A conclusive end happened after the hearings of assertion that there led supreme Sonia Sotomayor, virtual magistrate of the nation.

The members of the Judicial Committee of the Senate had the opportunity to show themselves during the hearings of assertion of the jueza Sonia Sotomayor. Some time ago that were not receiving so much press attention, this way the fact is that the hearings gave them the opportunity to be shown rising "hard" questions so that this way his electorate could see how they are looking over his interests. And this way they did it.

The senators interrogated the jueza Sotomayor, who is on the point of turning into the first jueza of the Supreme Court of Hispanic origin, on the topics of the abortion, the control of weapon and the marriages between persons of the same sex. But with a solid and almost impeccable record, and with a wide trajectory, it was not easy to extract him trapitos dirty, in such a way that they focused in a speech that it pronounced in 2001 in the University of California, Berkeley, in whom he emphasized his credentials like “Latin Savant.”

The part of the speech that has caused a big fuss between some of his critics is the one that says: "He would hope that a Latin woman with knowledge, with his enriching experiences, would come to better conclusions than a white man who has not lived through this life”. The Sotomayor critics say that his comments represent racism on the contrary, that they are afraid that his ethnic origin and his genre influence important decisions that it must take in the maximum court of the nation.

Sotomayor tried to silence the criticism virtually retracting his words. He said that while she believed in the message that he tried to send with his speech, the words that it chose were “a bad idea”. It clarified his point of view saying: "I believe generally in the experiences of the life, this way be Latin, or that has been a state district attorney, or she have been a commercial litigant, or an appeals jueza, that the miscellany of all these things, the amalgam of all of them, they help me to listen and to understand”.

Then: was it a good idea retracting of the above mentioned? She will know why she did it. It is possible that he realized that like jueza, nothing in his life sheet must influence his decision making, especially in the Supreme Court when cases that come at this level are inspected repeatedly.

As she says, his judicial philosophy is to be faithful to the law. He analyzes the details, studies the precedents and applies the law. But the reality is that it had reason great in what he said in now sadly famous phrase. The enriching experiences that a person accumulates across the years, form it like individual. That is both for the men and for the women in different professions. But when one is a Latin woman, having faced what Sotomayor had to bear from a very young age, these experiences had to make her more wise and with major empathy.

The Sotomayor life is a living example of the challenges that many Hispanics face in this country, growing in a poor local community and being raised by an alone mother who inculcated big labor ethics and taught him the necessary virtues to prosper in a competitive society.

And the fact is that the Latin women are strong persons who have to learn to survive in a society male chauvinist. From girls we are guided for two cultures, two traditions and, big part of the time, for two languages. One teaches us to shelter familiar values, to be persons in charge, to be honest and loyal, to be brave, compassionate and prudent.

One hopes that we should be humble and sure, respectful and determined. To feel comfortable with what we are, in spite of the color of the skin, the texture of the hair or the accent in ours voice.

Sonia Sotomayor brings a lot of professional experience to the Supreme Court and his record demonstrates that it will be a magistrate jousts and impartially.

But the way since he behaved during the hard examinations opposite to the Judicial Committee of the Senate, what assures virtually his assertion as the first Hispanic one in the Supreme Court, it demonstrates that in fact she is a “Latin Savant”.

(c) 2008 by Maria Helen Salinas.