When her nomination was confirmed in 2009, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor became only the third woman to serve in the nation’s highest court. She also became the elite nine’s first Latino justice.
Despite her historic career, however, Justice Sotomayor maintains that she is no different from those who also dream big.
“I think to move people beyond just dreaming into doing,” Sotomayor said in a recent interview with NPR, “they have to be able to see that you're just like them and you still made it.”
And made it she has.
In her autobiography, My Beloved World, the Justice retraces her journey from the Bronx to the Supreme Court, sparing little insight as to how she overcame remarkable obstacles to reach the nation’s highest court. From having to learn how to inject insulin (Sotomayor is diabetic) at the age of seven because her father’s alcoholism worsened and he could no longer be trusted to do so, to the vitriol she encountered from fellow students at Princeton because she’d benefited from affirmative action, Sotomayor writes candidly in her new book, maintaining her role as the Supreme Court’s most relatable—and accessible—justice.
Sotomayor will sit down for a conversation with University of Miami President Donna Shalala at the BankUnited Center (1245 Dauer Dr., Coral Gables) Friday at 6 p.m. Tickets for two come with purchase of My Beloved World ($27.95) from Books and Books while supplies last. Seating is first come, first serve.
Fri., Feb. 1, 2013