Also posted at feministmormonhousewives.org

When Lisa was here last week, we were chatting briefly about the new Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor and she suggested that I need a t-shirt that says "Wise Latina" because I am the resident Latina on fMh and (she thinks) I'm wise.

I was surprised and thrilled when, a few hours later, I flipped over my current issue of Latina magazine and found this image staring back at me.

I'm totally buying this in hopes that one day I can live up to its words.

******

I'd like to take a minute as a half-brown woman to share with the world how great I think it is to have a bona-fide brown woman sitting on the Supreme Court of the United States.

My grandmother, mother, aunts and cousins all Latin immigrants; Mexican, Cuban, Spanish, came here seeking a better life and though they never made it to positions as high as Ms. Sotomayor, they paved the way for me and my cousins to aspire to greatness. I am the first in my line to receive a college education and my cousin BJ the first in hers.

It wasn't easy for either of us. We came up poor and without the social /cultural expectations and/ or emotional and financial support needed to get us through University. Both of us on the receiving end of ugly words and deeds directed at us personally, directed at our families and directed at our people.

But somehow, despite the hardships, we pressed on.

And one day, hopefully, my daughter, who is brown, yellow and white, and BJ's children, who are brown, black and white, will not ever know what a big deal it is to be the first [insert gender/color here] to achieve [insert high ranking title here].

I hope that when they are 35, they will only know of a time when women, gays, blacks, yellow, reds and browns were considered less than equal to white men as an event only existing in the history books.