Federico Degetau

Federico Degetau y González ( born December 5, 1862 in Ponce, Puerto Rico; † January 20, 1914 in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico ) was the first Resident Commissioner delegates his home in the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition to his political activities, he also worked as a lawyer and writer.

Life

Degetau attended the Central College of Ponce and studied in Barcelona. At the University Complutense of Madrid, he managed a law degree. He was admitted to the Bar and practiced in Madrid. He founded the newspaper La Isla de Puerto Rico, to convey the plight of Puerto Rico to the colonial power.

Degetau returned to his home and was one of the four commissioners who were sent out in 1895 under the leadership of Luis Muñoz Rivera to ask Spain to autonomy. The petition was rejected, but three years later, the U.S. Congress established a civilian colonial government. Degetau settled in San Juan and continued to work as a lawyer.

In 1897 he became a member of the municipal council of the capital and its mayor in 1898. In the same year he represented Puerto Rico as a deputy in the Spanish Cortes Generales. After the Spanish - American War, the military governor appointed him General Guy Vernor Henry 1899 Minister of the Interior of the first Cabinet under American rule in Puerto Rico. His successor, General George Whitefield Davis, appointed him a member of the Insular Board of Charities.

Degetau joined the Republican Party, founded in 1899 on the island. 1899 and 1900, he was First Vice President of the City Council of San Juan, 1900 and 1901 President of the Board of Education. As a Republican, he was elected Resident Commissioner in 1900 and re-elected two years later. He was a member of the 56th, 57th and 58th U.S. Congress. He also was a member of the Committee on Insular Affairs and filed a federal law that would allow Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, but which he failed. Since he was not re-elected in 1904, he returned to his legal practice.

As a writer, he wrote the works of El secreto de la domadora (1886 ), Que Quixote! , Cuentos para el camino (1894 ), Juventud (1895 ) and La Injuria (1893 ).

After his death in 1914 he was buried in the cemetery of San Juan.