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Hispanic Heritage Month

This guide is designed to highlight library resources about history, literature, film, art, music, and culture of Hispanic/Latino peoples. It is part of the Global Learning Virtual Collections Series.

Sonia Sotomayor

(Photo credit: https://supremecourthistory.org/supreme-court-justices/associate-justice-sonia-sotomayor/)

Sonia Sotomayor – the fearless federal trial court judge who saved Major League Baseball from a ruinous 1995 strike – entered the record book as the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the High Court. Sotomayor was born in the Bronx on June 25, 1954 to Juan Sotomayor and Celina Baez, both native Puerto Ricans. Her father worked in manual labor and her mother was a nurse. The family took residence in the Bronxdale Houses, one of the most coveted complexes in the city-owned housing projects. Sotomayor’s father passed away when she was nine. Following his death, Celina began working six-day weeks as a nurse to support the family, and Sonia learned to speak English fluently. Celina managed to send her children to private Catholic school. Sotomayor decided to become an attorney at the age of 10 upon watching an episode from the legal drama "Perry Mason." With this goal in mind, she studied diligently while attending Cardinal Spellman High School. Through self-enforced discipline, Sotomayor graduated valedictorian of her class in 1972.

She earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the university’s highest academic honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from 1979-1984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner from 1984-1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992-1998. She served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998-2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role on August 8, 2009. 

(Source: https://www.oyez.org/justices/sonia_sotomayor and https://supremecourthistory.org/supreme-court-justices/associate-justice-sonia-sotomayor/)