Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2: Not long ago, we talked about the Insular Cases, and
Speaker 2: I mentioned that there was one particular case that I
Speaker 2: wanted to spend more time on. I'd kind of done
Speaker 2: the thing where I was like, I wish this whole
Speaker 2: episode were about this one case that was Gonzalas versus Williams,
Speaker 2: which the US Supreme Court decided in nineteen oh four.
Speaker 2: So some scholars consider this to be one of the
Speaker 2: Insular cases.
Speaker 1: Others don't.
Speaker 2: There are just lots of different ways of grouping and
Speaker 2: looking at all those decisions. There were a couple of
Speaker 2: reasons why it really caught my attention while I was
Speaker 2: researching that earlier episode. One is that most of the
Speaker 2: Insular cases were about goods and tariffs, the first ones
Speaker 2: to be decided, or some times called the Insular tariff cases.
Speaker 2: That's how much the focus was on tariffs. This one, though,
Speaker 2: was not about goods. It was about a person and
Speaker 2: her family. And this was also the first time that
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court really looked at the question of Puerto
Speaker 2: Rican's citizenship status. Although as we were going to talk
Speaker 2: about they looked at the question, they didn't decide on
Speaker 2: an answer to it.
Speaker 1: So we're not going to go back over the entirety
Speaker 1: of the insular cases since our episode on those came
Speaker 1: out just a few weeks ago, but just for a
Speaker 1: brief refresher, this was a collection of US Supreme Court
Speaker 1: cases decided after the Spanish American War related to territory
Speaker 1: that the US had acquired in the Caribbean and the
Speaker 1: Pacific at the time. That included Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii,
Speaker 1: and part of the Samoan Archipelago.
Speaker 2: Prior to this, whenever the United States acquired new territory,
Speaker 2: it was just taken for granted that that territory would
Speaker 2: ultimately become one or more states. But these court decisions
Speaker 2: established the idea that, unlike all the other territory that
Speaker 2: the US had acquired before these islands were unincorporated, their
Speaker 2: status as a territory was not a temporary stop on
Speaker 2: the way to becoming a state. They could remain territories indefinitely.
Speaker 2: They belonged to the United States, but were not fully
Speaker 2: part of it, The Court described these territories as home
Speaker 2: to quote, alien races, and their citizens were not considered
Speaker 2: US citizens or entitled to all the same constitutional rights
Speaker 2: that US citizens were.
Speaker 1: The first batch of insular cases was decided in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh one, and the cases that followed continued to revise
Speaker 1: and clarify how the Court interpreted the status of these
Speaker 1: territories and the people who lived there. Gonzales versus Williams
Speaker 1: was decided in nineteen oh four and it involved the
Speaker 1: case of Isabelle Gonzalez, who had been born in Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico in eighteen eighty two. When Isabel was born, Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico was under Spanish control, and Spain made a distinction
Speaker 1: between peninsulares or people born on the Iberian Peninsula, and creolos,
Speaker 1: or people of Spanish descent born in its colonies. People
Speaker 1: born in Puerto Rico were considered Spanish subjects unless their
Speaker 1: father was a Spanish citizen, either born on the peninsula
Speaker 1: or nationalized.
Speaker 2: The Spanish American War took place when Isabel Gonzalez was
Speaker 2: about sixteen, and after the war ended, Spain seeded Puerto
Speaker 2: Rico to the United States. The US also gained control
Speaker 2: of Guam and the Philippines, and Cuba became an independent nation,
Speaker 2: although it was initially occupied by the United States. The
Speaker 2: Treaty of Peace between Spain and the US that formally
Speaker 2: ended this war was very careful in how it talked
Speaker 2: about the people who were living in what had been
Speaker 2: Spanish territory. Spanish subjects who were native to the peninsula
Speaker 2: and were living in the seeded territory were allowed to
Speaker 2: stay and retain all their property in business, and to
Speaker 2: retain their Spanish citizenship if they declared their intent to
Speaker 2: do so in court within a year, but quote the
Speaker 2: civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of
Speaker 2: the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be
Speaker 2: determined by the Congress. Congress didn't determine the civil rights
Speaker 2: and political status of the native inhabitants of those territories
Speaker 2: right away, though. In terms of Puerto Rico, President William
Speaker 2: McKinley signed the Forker Act or the Organic Act of
Speaker 2: nineteen hundred into law on April second of nineteen hundred.
Speaker 2: The Foriker Act came up in our episode on the
Speaker 2: Insular Cases because one of its provisions was a tariff
Speaker 2: on goods moving between Puerto Rico and the United States,
Speaker 2: so in that case, the Supreme Court was looking at
Speaker 2: the whether that tariff was constitutional. The Forker Act also
Speaker 2: set up a civilian government for Puerto Rico, and in
Speaker 2: section seven the Act read quote, all inhabitants continuing to
Speaker 2: reside therein who were Spanish subjects on the eleventh day
Speaker 2: of April eighteen hundred and ninety nine, and then resided
Speaker 2: in Puerto Rico, and their children born subsequent there too,
Speaker 2: shall be deemed and held to be citizens of Puerto Rico,
Speaker 2: and as such entitled to the protection of the United States.
