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Top 10 Interesting facts about Sonia Sotomayor
Sotomayor is famous for being the fearless federal trail court judge who saved baseball. She is known for her impassioned dissents on issues of race, ethnic, and gender identity, making her one of the most liked judges in the United States.
Simply put, Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since August 8, 2009. Her nomination to this position broke many records, but a major one was the inspiration it gave to the young people who live in poverty; “you are capable of conquering the world, do not let your surroundings define you.”
Below, we discuss the top 10 Interesting facts about Sonia Sotomayor that are guaranteed to make you feel inspired and motivated to do more;
1. She was raised in the Bronx
Sonia Sotomayor with her parents – Wikipedia
The now influential Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Incumbent, Sonia Sotomayor, was born on 25th June 1954 in the New York City borough of the Bronx. Her family lived in a South Bronx tenement.
Sotomayor’s parents had immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico during World War II. Her father, Juan Sotomayor, had a third-grade education, did not speak English and worked as a tool and die worker. Juan died at the age of 42from heart disease, Sotomayor was nine at the time.
Her mother Celina Báez was an orphan who before getting married served in the Women’s Army Corps. The Women’s Army Corps was the women’s branch of the United States Army that was disbanded in 1978. After, Celina worked as a telephone operator and then a practical nurse.
After the death of her father, the family moved to the well-maintained, racially and ethnically mixed, working-class Bronxdale Houses housing project in Soundview. Over time the Bronxdale Houses fell victim to increasing heroin use, crime, and the emergence of the Black Spades gang and the family moved to Co-op City in the Northeast Bronx in 1970.
2. Strained relationship with her mother
Growing up, Sotomayor has confessed that she did not share a close relationship with her mother, as she felt Celina was emotionally distance. Fortunately, her grandmother was close to her and gave her a source of “protection and purpose”.
The mother-daughter relations got worse, especially after Sotomayor’s father died, and her mother had to work six-days a week as a nurse to provide for the family. Sotomayor has confessed harbouring feelings of resentment towards her mother for a host of things—her father’s drinking and death, having to attend Catholic school, and her mother’s emotional absence.
Fortunately, as an adult, Sotomayor was able to mend her relationship with her mother upon the realization that her mother’s own abandonment as a child was at the root of her emotional detachment.
The two shared a good mother-daughter relationship up until the death of Celina in 2021 from cancer.
3. Motivated by her mother
Sotomayor in 2017 – Wikipedia
Despite the strained relation between the two, Sotomayor’s admiration for her mother is something that she has been very vocal about throughout her career. She explains, “She taught us that the key to success in America is a good education. And she set the example, studying alongside my brother and me at our kitchen table so that she could become a registered nurse.”
Generally speaking, upon reading the life story of Celina Sotomayor, you also share the same admiration the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States has. Celina was an impeccable woman who provided for her children a life better than what she had growing up, and was also active in supporting the people around her.
When former president Barack Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, Sotomayor gave a moving tribute in honour of her mother. “I stand on the shoulders of countless people. Yet there is one extraordinary person who is my life aspiration. That person is my mother, Celina Sotomayor.”
4. A life-long diabetic
Sonia Sotomayor, age six or seven – Wikipedia
Sotomayor was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age seven. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. The first symptoms of the disease that Sotomayor experience are fainting in church, being thirsty all the time, thus drunk a lot of water that resulted in her wetting her bed.
After which, she was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. At first, she thought the disease was life-threatening because after the doctor made his diagnosis, her mother crying started to cry. The doctor was able to calm the situation by explain that diabetes wasn’t so bad. She soon after started taking her daily insulin injections.
In 2011 when speaking to a crowd of children with type-1 diabetes, Sotomayor explained the three import things she learnt from her disease. First was discipline. When she was young, there were no disposable needles for insulin shots, hence she had to wake up early to boil water and sterilize her needles.
Second was how to multitask. As her needles sterilized, she used the time to do other things like brushing her teeth. Third, she learnt how to pay attention to her body. Due to the nature of the disease, Sotomayor has to be mindful of what she eats and how it will affect her body.
