's
name in the case title, calling her Isabella Gonzalez, with
the last letter being an S rather than a Z.

(04:51):
Versus William Williams. Anyway, Gonzalez Versus. Williams was argued in
the Supreme Court on December four and seventh of ninet
oh three. While Isabel was out on bond, she got married,
thus becoming a citizen through marriage, but she kept this
a secret as it would have ended her court case
and allowed her to remain in New York. On January four,

(05:14):
nineteen o four, the Court decided that the Treaty of
Paris and the Immigration Act of eighteen ninety one prevented
inhabitants of U S territories from being treated as aliens,
but native Puerto Ricans were not US citizens either. Instead,
Puerto Ricans were considered non citizen nationals or people who

(05:35):
are neither so called aliens nor citizens. That meant that
they did not have the same rights and benefits as
full citizens of the United States. But the Supreme Court
did not rule on the constitutionality of the Puerto Rican
citizenship or on the naturalization of Puerto Ricans. Gonzalez versus
Williams mainly addressed Puerto Rican's ability to migrate or move

(05:59):
between the eye land and mainland and throughout the mainland.
Isabel proceeded to write letters to the New York Times
denouncing the results of the case and US treatment of
Puerto Ricans. She wrote the following in a letter to
the newspaper on Steptember one, nineteen o five. Puerto Rico's
organic laws are clogged with different states codes and posed

(06:22):
on her by the American rulers who have carried to
the island the system of laws corresponding to the places
from which they held and for which they felt most inclined.
Isabel's case is thought to have influenced the influx of
Puerto Ricans that moved to the mainland US from nineteen
o eight to nineteen sixteen, and in March of nineteen seventeen,

(06:45):
the Jones Shaffross Act was signed, extending US citizenship to
Puerto Ricans. A nationalist movement sprang up in Puerto Rico
in the nineteen thirties opposing US assimilation, but in nineteen
forty people in Puerto Rico gained birth fright US citizenship,
and by nineteen fifty two, the US approved of Puerto

(07:07):
Rican constitution that made Puerto Rico an autonomous US Commonwealth.
Isabel died on June eleventh, ninete. Today, the status of
Puerto Rico and its inhabitants, and the United States treatment
of Puerto Ricans is still hotly debated. Issues like whether

(07:27):
Puerto Ricans should have the right to vote in presidential
elections and whether Puerto Rico should become a state have
become major points of contention and American national discussion. I'm
Eves jeffco and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. Get more Notes from
History on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t d i

(07:52):
HC podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and I
hope to see you again tomorrow for more tidbits of history.
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