Speaker 2: Accept such as shall have elected to preserve their allegiance
Speaker 2: to the Crown of Spain on or before the eleventh
Speaker 2: day of April nineteen hundred, in accordance with the provisions
Speaker 2: of the Treaty of Peace between the United States and
Speaker 2: Spain entered into on the eleventh day of April eighteen
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety nine, And they, together with such citizens
Speaker 2: of the United States as may reside in Puerto Rico,
Speaker 2: shall constitute a body politic under the name of the
Speaker 2: People of Puerto Rico, with governmental powers as hereafter conferred,
Speaker 2: and with power to sue and be sued as such.
Speaker 2: In other words, when the Four Car Act went into effect,
Speaker 2: Isabelle Gonzalez was legally a citizen of Puerto Rico, but
Speaker 2: the law didn't actually say that citizens of Puerto Rico
Speaker 2: were also citizens of the United States, just that they
Speaker 2: were entitled to the protection of the United States. Like
Speaker 2: it didn't specifically say they weren't citizens either, there was
Speaker 2: a vagueness to this. In nineteen hundred, shortly before she
Speaker 2: turned eighteen, Isabelle Gonzalez married Jose Caballero. They had a
Speaker 2: daughter together, who they named Dolores. But then in nineteen
Speaker 2: oh two, Jose died of tuberculosis, and when he died,
Speaker 2: Isabel was pregnant with their second child. The sequence of
Speaker 2: events that followed is a little tricky to piece together
Speaker 2: because there's court testimony and personal documents and family lore
Speaker 2: that all contradict one another at some points, but it
Speaker 2: is clear that Isabel Gonzalez didn't think she was going
Speaker 2: to be able to support herself and her children by herself.
Speaker 2: Her mother was facing financial hardship as well. Isabel's brother
Speaker 2: Luis had already gone to New York to try to
Speaker 2: find better paying work so he could send money back
Speaker 2: to her. Either Isabel decided to join her brother in
Speaker 2: Staten Island with the hope of finding a better paying
Speaker 2: job there, or she was planning to marry a man
Speaker 2: named Adolfo Vignals, who had moved to New York ahead
Speaker 2: of her to find a job and a place to
Speaker 2: live before she arrived. Either way, Isabel left her daughter
Speaker 2: with her mother and sailed to New York in nineteen
Speaker 2: oh two, at the age of twenty. When she set sail,
Speaker 2: Puerto Ricans were generally being allowed to travel freely between
Speaker 2: Puerto Rico and the United States, but while she was
Speaker 2: on the way to New York, the US Treasury Department
Speaker 2: issued new guidelines for arriving Puerto Ricans, specifically that they
Speaker 2: were quote subject to the same examinations as are enforced
Speaker 2: against people from countries over which the United States claims
Speaker 2: no right of sovereignty, so the examinations being referenced there
Speaker 2: fell under the Immigration Act of eighteen ninety one. This
Speaker 2: law had established the office of Superintendent of Immigration, who
Speaker 2: was an officer of the Treasury Department. If you were thinking,
Speaker 2: why was the Treasury Department having anything to do with this.
Speaker 2: That's why this law required the commanding officers of arriving
Speaker 2: vessels to report the name, nationality, last residence, and destination
Speaker 2: of any quote aliens on board. The law empowered inspection
Speaker 2: officers to remove people from the ships for examination and
Speaker 2: to detain them, and it also made the Marine Hospital
Speaker 2: Service responsible for any medical examinations. This law stated that
Speaker 2: quote the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from
Speaker 2: admission into the United States in accordance with the existing
Speaker 2: acts regulating immigration, other than those concerning Chinese laborers.
Speaker 1: These terms are outdated. Heads up all idiots, insane persons,
Speaker 1: paupers or persons likely to become a public charge, persons
Speaker 1: suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease, persons
Speaker 1: who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous
Speaker 1: crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, and polygamists. The law
Speaker 1: also barred anyone whose passage had been paid for by
Speaker 1: someone else, with certain exceptions. The law specified that people
Speaker 1: attempting to enter the US unlawfully would ideally be sent
Speaker 1: back on the same ship that they had arrived on.
Speaker 2: As the Bell Gonzalez was refused entry into the United
Speaker 2: States because officials thought she was likely to become a
Speaker 2: public charge, and she was detained at Ellis Island. We
Speaker 2: will have more on that after a sponsor break. In
Speaker 2: addition to the new policies treating Puerto Ricans as aliens
Speaker 2: at port, when Isabel Gonzalez arrived in New York in
Speaker 2: August of nineteen oh two, the Port of New York
Speaker 2: had a newly appointed Commissioner of Immigration that was William Williams.
Speaker 2: Williams was aggressive about turning people away, and in his
Speaker 2: first year in office, he doubled the number of people
Speaker 2: who were excluded at Ellis Island. In particular, he was
Speaker 2: really focused on people he deemed likely to become a
Speaker 2: public charge. He ordered that anyone who was found to
Speaker 2: be traveling with less than ten dollars should face additional scrutiny.