5. Sotomayor initially struggled while at Princeton University
Sotomayor’s 1976 Princeton yearbook photo – Wikipedia
Sotomayor earned a scholarship to study at Princeton University thanks to her achievements in high school, where she was valedictorian, and in part because affirmative action which made up for her standardized test score. She has described her time at the university as life changing.
When joining the school, Sotomayor felt like a visitor landing in an alien country, and this greatly affected her academic performance. She stumbled her first year at Princeton as her writing and vocabulary skills were weak, and she lacked knowledge in the classics.
Slow, she started becoming comfortable with her new surroundings and put in long hours in her studies. In her final two years in college, she received almost all A’s in her examinations. She graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in history in 1976.
6. Affirmative action or not Sotomayor proved her worth
Not only did Sotomayor earn a scholarship to study at Princeton University, but she also received a scholarship to join Yale Law School. However, Sotomayor believes that she again benefited from affirmative action to compensate for her relatively low standardized test scores. In support of this, a former dean of admissions at Yale said that given her record at Princeton, it probably had little effect.
Sotomayor worked hard in her studies and took advantage of the various programs available within the school. In 1979, she was awarded a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. She was then admitted to the New York Bar the following year.
7. She is the first woman of colour to serve on the Supreme Court
President Barack Obama meets with Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Vice President Joe Biden prior to an announcement in the East Room, May 26, 2009 – Wikipedia
On 26th May 2009 former President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in order to fill the position left by vacant by justice David Souter. During an interview, she revealed, “I had my [hand] over my chest, trying to calm my beating heart, literally,” when she learnt that she was Obama’s choice.
Sadly she faced opposition with even Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe urging Obama not to appoint Sotomayor, writing that “she’s not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is… her reputation for being something of a bully could well make her liberal impulses backfire and simply add to the firepower of the Roberts/Alito/Scalia/Thomas wing of the court.”
Fortunately, Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 13th July 2009 went smoothly. A month later on July 28, 2009 the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13–6 in favour of Sotomayor’s nomination.
With this nomination, Sotomayor became the third woman, first woman of colour, the first Hispanic, and first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court.
8. The judge who saved baseball
Sotomayor with her nephews at the original Yankee Stadium in 2007 – Wikipedia
One of Sotomayor’s most famous ruling as a federal district court judge in New York was on March 30, 1995, in Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc., that ended the 1994-1995 Major League Baseball strike.
Sotomayor issuing an injunction against Major League Baseball, preventing it from unilaterally implementing a new collective bargaining agreement and using replacement players. Her ruling that took place a day before the new season was scheduled to begin.
This decision raised Sotomayor’s profile among baseball fans and a lasting impact on the sport itself. She was privileged to throw the first pitch at a Yankees game that same year.
Even President Obama acknowledge the positive impact her decision had when he said, “ Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball,” in his 2009 nomination announcement.
9. She has authored four books
Sotomayor, 2017 – Wikipedia
Sotomayor has displayed her creative side by writing four books so far. Her 2013 memoir, My Beloved World, which talks about her childhood, education, and life through 1992.
The coming of age book received positive reviews, with Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times describes it as “a compelling and powerfully written memoir about identity and coming of age. … It’s an eloquent and affecting testament to the triumph of brains and hard work over circumstance, of a childhood dream realized through extraordinary will and dedication.”
In 2018, she began her journey of writing kids books. They include Turning Pages: My Life Story (2018), The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor (2019), Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You (2019) and Just Help! How to Build a Better World (2022) which was inspired by her mother.
We look forward to more amazing reads from her to inspire our young generation.
10. The Bronxdale Houses were renamed after her
Sonia Sotomayor speaking to attendees at the John P. Frank Memorial Lecture, 2017 – Wikimedia Commons
In June 2010, the Bronxdale Houses development, where Sotomayor grew up, was renamed to The Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses and Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community Center. The development comprises 28 buildings with some 3,500 residents.
During the ceremony Sotomayor reflected on childhood recalling,” I do remember each time I drive by that White Castle, the hours and hours of laughter that my cousins and I had as we roamed the grounds of this housing project, and played in the playgrounds, and screamed and fought and laughed and lived.”
The residents of the housing project were also happy with the name change, as they felt that the new name will inspire the children in the Bronx to transform their lives.
