Pedro Colon

Updated - Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee is demonstrating why she is going to be confirmed as the next U.S. Supreme Court member.

As Senator Herb Kohl remarked, the Republican criticism of Sotomayor is "totally refuted by the record that (she has) compiled" as a judge.

History is being made today as the confirmation hearings begin on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Latina Americans comprise all colors and persuasions of our nation’s people.

Like other immigrant populations, Latina Americans embody the American Dream: Work hard and nothing will stop you from achieving your aspirations.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's historic nomination to the United States Supreme Court is another display of this truism.

By now Sotomayor's biography is well known.

A Puerto Rican Latina growing up in a South Bronx housing project, through perseverance and talent Sotomayor excelled in her academic studies, graduating from Princeton University and Yale Law School.

The first Latina nominated to sit on a federal appellate court, Sotomayor has worked as a prosecutor and member of the Puerto Rico Legal Defense and Education Fund, among a rich life experience.

Yet Sotomayor's nomination is drawing derision, attacks on a Puerto Rican Latina of whom all Americans should be proud. Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and the right wing stop at nothing in their denunciations and lies.

There is no need to review the litany of attacks on Sotomayor here, but their message to Americans is clear: Work hard, achieve, and still the right wing will dishonor you and tell you that you are an Affirmative Action hire.

‘No, you can’t,’ Sotomayor is being told now, as she has her whole life.

These last six months have seen many firsts, much cause for hope as America fights back from eight years outsourcing jobs, betraying our veterans, hollowing out our economy through corruption and war, and abdicating our responsibility to hold those charged with protecting our common good accountable.

No matter the hatred and recklessness, we will bounce back.

And Sonia Sotomayor will lead the way as the first Latina on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor will endure and beat back the disgraceful attacks on her character and her commitments.

To borrow from President Obama on election night: “It’s been a long time coming … and to those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: ‘Yes, we can.’”