Another Memorable Memoir

In the past few years, I've found myself very drawn to reading memoirs.  I'm definitely more a nonfiction than a fiction person, and memoirs fit right in with this bent of mine.  And I find it so meaningful to read the stories of people's lives, with a more reflective perspective in the telling of the events.  Sometimes, I like view experiences in my own life with a memoir approach, wondering how I would view and interpret each (notable) event years later when writing a memoir of my years and years of life.  It helps me deal with disappointments and savor enjoyable times.

For the occasion of Hispanic American Heritage Month, I read My Beloved World by Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor.  In addition, it was fitting to read this in the month when the Supreme Court convenes its new term, which happened on October 7 this calendar year.

It was quite something to read about each stage of her life as she zoomed in with incredible depth: her childhood in the Bronx, her school days at Blessed Sacrament and Cardinal Spellman, her experience as a minority student at Princeton in the 70s, Yale law school, working as an assistant district attorney, and her job at Pavia and Harcourt before becoming a judge.  (She states outright in one of the chapters that she has no intention for this book to shed light on her judicial perspectives, but they can somewhat be inferred from her experiences.)  She really opens up about her experiences, many of them deeply personal, and that tone for the book was firmly set right at the beginning when she wrote about the traumatic experience of being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.

I was able to connect with many details of Ms. Sotomayor's life, as we share a common Hispanic heritage, though she is Puerto Rican, and I am Mexican.  This was manifest in how I picked up on many references to Spanish phrases.

The book's title comes from a line from the poem "A Puerto Rico (Regreso)", which means "To Puerto Rico (I Return)", by José Gautier Benítez.  It is clear from the wording that the narrator has left his native Puerto Rico for another land, and then returns, sensing immense thrill in seeing his native place again.  He profoundly expresses a paradox, that he cannot thrive without being in his homeland, but cannot truly love it unless he is away from it.

That poem really struck a chord with me as I ponder my relationship with home, especially in regards to how I spent much of the past four years away from it while purusing my university education.  It reflects how wondrous I perceive my home, and how close I remain to it, just as many in Hispanic cultures are close to home and family.