Speaker 2: Women who were pregnant and unmarried faced additional scrutiny as well,
Speaker 2: and single women were allowed entry only if a family
Speaker 2: member came to the port to get them. A lot
Speaker 2: of accounts say that Isabel Gonzalez tried to avoid problems
Speaker 2: at port by making sure that she had eleven dollars
Speaker 2: with her and making arrangements ahead of time for her
Speaker 2: family to pick her up when she arrived. It is
Speaker 2: certainly possible that she did both of those things, but
Speaker 2: since Puerto Ricans weren't being treated as aliens at port
Speaker 2: when she left, it's not as clear that she made
Speaker 2: these arrangements because she was anticipating potential problems. Regardless, even
Speaker 2: if she did this, these steps were not enough to
Speaker 2: offset the fact that she was Puerto Rican, unmarried, and
Speaker 2: visibly pregnant, and she was detained when she arrived at
Speaker 2: Ellis Island on August fourth, nineteen oh two. Her case
Speaker 2: was sent to the Board of Special Inquiry, which held
Speaker 2: hearings for people whose immigration status was ambiguous or complicated
Speaker 2: in some way. The board usually held these hearings really quickly,
Speaker 2: but they were not public and most people didn't have
Speaker 2: any kind of opportunity for legal representation. Gonzalez's first hearing
Speaker 2: was the next day, and her uncle, Domingo Coyazzo and
Speaker 2: her brother Luis Gonzalez were both there. Coaso had married
Speaker 2: the Gonzalez aunt, Armina, and he had a long history
Speaker 2: as an activist prior to the Spanish American War. Puerto
Speaker 2: Ricans and Cubans had come together to advocate for greater
Speaker 2: autonomy from Spain, and Coyoso had been one of those activists,
Speaker 2: including working in Cuba as a publisher and organizer and
Speaker 2: joining the Cuban Revolutionary Party. After the Spanish American War,
Speaker 2: Cuba had become independent, and many Puerto Rican activists, like
Speaker 2: Cyazo had turned their focus toward advocating for Puerto Rican statehood,
Speaker 2: believing that was the best way to secure more political autonomy.
Speaker 2: Coyaso's work as an activist had also connected him to
Speaker 2: Afro Puerto Rican activist and collector Arturo Alfonso Schomberg. We
Speaker 2: covered him on the show in twenty twenty one. Gonzalez's
Speaker 2: hearing on August fifth was the first of several, and
Speaker 2: there were some patterns among all of them. US investigators
Speaker 2: based a lot of their questions and their conclusions on
Speaker 2: stereotypes and racist assumptions about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans.
Speaker 2: Like a lot of Americans saw Puerto Ricans as lazy
Speaker 2: and promiscuous, so there was a big focus on Gonzalez's
Speaker 2: marital status and whether or not she was capable of
Speaker 2: being a good mother. Also, a lot of focus on
Speaker 2: whether her male relatives could or would support her. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Gonzales and her family saw her attention at Ellis Island
Speaker 2: as an insult to her honor. Some of their statements
Speaker 2: that these hearings come across as trying to say whatever
Speaker 2: they thought would work to get her released and back
Speaker 2: with her family, even if they were stretching the truth
Speaker 2: a bit to do it. Another thing to note here
Speaker 2: is that Isabel gave birth less than two weeks after
Speaker 2: she was released, so it's also likely that her family
Speaker 2: so her pregnancy as a motivation to just get her
Speaker 2: out of detention as quickly as possible. In that first hearing,
Speaker 2: Gonzalez's uncle and brother focused on the reason she had
Speaker 2: been given for being detained, that she was likely to
Speaker 2: become a public charge. They explained that the father of
Speaker 2: her first child had died, and they described Adolpho Vignal's
Speaker 2: not as her fiance, but as her husband. They said
Speaker 2: he wasn't at this hearing because he had to work,
Speaker 2: so there's a reason for us not to be there,
Speaker 2: and also that he had a job. Koyazo said that
Speaker 2: he would take care of Gonzalez if for some reason
Speaker 2: Vinals could not Koyazo was a printer and made twenty
Speaker 2: five dollars a week, But the board didn't really seem
Speaker 2: to believe any of these arguments, and they really insisted
Speaker 2: that if Gonzalez was married, her husband should be the
Speaker 2: person to come for her. Two days later, Isabel's aunt
Speaker 2: Ermina testified before the board, once again saying that her husband, Domingoko,
Speaker 2: was making twenty five dollars a week and that they
Speaker 2: would make sure that Isabel was taken care of. This time,
Speaker 2: the board criticized Ermina for coming by herself. Ermina also
Speaker 2: had a job, but.
Speaker 1: The investigators didn't seem to care about her financial contributions
Speaker 1: to the household or how it could help make sure
Speaker 1: Isabel did not become a public charge. Then Isabel's brother
Speaker 1: Luis made another appearance before the board, and this time
Speaker 1: he tried to make an argument that was based on
Speaker 1: an established idea in Spanish law, but which American investigators
Speaker 1: did not find convincing at all. That's the idea of rapto,
Speaker 1: which could encompass both seduction and abandonment under the Spanish
Speaker 1: laws that had previously applied in Puerto Rico. If a
Speaker 1: man seduced a woman under the promise of marriage but
Speaker 1: then did not marry her, her family could press charges,
Speaker 1: and that if he was convicted, he could be ordered
Speaker 1: to either marry her or to pay a fine and
Speaker 1: serve prison sentence. Luis said that as soon as his
Speaker 1: sister was released, their family was going to take her
Speaker 1: to the church to be married, but the board was
Speaker 1: really opposed to this idea, that there was a man
Speaker 1: who was going to be forced to get married without
Speaker 1: his consent. Finally, on August eighteenth, nineteen oh two, Domingo
Speaker 1: Cuyazzo swore out a petition of habeas corpus, which attorney
Speaker 1: Charles E. Labarbier filed with the US Circuit Court for
Speaker 1: the Southern District of New York. Isabel Gonzalez was paroled
Speaker 1: pending the Circuit Court's decision, and on September one, nineteen
Speaker 1: oh two, she gave birth to a daughter named Ava.
