FROM THE BOTTOM UP! SONIA SOTOMAYOR FROM THE PROJECTS TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT! IF SHE CAN DO IT! WE CAN DO ANYTHING!

At home inside the same Bronx housing project where Sonia Sotomayor grew up, one of her biggest supporters was growing frustrated.
Sotomayor had just been asked another stinging question, prompting little Jheosafaf Ortega, 11, to wave her hands in disgust.

“They won't rattle her,” Jheosafaf said from the floor of her apartment inside the Bronxdale Houses, her gaze still fixed on the TV.

“She's too smart for them. She won't fall into their traps.”

Sotomayor responded confidently. Jheosafaf's eyes lighted up.

“She has an answer for every question,” the sixth-grader shouted. “She will be the next Supreme Court justice. There is no stopping her.”

Jheosafaf, her two sisters and her parents beamed with pride Tuesday as they watched the woman who rose from the Soundview neighborhood to become a Supreme Court nominee field senators' questions.

The Ortega girls — Jheosafaf, Genesis, 9, and Sophia, 3 — stared at the TV from their tiled living room floor. Their father, Marcelo Ortega, and mother, Lorenza Bello, sat on a blue sofa nearby.

“Sotomayer is a great example of how people can succeed in life,” Marcelo Ortega, 41, an electrician, said. “My daughters need role models, and I couldn't ask for a better role model than her.”

Genesis didn't say much during the hearing, but she made clear she identified with Sotomayor.

“I like her,” Genesis said. “She looks like me.”

Jheosafaf, an aspiring astronaut, called Sotomayor an inspiration.

“If Judge Sotomayer can grow up here in the Bronxdale Houses and make it all the way to the Supreme Court, then I can do anything,” she said.