Essay On Ricardo Rodriguez

Ricardo Rodriguez was born in Ojuelos, Guanajuato. In his late thirties , Ricardo had moved to Laredo in 1883 and later migrated to San Antonio,Texas that same year. While living in San Antonio he worked for the city, cleaning the streets and the river. He was known for having little to no education, Rodriguez was unable to read or write nor English or Spanish. He was able to speak his native language, he was described with dark eyes,straight black hair and some high cheekbones. Ricardo Rodriguez claimed that the United States was his home and had wanted citizenship. James Fisk described Rodriguez as a hard worker, peaceful citizen but above all a good man with great qualities but a great candidate for U.S citizenship. Ricardo Rodriguez had filed an application for naturalization papers on May of 1896 , while two San Antonio politicians T.J. Mcminn and Jack Evans complained to District judge,T.S Maxey that Rodriguez did not quality for citizenship because he wasn’t white or of African descent. …show more content…
Maxey was not prepared and had referred the Rodriguez case to a committee of friends of the court to further investigate the question.Out of the six men from the committee, about four of them had responded and one of them was Thomas M. Paschal, a local attorney. Paschal declared that citizenship should and could be acquired from birth only.The local attorney, Paschal had showed that the government with and through its power was able to apply the naturalization laws when non- white people,people of color were involved. Paschal had later then cited In re Ah Yup which pretty much informed us that only white and African were qualified for citizenship.Paschal declared legally that Rodriguez was “ a man of good moral character, and that he is attached to the principles of the constitution of the United States, and that he is well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same” according to Arnoldo De Leon in En Aquel