My Beloved World

"My Beloved World" by Sonia Sotomayor

I'm posting a summary of our June 24 discussion of Sonia Sotomayor's memoir "My Beloved World," but I didn't take good notes (in spite of the notepad that sat on my lap the whole time) because I was drawn into the discussion and completely forgot to write anything. I apologize for the absence of the many great comments and observations that you all shared when we met. The folks who were in town and able to attend included Margie, Mary, Annie, Sheri, Joan, Paige, and me.

In a C-Span lecture to the Progressive Forum http://www.c-span.org/video/?310616-1/book-discussion-beloved-world (which can be found online and which we watched & listened to), Justice Sotomayor said about her memoir, "I want readers of my book to learn something. She added, " I want them to learn something about themselves." Our discussion confirmed that she achieved both outcomes within the readers from our group.   

All of us had profusely highlighted our copies, and we discovered many times we had highlighted the same sections. Mary Sanz shared this passage that I had also highlighted and others clearly remembered: "I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can't understand someone else's point of view." What an important fundamental perspective to bring to the bench of the Supreme Court.

We discussed at length the causes and effects of Sonia being wise beyond her years at a  young age. As you might expect, we spent a lot of time wondering about her influences, about what and who shaped her.  Would she have developed these traits if she hadn't had diabetes, which meant she wouldn't have been motivated to be so self-reliant at eight years old? Would she have been so independent if her parents' relationship had been more stable? How was it that in 5th grade she was motivated to approach a fellow student for advice on how to study more effectively? She asked similar questions of herself: "What if my father hadn't died, if I hadn't spent that sad summer reading, if my mother's English had been no better than my aunts? Would I have made it to Princeton?" She later reflected, "When I was little, listening and watching for cues had seemed like the key to survival in a precarious world."

Several people commented on the fact she lacked confidence yet developed habits that helped her overcome her own doubts. She credited her mother's example for shaping Sonia's approaches to working around her own insecurities. She wrote about her mother's issues with quizzes and tests when she was a student: "But more important was her example that a surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence. It was something I would remember often in years ahead, whenever faced with fears that I wasn't smart enough to succeed." Such honest observations allowed us to find our own common ground with her.

We talked at length about the beauty of her relationship with her Abuelita and the complications and richness of her relationship with her mother. 

We talked about how the value of the perspective she brings to the Supreme Court based on her experiences growing up in poor neighborhoods was clear when she told how in her first job at United Bargains, one of her tasks was to watch for shoplifters. She noted that the store managers didn't feel the need to call the cops, who had more serious work to do anyway, because they knew that simply getting caught was itself a punishment. Many of us highlighted these segments: She said, "When someone's dignity shatters in front of you, it leaves a hole that any feeling heart naturally wants to fill, if only with its own sadness." She wrote that when she was in the DA's office, the lessons she had learned in childhood among the Latinos of the Bronx proved to be critical to her success. She spoke of the need for an understanding of how the law affects individual lives. We saw her tempered satisfaction at winning a case when she commented that she chose not to join the other attorneys in her firm after sending someone to jail for a long time. She understood that his extended family would suffer as a result, and while she was glad justice had been served, she felt badly for what this would do to all of them.

I wondered to the group if the other justices had read or would read her book. In my humble opinion, they need to. 

These were some of the key points the group brought up. We agreed that yes, we all learned more than we knew before we read the book, not only about her life but also about ourselves.