Córdova Dávila, Félix, 1878-1938

<p>With lawyerly precision, Félix Córdova Dávila persisted in his demands that U.S. authorities resolve Puerto Rico’s status, challenging them to live up to their own democratic rhetoric. As a member of the Partido de Unión (Union Party), which controlled the island’s politics in the early 20th century, Córdova Dávila continued the campaign of his predecessor, Luis Muñoz Rivera, to secure greater political freedom for Puerto Ricans. Córdova Dávila believed that the island ought to be given complete independence if the United States failed to grant it statehood in a timely fashion. His proposals were seriously considered by Congress but were ultimately turned aside. By the time he retired, Córdova Dávila had served nearly 15 years in the House—longer than any other Hispanic Member of Congress until that point. “Under the rulings of the courts of justice we are neither flesh, fish, nor fowl,” he testified at a committee hearing late in his career. “We are neither a part nor a whole. We are nothing; and it seems to me if we are not allowed to be part of the Union we should be allowed to be a whole entity with full and complete control of our internal affairs.”</p>

<p>Félix Córdova Dávila was born to Lope Córdova and Concepción Dávila on November 20, 1878, in Vega Baja, on the north coast of Puerto Rico, about 30 miles west of San Juan. He attended the local public schools in Manati, a few miles west of his birthplace. At age 20, Córdova Dávila enrolled at the National University School of Law, now The George Washington University Law School, in Washington, D.C. He graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law and returned to Puerto Rico, where he passed the bar in 1903 and established his own practice in San Juan. In 1904 Córdova Dávila was appointed judge of the court in Caguas, about 20 miles south of San Juan, in the island’s interior. That same year he was appointed judge of the municipal court and was transferred to Manati, where he served until 1908, when he received the Unionist nomination for a seat in the Puerto Rican house of delegates and was reappointed judge in Manati. He refused both offers, taking a temporary position as district attorney for the Aguadilla district, near the island’s northwest tip. Shortly thereafter he was appointed district court judge in Guayama, in the south (1908–1910); in Arecibo, in the north (1910–1911); and in San Juan (1911–1917). In 1906 Córdova Dávila married Mercedes Diaz. The couple raised three boys: Jorge Luis, Félix, and Enrique. Jorge Luis Córdova‐Díaz eventually followed his father’s career trajectory, serving briefly on the supreme court of Puerto Rico and then as Resident Commissioner from 1969 to 1973. Mercedes died in early October of 1918, in Washington, D.C., during the influenza pandemic that swept America and the world; she was 33 years old. On July 9, 1919, Córdova Dávila married Patria Martinez of Mayaguez. Their daughter, Aida, died as a teenager.</p>

<p>Córdova Dávila first sought elective office in 1917, when he received the Partido de Unión’s nomination to run for the vacancy created by the sudden death of Luis Muñoz Rivera in November 1916. Córdova Dávila was elected to the House in a scheduled general election on July 16, 1917; Partido de Unión captured 52 percent of the vote, outpolling Republicans and Socialists, who captured 34 and 14 percent of the vote, respectively. Under the provisions of the Second Jones Act, also known as the Organic Act of Puerto Rico—which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson in March 1917 and which Muñoz Rivera had backed as a first step to rectifying the Foraker Act—elections for Puerto Rican Resident Commissioners would occur every four years, beginning in the 1920 election. Córdova Dávila was re-elected to three subsequent terms. In 1920 he won 51 percent of the vote, with Republican and Socialist candidates receiving roughly 26 and 24 percent of the vote, respectively. In 1924 the Republican Party split; one faction joined the Unionists to form the Alianza (Alliance), while the faction known as the Constitutional Historical Party joined the Socialists to form the Coalición (Coalition). Córdova Dávila was re-elected on the Alliance ticket with 64 percent of the vote. Four years later, with the same party configuration, in an election described as “the most hotly contested and closest … held in the history of the island,” Córdova Dávila secured a third term, but with just 52 percent of the vote compared with his opponent’s 48 percent.</p>

DÁVILA, Félix Córdova, (Father of Jorge Luis C&oacute;rdova D&iacute;az), a Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico; born in Vega Baja, P.R., on November 20, 1878; attended the public schools at Manati; came to Washington, D.C., and was graduated from National University Law School; was admitted to the bar in 1903 and commenced practice in San Juan, P.R.; judge of the municipal court of Caguas in 1904; judge of the municipal court of Manati 1904-1908; renominated as judge, and also as candidate for the Puerto Rico house of representatives; declined both nominations; district attorney for the district of Aguadilla in 1908; judge of the district court of Guayama 1908-1910; judge of the district court of Arecibo in 1910 and 1911; judge of the district court of San Juan 1911-1917; elected as a Unionist on July 16, 1917 and reelected in 1920; reelected on the Alliance ticket in 1924 and 1928 and served August 7, 1917, until his resignation on April 11, 1932, having been appointed an associate justice of the supreme court of Puerto Rico, in which capacity he served until his death in Condado, San Juan County, P.R., on December 3, 1938; interment in Fournier Cemetery, San Juan, P.R.

<p>Félix Lope María Córdova Dávila (November 20, 1878 – December 3, 1938) was a political leader and judge from Puerto Rico who served as Puerto Rico's fourth Resident Commissioner in Congress and later as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico.</p>

<p>Félix Córdova Dávila was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. His parents, Lope Córdova y Thibault and María Concepción Dávila y Dávila, died while he was very young, and he was placed in the care of his cousin, Dr. Gonzalo María Córdova y Dávila in Jayuya. He began studies on his own based in the extensive library of his cousins Gonzalo and Ulpiano. During his adolescence, he attended the public schools in Manati while working at a drugstore owned by another cousin, Clemente Ramírez de Arellano Córdova. After the United States acquired Puerto Rico in 1898, Córdova Dávila, knowing very little English, decided to invest the earnings of a book of poetry that he produced to attend law school in Washington, DC. Attracted by low tuition costs, he enrolled at Howard University Law School, not aware of it being a black college. Well treated by his fellow students, all black, he completed his first year there as the only white student, before transferring to National University Law School in Washington, D.C., now known as George Washington University Law School, where he obtained his Masters of Law. Before returning to Puerto Rico, he was denied a license to practice law in the District of Columbia because Puerto Ricans were not yet United States citizens. He successfully protested before the District Bar and was admitted to practice in the nation's capital. He was admitted to practice law in Puerto Rico in 1903.</p>

<p>In 1906, Córdova married Mercedes Díaz Collazo, with whom he had several children: Jorge Luis in 1907, who would succeed Córdova Dávila both as an Associate Justice in the Puerto Rico Supreme Court as well as in Congress (1969–1972), Félix Lope (1909), and Enrique (1913).</p>