La Brega: A 1902 Deportation Case That Reverberates Today

In 1902, Isabel González arrived in Ellis Island, pregnant, alone and with only $11.00 in her pocket. She —like others before her— was detained for being an "alien" and at risk of becoming a "burden" on the state. But Isabel took her fight to the courts, defending her right to stay in the country that had invaded her homeland just four years earlier. She fought all the way to the Supreme Court where she argued for citizenship. In this excerpt from Futuro Studios' series "La Brega" we learn about her legacy, and about a more recent similar challenge. Original episode art by Elizabeth Barreto. You can find her Instagram page here: Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts.

You can listen to La Brega: A 1902 Deportation Case That Reverberates Today online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

La Brega: A 1902 Deportation Case That Reverberates Today is an episode from Latino USA by iHeartPodcasts.

This episode is 43:13 long.

This episode was published on Mar 22, 2026.

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