Sonia Sotomayor, selected Tuesday by President Barack Obama as his choice for a vacant Supreme Court seat, would be the first Latina to serve on the bench, welcome news to the Minnesotan Latino population.

Rogelio Munoz, Jr., executive director of the Minnesota Chicano Latino Affairs Council, said the selection is a big step forward for Latinos across the country.

“It serves as an inspiration to many folks here,” he said. “It certainly is an American dream.”

Obama’s selection of the 54-year-old Sotomayor, born to Puerto Rican parents and raised in a Bronx, New York, housing project, was “just amazing,” Munoz, Jr., said, and should have an impact on an expanding Latino population in the state.

Munoz, Jr., said a Latino presence in Minnesota dates back to not long after statehood.

“Cities like Austin have seen growth in Latino population, but it is certainly not a new community,” he said.

That community makes up an estimated 7.8 percent of Mower County’s population as of 2007–nearly twice that of the state. Austin alone is estimated as having a roughly 10 percent Hispanic or Latino population.

Though Latinos are a sizable demographic in the area and across the country, Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen said it’s most important to always pick the most qualified candidate for the court, not necessarily one from a particular background.

“It should be the best judge,” Nelsen said. “I hope she makes her way as a judge and not as a woman or a Latina.”

Nelsen said Sotomayor’s selection could affect Austin, but not necessarily because of her background.

“I think it’ll make an impact in town if she makes an impact on the Supreme Court,” Nelsen said. “To what extent, I don’t know.”

While what type of judicial impact Sotomayor will have both locally and nationally remains to be seen, Munoz, Jr., said he thinks the nomination alone could open a lot of doors. He likened Sotomayor’s nomination to Obama’s choice of Janet Napolitano as secretary of Homeland Security and Gary Locke as secretary of commerce–two other minorities who have ascended to high positions under the new administration

“It’s definitely going to engage a lot of new people in the (legal) process,” Munoz, Jr., said.