By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor
Bronxites are getting ready to celebrate Sotomayor's confirmation. (Photo: peterkreder/Flickr)
With the end of Senate hearings Thursday, Spanish-language media are taking Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court as a given — and Puerto Ricans in New York and elsewhere are getting ready to celebrate.
“This has been bigger than when Menudo came to New York,” Bronx State Assemblyman José Rivera told New York newspaper El Diario/La Prensa. He promised to organize a parade through the borough’s streets when the judge, who grew up there, is confirmed to the nation’s highest court.
“The Bronx was abandoned, but Sotomayor is rescuing it,” he said.
“Now the whole world understands what we already know — that the days when buildings were burning are in the past,” Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. told the newspaper.
Spanish-language newspapers reported on the end of the hearings in a triumphal tone. “Sotomayor has nomination in her pocket,” said El Diario. “Road is clear for Sotomayor,” read Los Angeles paper La Opinión.
“The hearing was extraordinary. This has been an elegant and correct process, it’s a reflection of how she is,” attorney Mari Carmen Aponte, who’s close to the Sotomayors, told La Opinión. “It’s unbelievable. I’m still trying to control myself, what I want is to cry. Finally it’s over.”
“They didn’t bring her down, those who are opposed to her confirmation didn’t break her and they didn’t find any other factors which could affect this process.”
Spanish wire service Agencia EFE reported, “Sonia Sotomayor practically finalized her entrance in history as the first Latina justice on the Supreme Court during her last appearance before the Senate, in which she received praise from some Republicans.”
Puerto Ricans across the country are sure of Sotomayor’s confirmation.
“She will be confirmed because the environment is positive. I think Republicans lose more if they vote against her or if they abstain,” said Orlando, Florida community activist Violeta Burgos, quoted by local newspaper La Prensa.
On the island of Puerto Rico, El Nuevo Día chose a fitting baseball metaphor to portray the likely arrival of the Yankees fan to the high tribunal: “Sotomayor has Republicans at 3-2,” one of its headlines read.
