1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:08,400 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi. Everyone, Welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: where we uncover the remnants of history every day. Today 4 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:24,919 Speaker 1: is May second, nineteen. The day was May second, eighteen 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: eighty two. Puerto Rican activists Isabel Gonzalez was born in 6 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 1: San Juan, Puerto Rico, to her parents, Several Gonzalez and 7 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,960 Speaker 1: Antonia da Villa. When she traveled to the US in 8 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: nineteen o two, new immigration laws affected the status of 9 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans, and she became a so called alien. Isabel's 10 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,559 Speaker 1: subsequent challenges of U s immigration laws and advocacy for 11 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: the rights of Puerto Ricans contributed to Puerto Ricans gaining 12 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: US citizenship in nineteen seventeen. Her nineteen oh three SO 13 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: Preme Court case, Gonzales versus Williams, was a move towards 14 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:08,360 Speaker 1: the US addressing the citizenship status of people in territories 15 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,319 Speaker 1: the US acquired in the late eighteen hundreds, but the 16 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: issue was still not settled. At the time of Isabel's birth, 17 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:21,000 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony, but under the Treaty 18 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: of Paris of eighteen ninety eight, Puerto Rico was annexed 19 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 1: by the United States. It became an unincorporated territory, which 20 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: meant that it was controlled by the U. S government, 21 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 1: but it was not part of the U S. The 22 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:40,320 Speaker 1: Foraker Act, enacted in nineteen hundred, replaced the military regime 23 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:44,040 Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico with the civilian government. It also invented 24 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: a Puerto Rican citizenship for island born Perto Rican inhabitants 25 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 1: and required them to renounce their allegiance to the US 26 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 1: in order to get US citizenship. That contradictory requirement meant 27 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: that Puerto Ricans were effectively barred from getting U S citizenship. 28 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: On the other hand, Spanish born Puerto Rican inhabitants were 29 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 1: able to keep their Spanish citizenship or acquire Puerto Rican 30 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:16,359 Speaker 1: or U S citizenship. Racial and social prejudices largely contributed 31 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:20,680 Speaker 1: to Americans unwillingness to give Puerto Rican's U S citizenship. 32 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,239 Speaker 1: Not much is known about Isabel's life before she left 33 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. It is known that she had a child 34 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 1: with her first husband, who died, and when she was 35 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: twenty years old, she became pregnant with her second child. 36 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: One Francisco Torres was the child's father and Isabel's fiance. 37 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: He was a Native Islander, but he moved to New 38 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: York for work before he knew Isabel was pregnant. Isabel 39 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: planned to join Torres in New York so they could 40 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: marry and find a place to stay. So in nineteen 41 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: o two, Isabel worded a steamship to leave Sam Jane 42 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 1: and head to New York. But while she was on 43 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: the S S Philadelphia, the U S. Treasury Departments Immigration 44 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:13,720 Speaker 1: Commissioner General FP Sergeant changed U S immigration policy. Puerto 45 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: Ricans became classified as aliens. When Isabel arrived in New 46 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:22,080 Speaker 1: York on August four, she was sent to Ellis Island 47 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: in New York Harbor, where an immigration station was located. 48 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:30,959 Speaker 1: Their immigration officials detained her as a quote alien immigrant 49 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:35,760 Speaker 1: with the intention of deporting her. At Ellis Island, policy 50 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 1: was to detain unmarried pregnant women for further investigation and 51 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,720 Speaker 1: bar them from entering the mainland unless they were claimed 52 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: by a family member. Since Isabel was unmarried and she 53 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: was pregnant, she was deemed quote likely to be a 54 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: public charge. The next day, Isabel's uncle, Domingo Cojazo and 55 00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 1: her brother Luis Gonzalez showed up for her hearing, they 56 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: attempted to prove that she could be financially responsible and 57 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: that she was not coming to the US for a 58 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: moral reason, but those attempts did not work. Not to 59 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 1: mention her fiance could not be in attendant due to work, 60 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: