Justice Sotomayor: Crucial Insights of a Wise Latina

       Here's the problem. Judge Sonya Sotomayor spoke about the potential insights of a wise Latina and the nation's potato heads accused her of everything from "racism" to sexism. She made a statement, her adversaries said 'you must be kidding' and she ultimately she decided to protect her nomination by equivocating during Congressional hearings.

    Meanwhile, the rest of us lost an opportunity to publicly debate the crucial insights Judge Sotomayor can bring to the U.S. Supreme Court -and to the nation.

     Start with heritage. Judge Sotomayor traces her roots to what José Martì called "nuestra" or Our America. Martì deliberately made a distinction between the Great Colossus of the North and a triangle that extends from Mexico to Argentina and back to the Caribbean. Especially in relation to questions of heritage, Our America was different, characterized by people like Tatyana Ali, the actress who portrayed Ashley Banks on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bellaire. In Our America no one is surprised by a woman with a Panamanian mother and an East Indian father because delightful ethnic fusions have always characterized life South of the Border.

      Justice Sotomayor's heritage is from Puerto Rico, a crucial component of "Our America" As a Latina and a Puertorriqueña she would not be surprised by Ms. Ali's fused heritages; from Rincon to Fijardo to Vieques, Puerto Rico lovingly boasts ethnic fusions that include Irish surnames and blond hair. In explaining this America to her Supreme Court colleagues Justice Sotomayor could underline that in Spanish "raza" refers to "the people", to the Hispanic/Latina people who are, by definition, fusions of many heritages.

     The biological homogeneity implied by the U.S. use of the word race seems ridiculous in a Caribbean where, as in Havana, you can see Chinese facial characteristics on the faces of folks speaking Spanish with all the word shortening for which Cubans are justly renowned. In a mischievous mood a wise Latina woman might ask the Court to empathize with the experiences of Ms. Ali. Seated in a New York restaurant with a "white" escort, a fan approached and said that he would no longer watch the show. He could not believe that a "black" woman would date a "white" guy.

    In North America a fantastic fusion loses her humanity, metastasizes into only a skin color and receives scorn and abuse from a "fan" who epitomizes the institutionalized insanity of American "racial" classifications. For example, once her true heritage is discovered Ms. Ali would move from black to nonwhite. She would be the negative to the white positive.

     As a wise Latina, Justice Sotomayor offers us the possibility of transcending the white, black, nonwhite triad that still dominates American thinking.  Judge Sotomayor could argue that Americans have more to learn from "Our America" than "Our America" can ever learn from the color coded strait jackets that, as with Ms. Ali's "fan", poisonously define us by what divides us. Using her experiences as a backdrop Judge Sotomayor could even initiate a national debate about the legitimacy and consequences of American "racial" concepts.

   Moving from "race" and ethnicity to political status Judge Sotomayor could ask the Court and the nation to finally confront one of  America's greatest contradictions: The U.S., arguably the oldest representative democracy on earth, also owns Puerto Rico, unquestionably the oldest colony on earth.

    In his September 9th, 2009  speech about health care President Obama often mentioned freedom as a hallmark of the American character. How does the President square that assertion with the political status of Puerto Rico?

     Since the U.S. invasion in July of 1898 the U.S. has claimed plenary or absolute power over all aspects of Puerto Rican life. And as late as 2005 President Bush stressed that Puerto Rico, unlike Hawaii, was never meant to be a state; in addition, Puerto Ricans living on the island were citizens "by statue" and not by birth. As with Ms. Ali and her skin color, Puerto Ricans (on the island) could be transformed into international pariahs at the drop of a Congressional hat.

   What President Bush failed to mention was the origin of U.S citizenship for Puerto Ricans. In 1914 Congressman William Jones voiced concern about "the agitation for independence" expressed by many Puerto Ricans. Independence was out of the question so Puerto Ricans would be offered U.S. citizenship as a way of emphasizing that "Puerto Rico was a permanent possession of the United States." When, in 1914 and in 1917, Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner Luis Muñoz Rivera refused this offer -we do not want a "second class" citizenship- he was told that Congress made the rules and that was that.

   Puerto Ricans became U.S, citizens against their will in April of 1917 and President Wilson affirmed their colonial status with this transparent assertion: " We welcome the new citizen, not as a stranger but as one entering his father's house."

     In a series of so called "Insular Cases" the U.S. Supreme Court sanctified the imperial attitude so cavalierly displayed  by President Wilson. Justice Sotomayor might ask her colleagues and the nation to reconsider those Supreme Court decisions, as well as a series of Congressional mandates about Puerto Rican political life. For example, when Congress offered Puerto Ricans the right to draft their own Constitution (which Congress subsequently changed), the nation's lawmakers (in House Report 1832, March, 1952) stressed this point: "It is important that the nature and general scope of (the new law) S. 3336 be made absolutely clear. The bill under consideration would not change Puerto Rico's fundamental political. social and economic relationship to the United States."

    As a wise Latina and a proud Puerto Rican,  Justice Sotomayor might make these points. Virtually no one denied that Puerto Rico was a colony in 1952; on the floor of the House, Fred Crawford even spoke about our Puerto Rican "subjects"

  So, since Congress made it "absolutely clear" that the new laws made no "fundamental" changes in Puerto Rican political life, the island remains a colony in 2009 because nothing fundamental has changed since 1952. On the contrary, when they testify before the U.N. committee on decolonization representatives of all of Puerto Rico's political parties stress that the island is, always has been, and remains a U.S. colony.

  Justice Sotomayor could ask her colleagues and the nation to examine history and remind President Obama that to broadcast America's love of freedom is hypocritical when Puerto Rico remains a U.S. possession and the oldest colony on earth.