Julia Alvarez

In the last decade of the 20th century, Vanity Fair—in what no doubt was a well-intended nod to the rising tide of Spanish-language and Latino literature—fabricated “Las Girlfriends,” a group portrait of authors Julia Alvarez, Ana Castillo, Denise Chavez, and Sandra Cisneros. (I have since forgotten—probably with good reason—what the accompanying text was about.) However, President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor and the attendant bleating and bellowing from apparently drug-crazed white men reminded me what a great thing it will be to have a Latina woman (sic) on the Supreme Court. My acquaintance with Latin culture and women gives me no small admiration for women who run the gauntlet of both a matriarchal and macho social nexus. At the risk of overstating/generalizing, a smart Latina is a powerful person to behold.

I was curious to know what Vermont dairy farmer, Middlebury mentor emeritus, Bread Loaf éminence blitheAlvarez (Saving the World, In the Time of the Butterflies) thought about the Sotomayor nomination. Her response:

Sag Harbor