23 Facts About Federico Degetau

Federico Degetau y Gonzalez was a Puerto Rican politician, lawyer, writer, author, and the first Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico to the United States House of Representatives.

Federico Degetau's father was Mathias Degetau, son of a wealthy Hamburg family.

Federico Degetau's mother was Maria Consolacion Gonzalez, daughter of a respected San Juan family.

Federico Degetau completed an academic course at Barcelona, Spain, and was graduated from the law department of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Federico Degetau was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Madrid, Spain.

Federico Degetau founded the newspaper La Isla de Puerto Rico to communicate the plight of Puerto Rico to the colonial power.

Federico Degetau returned to Puerto Rico, and was one of the four commissioners sent by Puerto Rico under Luis Munoz Rivera to petition Spain for autonomy in 1895.

Federico Degetau settled in San Juan, Puerto Rico and continued to practice law.

Federico Degetau was a member of the municipal council of San Juan in 1897, and mayor of San Juan in 1898.

Federico Degetau was appointed by General Henry's successor, General George W Davis, as a member of the Insular Board of Charities.

Federico Degetau became a member of the Insular Republican Party, which was founded in 1899.

Federico Degetau was the first vice president of the municipal council of San Juan in 1899 and 1900, and was president of the Board of Education of San Juan in 1900 and 1901.

Federico Degetau was elected as a Puerto Rican Republican to the Resident Commissioner post in 1900, and reelected in 1902.

Federico Degetau served from March 4,1901 until March 3,1905, in the Fifty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-eighth Congresses.

Federico Degetau was not a candidate for renomination in 1904, and resumed the practice of law.

In 1905, after traveling through Europe where he purchased a collection of paintings, Federico Degetau moved to Puerto Rico and established his residence in the town of Aibonito where he managed a coffee plantation.

Federico Degetau lost her appeals in the Board hearings and took her case to the US Supreme Court.

Federico Degetau's protest was forwarded to the US Treasury Department.

Federico Degetau then contacted Le Barbier and Parker, who informed him that they planned to appeal Gonzalez's case to the US Supreme Court.

Federico Degetau saw in the Isabel Gonzalez case, the perfect "test case" for challenging the new immigration guidelines because now it would not be about whether immigration inspectors, following guidelines suffused with concepts of race and gender, deemed Isabel Gonzalez and her family desirable, but about settling the status of all the native islanders living in Puerto Rico at the time it was annexed by the United States four years earlier.

Federico Degetau could have ended her appeal but instead she decided to press her claim that all Puerto Ricans were US citizens.

Federico Degetau died in Santurce, Puerto Rico, at the age of 51, and was interred in the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Federico Degetau had no children and he wrote a will to establish a foundation whereby his widow and a friend would receive an usufruct in life of half of his property and the other half would be destined to "an institution of culture in this Island of Puerto Rico, as a library, museum".