Politics aside, Sonia Sotomayor is someone worth knowing about. So is her mother, Celina.

As with all the other women Supreme Court nominees, many nasty, irrelevant and erroneous news items are being spewed into the media. Post-election, what has happened to our American love of the rags to riches, up with your bootstraps stories that inspire our sense of scrappy American pride?  Please share Sonia Sotomayor’s story with young women in your life.  And, share her and her mother’s stories with working women in your life.  These people are true examples of the contributions that women have made to our economy and our country.  

To rise out of her childhood as an impoverished orphan in Puerto Rico, Sotomayor’s mother joined the US Army and came to Georgia in the 1940s.  After the Senior Sotomayor’s husband died leaving her in the projects with 2 kids to feed, she continued work as a nurse.  Ultimately, she enrolled her children to give her support as she tackled the education that allowed her to move from LPN to RN, becoming the nursing supervisor for her hospital’s emergency room.  Determined, resourceful and independent, she created a working life that supported and inspired her children.  While I am sure she had some bad times, her drive and emphasis on education certainly helped foster their own later achievements and contributions.  

We all need our heroes and myths of growth and success against all odds – they help keep us going.  It’s just too bad that political snipes and media hype are overshadowing the mythic nature of the Sotomayor women.  Women and girls need our Paul Bunyons and MLKs.  Don’t let the nastiness of this nomination take that away from us.

To learn more about Sotomayor’s family, visit a great article by David Saltonstall in the NY Daily New.

Submitted by Julia de Peyster