SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Judge Carol Vigil, in a hurry to start her first official day on the bench, could barely make it out of a favorite downtown breakfast spot.
Waiters and waitresses clogged the aisle, giving her congratulatory hugs. A customer embraced her at the restaurant door. A passer-by on the sidewalk grabbed her for a congratulatory hug."Small town," she said, with a smile.
Friends and acquaintances of the courthouse veteran rejoiced with her as she realized a longtime dream. Sworn in privately the previous evening, Vigil was about to put on the black robes of a judge.
It's a personal triumph for Vigil, who was elected in November after being passed over four times for appointment to judicial vacancies.
But when she formally took her oath of office at a big, public ceremony last week, it had a broader resonance as well.
Fifty years after Indians won the right to vote in New Mexico, Vigil is the first Indian to become a state district court judge.
Regis Pecos, director of the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs, describes it as a significant milestone for Indians throughout the country.
It also is a tribute to New Mexico's multiculturalism and a reflection of the growing Indian activism in state politics, he said.
"I want to be a role model for our children," said Vigil, 51, who lives at Tesuque Pueblo. "This has not come easy. I've fallen, and I've had to pick myself up. . . . I feel so strongly that, by being where I am, it can show them they can do it, too."
Vigil's mother was from Isleta Pueblo, south of Albuquerque, where her grandfather ran the train depot. Vigil's father was from Tesuque Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, where her grandfather was active in tribal land struggles in the 1920s.
She grew up in Albuquerque, thinking she was going to be an artist. Vigil paints, sculpts and makes pottery.
She graduated from the University of New Mexico, after dropping out for a time, and went to UNM law school. Although she was used to excelling, she found law school intimidating, so she left for a year and worked.
She graduated in 1978, the first female Pueblo Indian lawyer in New Mexico, and joined Indian Pueblo Legal Services. But she didn't want to get pigeonholed.
"There was something in the back of my mind that kept telling me, 'You're not going to be as valuable to your community if you just practice Indian law. . . . You need to know how . . . to represent anyone who comes in the door.' "
So Vigil did criminal appeals in the state attorney general's office for four years, then went into private practice, doing civil and criminal work. She prosecuted child sexual abuse cases for tribes and wrote the tribal codes for Tesuque and Taos Pueblos.
In 1989, she was hired by the Santa Fe-based 1st Judicial District to set up a child support hearing office. In 1994, she became a special commissioner for domestic violence cases. In all, she did nine years of quasi-judicial work in the courthouse.
It convinced her she wanted to -- and could -- be a judge. She is confident that diversity strengthens the judiciary.
"We all come with our own backgrounds, our little packages, and I think the more diversity you have, the stronger the pool of decision-making becomes," she said.
Four times, she was on a judicial selection committee's list of finalists to fill a vacant judgeship. Each time, the governor chose someone else.
This year, she decided to challenge a sitting judge in the Democratic primary in the district that includes Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties. She won the primary, and had no opponent in the general election.
"This is somebody who's come up in the ranks, who's worked hard, who's wanted to be a judge for a long time . . . and she finally made it," said Sam Deloria, who runs the 30-year-old American Indian Law Center at UNM, a summer program to jump-start Indian students headed to law school. Vigil took part in that program.
Her colleagues describe Vigil as a hard worker and a bridge-builder, someone who brings people together. She has worked extensively on community projects and has gotten state and tribal courts to collaborate on domestic violence and other family issues.
As a judge assigned to Children's Court she promised to keep doing that. "I hope I'm going to close some of those gaps," she said.