Puerto Rican Migration To New York - World War I Era

World War I Era

In 1902, the United States Treasury Department issued new immigration guidelines that changed the status of all Puerto Ricans to "foreigners." Isabel Gonzalez was a young single mother who was expecting her second child. Her fiance, who was in New York, sent for her with the intention of getting married. When Gonzalez arrived in New York, she and all the Puerto Ricans who were with her, were detained in Ellis Island and denied entry. She was accused of being an alien and as an unwed parent she was deemed as a burden to the welfare system of the country. Gonzalez challenged the Government of the United States in the groundbreaking case "GONZALES v. WILLIAMS' (her surname was misspelled by immigration officials). The Supreme Court ruled that under the immigration laws González was not an alien, and therefore could not be denied entry into New York. It also stated that Puerto Ricans were not U.S. citizens, they were "noncitizen nationals." Gonzalez, who became an activist on behalf of all Puerto Ricans, paved the way for the Jones-Shafroth Act, which conferred United States citizenship on all citizens of Puerto Rico.

In 1917, the United States entered World War I and that same year the United States Congress approved the Jones-Shafroth Act which gave Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. Puerto Ricans no longer needed a passport to travel to the U.S. and were allowed to seek public office in the mainland U.S. The economic situation in the island was bad and continued to worsen as a result of the many hurricanes which destroyed most of its crops. Many Puerto Rican families migrated to the United States, the bulk of which went to New York, in search of a better way of life. In New York, they faced the same hardships and discrimination that earlier groups of immigrants, such as the Irish, the Italians, and the Jews, had faced before them. It was difficult for them to find well paying jobs because of the language barrier and their lack of technical working skills. The few men who found jobs worked for low salaries in factories. The women usually stayed home as housewives and tended to their children. Those who did not find jobs had the option of joining the United States Military. Prior to the Jones-Shafroth Act, Puerto Ricans in the mainland United States as all other non-citizens, who were permanent residents were required to register with the Selective Service System by law and could be drafted, however one of the effects of the Act was that all Puerto Ricans were now eligiable for the military "draft" (conscription). One of the most renowned military units at that time was New York's U.S. 369th Infantry Regiment. Rafael Hernández was a renowned Puerto Rican who served in the almost all Afro-American unit. The unit fought against the Germans in France and became known as the "Harlem Hell Fighters". Hernández, his brother Jesus and 16 other Puerto Ricans was assigned to the United States Army's Harlem Hell fighters musical band, the Orchestra Europe.

Nero Chen was one of the many Puerto Ricans who settled in East Harlem. He became the first Puerto Rican boxer to gain acclaim when in 1917 he fought against "Panama Joe Gans" at Harlem's Palace Casino which was located at 28 East 135th St., between 5th and Madison Avenues, in Manhattan. As evidenced by an early 1924 poster, migrants in New York organized baseball teams which played against each other. The poster announces a game which was held at Howard Field in Brooklyn between two teams, the San Juan B.B.C. and the Porto Rican Stars, made of Puerto Ricans from the East Side section of Manhattan.

As the economic situation in the United States worsened in a prelude to the Great Depression, many Puerto Ricans in the mainland found themselves competing with other groups for the positions of unskilled labor such as dishwashers, maintenance and laundry workers. This led to the "Harlem Riots" of July 1926. between unemployed Jews and Puerto Ricans. Various Puerto Rican organizations in East Harlem, organized a media campaign to ease the tensions between the groups involved and called upon the mayor, governor of the state to restore order and provide protection to the area.

In 1937, Oscar Garcia Rivera, Sr. (1900–1969), a native of Mayagüez and resident of East Harlem, became the first Puerto Rican to be elected to public office in the continental United States as a member of the New York State Assembly. A witness of the discrimination which Puerto Ricans were subject to, he created the "Unemployment Insurance Bill" which paved the way for the passage of bills which established minimum hours and wages for working people, the creation of a Wage Board within the Labor Department, and the right of employees to organize and negotiate grievances. In 1956, he also became the first Puerto Rican to be nominated as the Republican candidate for Justice of the City Court.