The source I chose is a memoir called My Beloved World by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The book was published January 15, 2013 and focuses on Sotomayor’s childhood and life, including her path into the legal world.
My Beloved World begins directly from her childhood and leads all the way up to adulthood. Sotomayor tells us how life was like being a young Catholic raised girl living in the Bronx with diabetes, a father who loved drinking, and her entire family living nearby. Sotomayor navigates the readers through her childhood, teen years, and well into adulthood. Along the way we experience a lot of struggles, tears, joy, and both good and bad memories. We see many interactions with friends, family, teachers that help and mentor Sotomayor, and are a major influence on the person that she is today.
The memoir portrayed legal concepts through mini stories. During her time at Yale Law School, we’re taken through her experiences in both her personal life and academically. She joins many Latin/Hispanic clubs, does internships, attends various events, and eventually begins working at the District Attorney’s office when she graduates. When she first started out as an assistant, she was assigned to one of six trial bureaus, which included up to fifty experienced prosecutors and support staff. The new assistants did not expect to enter a real courtroom for at least another year, as this was normal. Instead, after a few weeks of working on a case assignment, it was ready to go to trial. Sotomayor tells us first hand how the legal system works, and how the workings within a court are with her firsthand experiences like this one.
Since My Beloved World is a memoir, it presents the legal world in an accurate manner, at least through the way Sotomayor sees it and interprets it. Her journey into the legal field begins much before law school, but that is where it is heavily spoken about. I would recommend this book to others because although this story is about Sotomayor’s personal life, it is also a story about growing up in difficult situations and making the most of it. The story is about succeeding regardless of who you are, and where you are. As long as you have the motivation and willingness to succeed, you can. I personally love this book, I’ve read it multiple times as a child, and now as an adult. It had a really big impact on my life because I relate to Sotomayor. Many of the things she went through throughout her childhood resonated with me and my own experiences, so seeing someone like me succeed was a big thing for me as a child. Sotomayor and this book are the biggest reasons why I have an interest in the legal profession. While working on this assignment, I conducted some of my own personal research and found that a recent study from the ABA (American Bar Association) finds that 5.8% of lawyers in the US are Hispanic. The HNBA (Hispanic National Bar Association) found that Latina’s make up 2% of all lawyers in the US. After reading these numbers, it just makes Sotomayor’s story much more impactful to me, and the numbers serve as an additional source of motivation.