Speaker 1: On the birth certificate, Isabel's name is listed as Isabel
Speaker 1: Vignal's and Ava's father is listed as Adolpho Vignal's, a mechanic.
Speaker 1: On October seventh, nineteen oh two, a judge issued the
Speaker 1: Circuit Court's decision regarding Isabel Gonzalez's status that she was
Speaker 1: quote by birth, an alien, and since she had not
Speaker 1: been naturalized, she was still an alien. This meant that
Speaker 1: the Treasury Department could continue to treat Puerto Ricans as
Speaker 1: aliens at port. That's something that the Department also applied
Speaker 1: to Filipinos shortly after this decision came out. But since
Speaker 1: she was now married to Adolpho Vignal's immigration officials really
Speaker 1: no longer had any cause to refuse her entry into
Speaker 1: the United States. A lot of the writing about these
Speaker 1: hearings and the Supreme Court case that followed make Isabel
Speaker 1: Gonzalez sound sort of like a passive participant, with various
Speaker 1: officials trying to keep her out of the US and
Speaker 1: lawyers and family members making arguments on her behalf. But
Speaker 1: at this point she could have dropped this whole issue
Speaker 1: since she was now in the US. Instead, she tried
Speaker 1: to use her experience to prove that all Puerto Ricans
Speaker 1: should be considered US citizens, and that meant taking this
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't have like a lot of personal reflections
Speaker 2: from her that I know of, but there is a
Speaker 2: lot of evidence that she was like the active instigator
Speaker 2: of this effort to bring citizenship to everyone in Puerto Rico,
Speaker 2: and we will have more on that after a sponsor break.
Speaker 2: Isabelle Gonzalez's detention and the Circuit court decision about her
Speaker 2: citizenship status caught the attention of Federico Degata, a Gonzalez
Speaker 2: who was born in Puerto Rico and then studied law
Speaker 2: in Madrid. Like Isabelle's uncle Domingo Cliazzo, Degato had been
Speaker 2: an advocate for Puerto Rican self government and autonomy prior
Speaker 2: to the Spanish American War that included traveling back to
Speaker 2: Spain in pursuit of that goal. The Fouricker Act had
Speaker 2: granted Puerto Rico one non voting representative in Congress that
Speaker 2: was a Commissioner to the House. Federico Degato was the
Speaker 2: first person elected to that role, and he was serving
Speaker 2: as commissioner as all of this was happening. One part
Speaker 2: of Degato's campaign platform had been the idea that Puerto
Speaker 2: Ricans were already US citizens and needed to be acknowledged
Speaker 2: as such. Once he was in Washington, d C. He
Speaker 2: had started aggressively looking for ways to push this issue.
Speaker 2: He kept an eye out for court cases or other
Speaker 2: legal action involving Puerto Ricans, and his office fielded calls
Speaker 2: from Puerto Ricans in the Caribbean and in North America
Speaker 2: about issues related to their civil rights. For his own part,
Speaker 2: he tried to apply for a US passport, which in theory,
Speaker 2: would have identified him as a US citizen once it
Speaker 2: was issued. Ultimately, the US passed legislation allowing residents of
Speaker 2: the insular territories to be issued US passports, but ones
Speaker 2: that did not identify them as US citizens.
Speaker 1: During his efforts to get a passport, Degato had been
Speaker 1: connected to the law firm of Frederick R. Kudair Junior,
Speaker 1: who specialized in international law. Kudair's father was also a
Speaker 1: prominent lawyer, and both of them were really well connected
Speaker 1: in Washington, d c. And New York. Kudair had been
Speaker 1: one of the attorneys on two of the first insular cases,
Speaker 1: Delima versus Bidwell and Downs versus Bidwell. He had been
Speaker 1: representing people who were suing George R. Bidwell, collector of
Speaker 1: the Port of New York, for charging import duties on
Speaker 1: goods that had been imported from Puerto Rico. So it
Speaker 1: makes total sense that both Kudair and Degato would be
Speaker 1: interested in Gonzalez's case and in the possibility of taking
Speaker 1: it to the Supreme Court. Degato had even been protesting
Speaker 1: against the treatment of Puerto Ricans's aliens at US ports
Speaker 1: of entry while Gonzalez was being detained. Kudair and Degato
Speaker 1: joined Paul Fuller and Charles E. Labarbier, who had been
Speaker 1: involved in the Corpus petition.
Speaker 2: Briefs in the case of Isabel Gonzales versus William Williams,
Speaker 2: United States Commissioner of Immigration at the Port of New York,
Speaker 2: were submitted to the Supreme Court in late nineteen oh three.
Speaker 2: By that point, Isabel's brother Luis had brought their mother
Speaker 2: and their younger sisters to New York from Puerto Rico,
Speaker 2: and they had also brought Isabel's youngest daughter, Dolores.
