The following article by Chao Xiong was posted on the StarTribune website January 5, 2018:
State’s first Hmong-American jurist is right at home on Ramsey County bench.
Sophia Vuelo was born in Laos during wartime and raised in Wisconsin by a widowed mother who could barely write her own name. On Thursday, she became Minnesota’s first Hmong-American judge, and only one of a few in the country.
“Never let your circumstances or your birthplace prevent who you are … ,” Vuelo told a packed crowd that included high school classmates, community leaders and young girls.
Vuelo was sworn in as the 29th member of the Ramsey County District Court bench. She switched between English and Hmong as she addressed attendees, tearing up as she recalled the Lutheran church that “took a chance” by helping to resettle her family.
“That has made all of the difference to me,” she said. “We were poorer than a church mouse.” Continue reading “Minnesota swears in state’s first Hmong-American judge”