Colorado made history yesterday by electing brothers Ken and John Salazar to the Senate and House. They are the first siblings from Colorado to serve in Congress; they are also Colorado’s first Hispanic members of Congress. For both, it was their first run at a national political office.

John’s 3rd Congressional District race wasn’t settled until late in the evening, which made things tough for the brothers’ 82-year-old mother:

Emma Salazar is matriarch of a family of seven living children that she and her late husband Henry raised on a ranch five miles east of Manassa. All her children earned at least a bachelor’s degree, and four hold graduate degrees.

“My heart doesn’t let me stay up late. I usually go to bed at nine,” Emma Salazar said, monitoring early returns from her recliner with a portable telephone in one hand and a TV remote control in the other. “Maybe they can wake me to tell me what happens.”