Sonia Sotomayor's Speech About Being A Latina-America

In a nation where as a society we are idolized for being “the Melting pot and the salad bowl” of ethnic and cultural diversity, we are continually fighting the tension to maintain this adulated value. In her speech at the Univerisity of California, Berkeley in 2001, being the first
Latina justice of the U.S Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor argues that the ideals that may define one’s ethnicity are broader than today’s culture may perceive in order to convey her message about being a Latina-American.
Sotomayor in the first two paragraphs develops her position as more than a Justice of the
Supreme Court to humanize herself as comparable to her young audience. She starts off by stating “Newyorkrican”, a term she used to describe herself as a New

She further develops this idea through the recollection of her favorite unique foods and traditions, such as “Mucho Platos de arroz”,
“Gandules y pernil”, and watching “countinflas”, Spanish Comedian. Through the continuous description of her Latina life while being an American citizen, she emphasized that while being from New York, a culture in itself, her family retains the ancestral traditions and past that they have kept for generations.
Furthermore, Sotomayor later discredits normalized stereotypes of Latino/Latina, that have become generalized in todays society. She begins by elaborating on the fact that “most of us..born and bred” in America “speak it very poorly”, implying that not all Latinos actually speak fluent Spanish. She also later states that there are several different Latino cultures from her family of Puerto Rican Americans to Latinos from the colonization of land by Spain. Although to some may seem Latino only identifies a small group of people the ethnic term is very broad encapturing many cultures from around the world. Sonia, a Latina woman, “only learned about tacos in college” from her Mexican-American roommate, further justifying Sotomayor’s

She also later states that there are several different Latino cultures, from her family of Puerto Rican Americans to Latinos from the colonization of land by Spain.
Although to some, Latino only identifies a small group of people, the ethnic term is very broad, encompassing many cultures from around the world. Sonia, a Latina woman, "only learned about tacos in college" from her Mexican-American roommate, further justifying Sotomayor's point that the term Latina/o represents a multitude of communities worldwide, not just one.
To pull the entirety of her speech together Sotomayor discerns the idea of an unambiguous thought process towards a diverse society. She engages the audience with this idea through her final paragraph where she says “that is often ambivalent about how to deal with its differences” when talking about nationwide diversity in America. By distinguishing this point and further backing it with a personal description of what she holds as a Latina-American, she juxtaposes the idea that America needs to rid itself of the “White and Black”, splitting thought process, and embrace the gift of cultural diversity which our constitution was built