The morning President Barack Obama introduced federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee, Dr. Ruth E. Zambrana, a professor in the University of Maryland-College Park Women’s Studies department, received numerous phone calls from gleeful colleagues. Zambrana and her peers were elated with the news of Sotomayor’s nomination, Zambrana said.

If the U.S. Senate confirms Obama’s nomination, which is the first by a Democratic president in 15 years, Sotomayor, 54, will become the first Hispanic, the third woman, and the sixth Catholic to join the highest court of the land.

Zambrana, who is also interim director of the U.S. Latino Studies (USLT) initiative at the University of Maryland and author of the upcoming book, U.S. Latino Families and Communities in Transformation, said Obama’s choice reaffirms the national identity of Latino Americans.

“Most Latinos in this country are citizens,” Zambrana said. “I think most importantly, what Obama’s nomination represents is political visibility for the Latino community. Very few (Latinos) are at the federal level in terms of power.”

Sotomayor’s nomination demonstrates Latino talent and accomplishment, which many people do not see often in television and film, Zambrana said.

“Latinas are often represented as maids or as low-level workers. It challenges all of the images of Latinos in the media,” she said.

During the May 26 announcement, Obama said Sotomayor “faced down barriers, overcame the odds and lived out the American dream that brought her parents here so long ago.”