Isabel was not allowed to leave. Cojaso issued a habeas 61 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,279 Speaker 1: corpus petition for Isabel, and in circuit court, the judge 62 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: ruled that Isabel could not enter the mainland. Courts continued 63 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: to deny her entry to the mainland US, so Gonzalez 64 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,480 Speaker 1: eventually appealed her case to the Supreme Court, arguing that 65 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: all Puerto Ricans were US citizens and should not be 66 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:44,800 Speaker 1: treated as aliens. Fun In fact, US officials misspelled Isabel's 67 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: name in the case title, calling her Isabella Gonzalez, with 68 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:50,720 Speaker 1: the last letter being an S rather than a Z. 69 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:56,280 Speaker 1: Versus William Williams. Anyway, Gonzalez Versus. Williams was argued in 70 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: the Supreme Court on December four and seventh of ninet 71 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 1: oh three. While Isabel was out on bond, she got married, 72 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: thus becoming a citizen through marriage, but she kept this 73 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,480 Speaker 1: a secret as it would have ended her court case 74 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: and allowed her to remain in New York. On January four, 75 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 1: nineteen o four, the Court decided that the Treaty of 76 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: Paris and the Immigration Act of eighteen ninety one prevented 77 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:25,359 Speaker 1: inhabitants of U S territories from being treated as aliens, 78 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:31,160 Speaker 1: but native Puerto Ricans were not US citizens either. Instead, 79 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans were considered non citizen nationals or people who 80 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:39,640 Speaker 1: are neither so called aliens nor citizens. That meant that 81 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: they did not have the same rights and benefits as 82 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: full citizens of the United States. But the Supreme Court 83 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: did not rule on the constitutionality of the Puerto Rican 84 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: citizenship or on the naturalization of Puerto Ricans. Gonzalez versus 85 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: Williams mainly addressed Puerto Rican's ability to migrate or move 86 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: between the eye land and mainland and throughout the mainland. 87 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 1: Isabel proceeded to write letters to the New York Times 88 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: denouncing the results of the case and US treatment of 89 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:13,360 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans. She wrote the following in a letter to 90 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 1: the newspaper on Steptember one, nineteen o five. Puerto Rico's 91 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 1: organic laws are clogged with different states codes and posed 92 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,160 Speaker 1: on her by the American rulers who have carried to 93 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:29,000 Speaker 1: the island the system of laws corresponding to the places 94 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: from which they held and for which they felt most inclined. 95 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 1: Isabel's case is thought to have influenced the influx of 96 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,719 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans that moved to the mainland US from nineteen 97 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:45,120 Speaker 1: o eight to nineteen sixteen, and in March of nineteen seventeen, 98 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 1: the Jones Shaffross Act was signed, extending US citizenship to 99 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,360 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans. A nationalist movement sprang up in Puerto Rico 100 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties opposing US assimilation, but in nineteen 101 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,920 Speaker 1: forty people in Puerto Rico gained birth fright US citizenship, 102 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: and by nineteen fifty two, the US approved of Puerto 103 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: Rican constitution that made Puerto Rico an autonomous US Commonwealth. 104 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: Isabel died on June eleventh, ninete. Today, the status of 105 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:23,080 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico and its inhabitants, and the United States treatment 106 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 1: of Puerto Ricans is still hotly debated. Issues like whether 107 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans should have the right to vote in presidential 108 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 1: elections and whether Puerto Rico should become a state have 109 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 1: become major points of contention and American national discussion. I'm 110 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,080 Speaker 1: Eves jeffco and hopefully you know a little more about 111 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. Get more Notes from 112 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:52,120 Speaker 1: History on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t d i 113 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:57,320 Speaker 1: HC podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and I 114 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: hope to see you again tomorrow for more tidbits of history. 115 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:07,679 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heeart Radio, visit the iHeart 116 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 117 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:10,880 Speaker 1: favorite shows.