Speaker 1: Gonzalez's legal team did not try to argue that Puerto
Speaker 1: Ricans were fundamentally entitled to the same constitutional rights as
Speaker 1: white male citizens of the continental United States. Instead, they
Speaker 1: cited a whole array of previous decisions related to citizenship
Speaker 1: and who was entitled to it, and cases that upheld
Speaker 1: limits on the rights of citizenship, including dread Scott versus Sandford,
Speaker 1: which had decided that enslaved Africans and their descendants were
Speaker 1: not and could not be citizens. That decision was overturned
Speaker 1: by the fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and they also
Speaker 1: argued that their could not be an American alien. We
Speaker 1: should note that this legal team was not arguing broadly
Speaker 1: on behalf of all the residents of all the insular territories.
Speaker 1: They were focused only on the citizenship status of Puerto Ricans.
Speaker 1: This was in part because the idea of citizenship for
Speaker 1: Filipinos was incredibly contentious. As we talked about in our
Speaker 1: episode on the insular cases, if Filipinos became US citizens,
Speaker 1: roughly ten percent of the US population would then be Filipino,
Speaker 1: where a lot of people found that idea incredibly threatening,
Speaker 1: largely because of racism and prejudice. Gonzalez's lawyers also did
Speaker 1: not try to argue that all citizens were entitled to
Speaker 1: the same rights and status through citizenship. For example, women
Speaker 1: could be US citizens but did not have a constitutional
Speaker 1: right to vote. Children were citizens but had very few
Speaker 1: political rights. They were basically building an argument that there
Speaker 1: was already room for Puerto Ricans to be city within
Speaker 1: the definitions of citizen that the United States was already using,
Speaker 1: but then making Puerto Rican citizens would not necessarily confer
Speaker 1: any rights beyond what they were already considered to have.
Speaker 1: They made comparisons to other imperial powers that similarly had
Speaker 1: different classes of citizenship for different groups of people. I
Speaker 1: found a lot of this really hard to read. Of course,
Speaker 1: just as one example, Kud's treatment of indigenous people in
Speaker 1: these arguments could be really dismissive and inaccurate. He sort
Speaker 1: of portrayed them as scattered bands whose disappearance in the
Speaker 1: face of westward expansion was inevitable, and then compared that
Speaker 1: to Puerto Rico's established population of almost a million people.
Speaker 1: So the argument was, of course Puerto.
Speaker 2: Ricans should become citizens, there were hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 2: them in Puerto Rico, but indigenous people in the continental
Speaker 2: US didn't need to be citizens in this argument because
Speaker 2: they were part of other sovereign nations and kind of
Speaker 2: disappearing anyway. It was just there's just a thread through
Speaker 2: a lot of it that's like, yeah, it's fine for
Speaker 2: citizens to not actually be equal. Here's all the ways
Speaker 2: that were already not treating all citizens equally at this point,
Speaker 2: most indigenous people were not considered citizens.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. Yeah, it hurt me a little. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In an amicus brief, Federico Digato approached the idea of
Speaker 1: citizenship for Puerto Ricans from a broader and more personal level.
Speaker 1: He walked through the transfer of Puerto Rico from Spain
Speaker 1: to the United States and argued that by the passage
Speaker 1: of the Foricker Act, Puerto Ricans had acquired citizenship and
Speaker 1: been incorporated into the same body politic as those who
Speaker 1: were already American citizens. He referenced his own role representing
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico in the House, noting that he could not
Speaker 1: represent the US citizens living in Puerto Rico if he
Speaker 1: were in alien. He also referenced his own admission to
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court Bar, something that was at least theoretically
Speaker 1: only open to US citizens. Yeah, he's sort of like,
Speaker 1: you admitted me to the Supreme Court bar. You only
Speaker 1: do that for citizens, So I must be a citizen.
Speaker 1: Solicitor General Henry M. Hoyt argued on behalf of the
Speaker 1: United States, and his argument as summed up as quote,
Speaker 1: a pellant is not a citizen and is to be
Speaker 1: regarded as an alien within the meaning of the immigration laws.
Speaker 1: It is conceded that the people of Puerto Rico are
Speaker 1: connected with this government by a certain tie distinguishing them
Speaker 1: from other ordinary foreigners, that they may be nationals. But
Speaker 1: this does not operate to confer citizenship. Must Congress have
Speaker 1: intended that all who were not aliens in the strict
Speaker 1: and unrelieved sense should escape the immigration laws, or all
Speaker 1: that who were not citizens should be subject to them.
