A Supreme Sotomayor: How My Country Has Caught Up to Me

[babylonsister]

Maria Hinojosa

Senior Correspondent, NOW on PBS
Posted: May 29, 2009 03:03 PM

A Supreme Sotomayor: How My Country Has Caught Up to Me


The phone call came just minutes after Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. Rose Arce, my former producer at CNN and a Peruvian-American told me the news. I let out an excited shout: WHAT?!

Though Sonia Sotomayor had all of the qualifications, I was truly not expecting to hear the news and could scarcely believe it. Do we really have a Puerto Rican woman from the South Bronx nominated to serve on SCOTUS? Like they say on "Saturday Night Live" -- Really? No! REALLY?

My friends -- accomplished lawyers, a newspaper publisher, reporters of the highest caliber -- were all asking, "Are we dreaming?" We all needed reassurance. My high-powered Latina friends are not just Puerto Rican. They are Mexican, Colombian, Cuban, Dominican and more. And now a woman just like us is being nominated for the highest court of the land. I ask again: Really?

I cannot begin to imagine all the tears shed by Latinas across this country on Tuesday. This nomination, like nothing before it, has made it clear that we finally exist as intellectual arbiters in our America. We exist as powerbrokers. It is a dynamic we are working hard to grasp and own and make real. Sotomayor has made it real for all of us.

All this unity notwithstanding, this nomination has the deepest and most profound meaning for my Puerto Rican sisters. Stereotypes of Puerto Rican women from NYC run so deep in our popular culture. I can still hear Mick Jagger singing, "We're gonna come around at 12 with some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin to meet you. We're gonna bring a case of wine. Hey, let's go mess and fool around. You know, like we used to."

My Puerto Rican hermanas know that on some level they have always been fighting against a pervasive image. They are brilliant and accomplished but oftentimes minimized to a mere stereotype that is disconnected from reality.



What President Obama has done for men of color, Sonia Sotomayor will do for Puerto Rican women. She will forever and profoundly change the image of what a "Puerto Rican girl" really is.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-hinojosa/a-supreme-sotomayor-how-m_b_209185.html

[Adelante]

1. That brought tears to my eyes

Very moving.

[babylonsister]

2. I thought so, too. I don't think many people realize how

historic this nomination is to so many people.