Speaker 1: The solution of the controversy is dependent solely upon the
Speaker 1: proper construction of the law. The Supreme Court heard oral
Speaker 1: arguments in December of nineteen oh three and issued its
Speaker 1: unanimous decision on January fourth, nineteen oh four. The opinion,
Speaker 1: authored by Chief Justice Melville Fuller, read, in part quote,
Speaker 1: Gonzalez was a native inhabitant of Puerto Rico and a
Speaker 1: Spanish subject, though not of the peninsula when the Session
Speaker 1: transferred her allegiance to the United States, and she was
Speaker 1: a citizen of Puerto Rico under the Act. And there
Speaker 1: was nothing expressed in the Act, nor reasonably to be
Speaker 1: implied therefrom to indicate the intention of Congress that citizens
Speaker 1: of Puerto Rico should be considered as aliens and the
Speaker 1: right of free access denied to them, But the Court
Speaker 1: didn't offer an answer to the question of whether Puerto
Speaker 1: Ricans were US citizens, going on to say, quote, we
Speaker 1: are not required to discuss the power of Congress in
Speaker 1: the premises or the contention of Gonzalez's council that the
Speaker 1: Session of Puerto Rico accomplished the naturalization of its people,
Speaker 1: or that of Commissioner Degeto in his excellent argument as
Speaker 1: amicus curia that a citizen of Puerto Rico under the
Speaker 1: Act of nineteen hundred is necessarily a citizen of the
Speaker 1: United States. The question is the narrow one whether Gonzales
Speaker 1: was an alien within the meaning of that term as
Speaker 1: used in the Act of eighteen ninety one. At the
Speaker 1: same time, the Court noted that the Immigration Act of
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety one did not apply to the people of
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. Quote, we think it clear that the Act
Speaker 1: relates to foreigners as respects this country, to persons owing
Speaker 1: allegiance to a foreign government and citizens or subjects thereof,
Speaker 1: and that citizens of Puerto Rico whose permanent allegiance is
Speaker 1: due to the United States, who live in the peace
Speaker 1: of the dominion of the United States, the organic law
Speaker 1: of whose domicile was enacted by the United States and
Speaker 1: is in force through officials sworn to support the Constitution
Speaker 1: of the United States, are not aliens, and upon their
Speaker 1: arrival by water at the ports of our mainland, are
Speaker 1: not alien immigrants. Within the intent and meaning of the
Speaker 1: Act of eighteen ninety one, this meant that the Immigration
Speaker 1: Commissioner had no jurisdiction to detain Isabel Gonzales at port,
Speaker 1: and it meant that she had not been obligated to
Speaker 1: pursue her objections through the Superintendent of the Treasury, as
Speaker 1: immigration issues were required to do. The court also noted
Speaker 1: that quote, in order to dispose of the case in hand,
Speaker 1: we do not find it necessary to review the Chinese
Speaker 1: Exclusion Acts and the decisions of this Court thereunder. That
Speaker 1: Act was originally passed in eighteen eighty two and implemented
Speaker 1: a ten year ban of all immigration from China with
Speaker 1: a few exceptions, was renewed in eighteen ninety two and
Speaker 1: made permanent in nineteen oh two. So this ruling did
Speaker 1: not extend citizenship to Puerto Rican like Gonzales and her
Speaker 1: attorneys had hoped that it would, but Gonzales did continue
Speaker 1: to advocate for Puerto Ricans in both Puerto Rico and
Speaker 1: the United States after this point. Among other things, both
Speaker 1: she and her uncle Domingo Coyazzo wrote a number of
Speaker 1: letters to the editor that were published in the New
Speaker 1: York Daily Tribute and in the New York Times. In
Speaker 1: a nineteen oh five letter to the editor at the Times,
Speaker 1: Gonzalez asked why the US used tariffs to protect its
Speaker 1: rice exports from Louisiana but not coffee exports from Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: In another letter that year, she described the United States
Speaker 1: as violently forcing Puerto Rico to abandon customs and traditions
Speaker 1: that had come about from being a Spanish colony for
Speaker 1: hundreds of years, including cock fighting, bullfighting, and relaxing during
Speaker 1: the Sunday Sabbath. She suggested that the US should instead
Speaker 1: follow Britain's model of settling matters related to Hindus and
Speaker 1: Muslims in India through their own respective religious laws. This
Speaker 1: is a pretty optimistic view of Britain's direct rule over India,
Speaker 1: but her point was that the United States was forcibly
Speaker 1: imposing its own laws and customs onto Puerto Rico rather
Speaker 1: than respecting the laws and customs that were already in
Speaker 1: place there. In August of nineteen oh five, Gonzales wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to The Times in which she described loving
Speaker 1: astronomy and how when she lived in Puerto Rico, she
Speaker 1: thought that in the US, the equipment and machinery needed
Speaker 1: to study astronomy would be available to everyone. After coming
Speaker 1: to the US, she was disappointed to find that this
Speaker 1: was not the case, but hoped that a philanthropist in
Speaker 1: the vein of Andrew Carnegie might fund such an endeavor.
Speaker 2: One day in November of nineteen oh six, Gonzales wrote
Speaker 2: a letter to the New York Tribune correcting its earlier
Speaker 2: reporting on Puerto Rican citizenship. This letter read quote, Sir,
Speaker 2: permit me to congratulate you upon your article under the
Speaker 2: caption citizenship for Puerto Ricans. It is indeed encouraging and
Speaker 2: refreshing to see an influential paper like the New York
Speaker 2: Daily Tribune advocating the reforms which will lift Puerto Rico
Speaker 2: from its present anonymous political status to that of a
Speaker 2: robust child with a proud name and standing under the
Speaker 2: American flag. It is not true, however, as you state
Speaker 2: in your leader, that the Puerto Ricans quote are subjected
Speaker 2: to our immigration laws as aliens. I happen to be
Speaker 2: the cause of the removal of that law as it
Speaker 2: was applied to Puerto Rico and Filipinos. The Supreme Court
Speaker 2: of the United States declared it unconstitutional in my case
Speaker 2: Gonzales versus Williams in nineteen oh four, two years after
Speaker 2: I was detained at Ellis Island as an alien libel
Speaker 2: to become a public charge. Four years have elapsed since then,
Speaker 2: and the forecast of my jailers has not as yet
Speaker 2: been fulfilled. On the contrary, I am a useful member
Speaker 2: of the Puerto Rican colony of New York, and I
Speaker 2: have lived long enough to see your patriotic tribune pleading
Speaker 2: for the hard working and loyal Puerto Rican New York.
Speaker 2: November twenty third, nineteen oh six. Is the Belle Gonzales.
Speaker 2: Most of Gonzalez's letters to newspaper editors seem to have
Speaker 2: been printed in nineteen oh five. In nineteen oh six,
Speaker 2: it's possible that changes to her personal and financial situation
Speaker 2: played a part in that she and Adolpho Vignals had
Speaker 2: a son together, Adolpho Junior, as well as a daughter,
Speaker 2: who died in infancy, but eventually Vignal's returned to Puerto Rico,
Speaker 2: apparently abandoning Gonzalez and his son and stepchildren. Isabella's daughter
Speaker 2: Ava started living with the Coyazzos and seems to have
Speaker 2: eventually been informally adopted into that family. Dolores was placed
Speaker 2: in an orphanage.
Speaker 1: Her financial situation does seem to have turned around, though,
Speaker 1: and when Isabelle married Juan Torres in nineteen fifteen, their
Speaker 1: marriage documents described each of them as widowed. They eventually
Speaker 1: moved to New Jersey, where she lived until her death
Speaker 1: on June eleventh, nineteen seventy one. There's probably a lot
Speaker 1: more to be discovered about her life outside of this case.
Speaker 1: A lot of what's out there today is thanks to
Speaker 1: the work of historians Sam Erman and Gonzalez's great granddaughter
Speaker 1: Belinda Torres Mary. In twenty eighteen, Ermin.
Speaker 2: Published a book called Almost Citizens Puerto Rico, the US
Speaker 2: Constitution and Empire and that looks at this case in
Speaker 2: the broader context of Puerto Rican and US history.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventeen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones Schaffroth Act.
Speaker 1: It outlined a bill of Rights for Puerto Rico and
Speaker 1: established a bicameral legislature with a governor appointed by the President.
Speaker 1: This act gave both the Puerto Rican governor and the
Speaker 1: US executive branch veto power over the Puerto Rican legislature's decisions.
Speaker 1: This law also extended statutory citizenship to Puerto Ricans, meaning
Speaker 1: that citizenship came from a law and not from the Constitution.
Speaker 1: So while this law made most people born in Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico citizens of the United States, they still did not
Speaker 1: have all the same constitutional rights and protections as citizens
Speaker 1: born in one of the states. Puerto Rico was also
Speaker 1: still a territory without all the constitutional protections or autonomy
Speaker 1: that applied to the States.
Speaker 2: Two months later, the US passed the Selective Service Act,
Speaker 2: was as World War One was happening. This established a
Speaker 2: military draft, and that draft also applied to Puerto Ricans,
Speaker 2: and the fact that these two things happened one right
Speaker 2: after the other led to an almost conspiracy theory, which
Speaker 2: was that the United States had extended citizenship to Puerto
Speaker 2: Rico in order to get access to more soldiers as
Speaker 2: it prepared to enter the First World War. There are
Speaker 2: several problems with that idea, though a big one is
Speaker 2: this Act required all men, not just citizens, to register
Speaker 2: for the draft, and it ultimately applied to the US
Speaker 2: territories of Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, so Puerto Rican
Speaker 2: men would have been required to register for the draft,
Speaker 2: regardless of whether Puerto Ricans had first been made citizens.
Speaker 2: If you are wondering why that draft did not apply
Speaker 2: to the Philippines, the status of the Philippines was a
Speaker 2: little bit different from other territories. Thanks to the Philippine
Speaker 2: Autonomy Act of nineteen sixteen, the Philippines established a National
Speaker 2: Guard with the intent of its becoming part of the
Speaker 2: American Expeditionary Force, and more than fourteen thousand people volunteered,
Speaker 2: but the US was reluctant to accept this proposal, and
Speaker 2: the war ended before the Philippine National Guard could be federalized.
Speaker 2: And this whole topic of Filipino and Puerto Rican soldiers
Speaker 2: during World War One is like a whole other topic.
Speaker 2: I feel like there was clearly, like some of the
Speaker 2: reluctance of the US to accept these soldiers into the
Speaker 2: US Armed Forces was clearly motivated by racism.
Speaker 1: But that's like sort of a whole other thing. There
Speaker 1: were definitely wartime factors involved with extending citizenship to Puerto Ricans,
Speaker 1: including the fact that after the opening of the Panama Canal,
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico lay along major shipping routes. But advocates, including
Speaker 1: Domingo Cuiazo, had been trying to get a citizenship law
Speaker 1: passed for years. There was political wrangling over this through
Speaker 1: multiple presidential administrations and sessions of Congress, so it was
Speaker 1: just it was not something that just sort of happened
Speaker 1: out of the blue. Immediately before the passage of the
Speaker 1: Selective Service Act, other laws continued to refine who was
Speaker 1: eligible for citizenship in Puerto Rico until the Nationality Act
Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty two, which declared that all people born
Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico on or after January thirteenth, nineteen forty
Speaker 1: one were US citizens at birth. Today, Puerto Rico is
Speaker 1: still considered an unincorporated US territory with one non voting
Speaker 1: commissioner in the House of Representatives, and Puerto Rico does
Speaker 1: not have delegates in the Electoral College during presidential life elections.
Speaker 1: As we talked about in that Insular Cases episode, this
Speaker 1: applies to just like so many things involving just daily
Speaker 1: life in Puerto Rico. And as a final note, in
Speaker 1: that episode on the Insular Cases, we talked about Fittisimanu
Speaker 1: versus United States, which was a case on the question
Speaker 1: of birthright citizenship for American Samoans which the US Supreme
Speaker 1: Court declined to hear in twenty twenty two. Descendants of
Speaker 1: Dred Scott and Isabelle Gonzalez filed an amicus brief in
Speaker 1: this case. Specifically that was Lynn M. Jackson, great great
Speaker 1: granddaughter of Dredd and Harriet Scott, and Belinda trres Mary,
Speaker 1: great granddaughter of isabel Gonzalez, who we mentioned earlier. Their
Speaker 1: petition was in support of the American Samoan petitioners who
Speaker 1: were calling for birthright citizenship and the overturning of the
Speaker 1: Insular cases. Oh so much legal doings. Uh huh. Do
Speaker 1: you have listener mail to take us out? I do. First,
Speaker 1: I have a super quick correction. A couple of people
Speaker 1: have pointed out that at the end of our episode
Speaker 1: on Lcoricia of Winchester, when we were talking about the
Speaker 1: unveiling of her statue. Mm hmmm, we were talking about
Speaker 1: how the current King of the UK, King Charles the Third,
Speaker 1: was supposed to be there for that unveiling, but was
Speaker 1: not there because he had COVID. I called him Charles
Speaker 1: the second It's right in the outline, and I didn't
Speaker 1: catch it, and neither of us caught it.
Speaker 2: I had a particularly hard time saying the correct words
Speaker 2: during the recording of that episode, and later realized that
Speaker 2: I also had COVID. I feel like like my mind
Speaker 2: and body were just sort of like slowly coming offline
Speaker 2: as we were recording that. So thank you to the
Speaker 2: people who pointed that out. I just like said the
Speaker 2: totally wrong thing. And also we have email from Marci.
Speaker 2: Marcy says, Hi, Holly and Tracy. I'm a teacher spending
Speaker 2: my summer break getting caught up on past episodes I
Speaker 2: missed during school year. Today, while fixing dinner, I was
Speaker 2: listening to the Scott Joplin episode.
Speaker 1: I found the inclusion of the maple leaf rags so charming. However,
Speaker 1: when I listened to the pod, I listened at one
Speaker 1: point five x speed. The effect on the pace of
Speaker 1: the music caused me to giggle and brought a Charlie
Speaker 1: Chaplin esque scene to mind. I had to stop cooking,
Speaker 1: turn the speed back to one X and then listen
Speaker 1: again to really take it in. Thank you for all
Speaker 1: of your hard work and research. As I teach, I
Speaker 1: find myself telling my middle school students. I listened to
Speaker 1: a podcast about that once. It sort of turned into
Speaker 1: a great way to get the whole class to roll
Speaker 1: their eyes simultaneously. When I geek out over history or
Speaker 1: science during class discussions, the kids asked if I learned
Speaker 1: factoids I share in a podcast. Anyway, here's my offering
Speaker 1: of our furry family member, Stella. She is a mini
Speaker 1: satin rabbit and spends summer's home with me in the
Speaker 1: school year in my classroom, hopping around between desks and
Speaker 1: over the feet of teenagers. The summer, she has tested
Speaker 1: her athletic prowess by jumping on top of various furniture pieces.
Speaker 1: Today she contemplated jumping to the top of my children's bookshelf.
Speaker 1: She thought better of it. Anyhow, keep up the excellent work.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what topics come up with
Speaker 1: my class discussions this year that allow me to pull
Speaker 1: out my catchphrase and get the eyes rolling. Marcie number one,
Speaker 1: what a beautiful bunny rabbit.
Speaker 2: Buddies are so sweet. I want a pet stella so
Speaker 2: much she looks so so soft. Also, this act or
Speaker 2: intentionally listened at one point five speed really cracked me
Speaker 2: up for two reasons. One is that we talked uh
Speaker 2: in that episode about Scott Joplin's strong feelings that his
Speaker 2: music not be played too fast, and so the idea
Speaker 2: of listening to it at one and a half speed
Speaker 2: made me laugh. And then also I was listening to
Speaker 2: an old episode recently to make sure it was going
Speaker 2: to be okay to use as a Saturday classic, and
Speaker 2: somehow my phone, which was in my pocket with the
Speaker 2: screen off, suddenly shifted into one point twenty five speed,
Speaker 2: which was just enough that I thought I was like
Speaker 2: I did, did we drink too much coffee?
Speaker 1: Like what's happening? It took me a second to realize
Speaker 1: what had happened.
Speaker 2: So anyway, there's no such thing as too much coffee, Trasa.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much, Marci, thank you for these pictures.
Speaker 2: I love the story. Thanks again to the folks who
Speaker 2: corrected us about saying Charles the second instead of Charles
Speaker 2: the third. If you'd like to send us a note,
Speaker 2: we're at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1: And we're all over social media.
Speaker 2: Miss in History You can subscribe to our show also
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Speaker 2: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
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