Ancestry of Sonia Sotomayor

Authors

1 Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Maria Sotomayor was born as the eldest of two children on 25 June 1954 in New York City. Her parents were Juan and Celina (Baez) Sotomayor.  Her parents came from Puerto Rico, moving to New York during World War II.

Sonia was diagnosed with diabetes when she was eight, and has needed to take insulin injections since.  She attended Cardinal Spellman High School.  She went to Princeton, and then on to Yale Law School.

She is a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  She was called "one of the top judges in New York City" when she was chosen by Barack Obama to rise to the Supreme Court.




2 Juan Luis Sotomayor

Juan Sotomayor was born in the Santurce area of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He moved to New York during WWII.  A factory worker, he died when Sonia was nine.  They lived in the Bronxdale Houses, a South Bronx housing project.  His eldest child, Sonia was born in 1954, the second Juan was also their last child as Juan Sr died in 1963 or 1964.




3 Celina Baez

Celina Baez was born in 1927 in Lajas, Puerto Rico.  Her mother died while she was young, and her father abandoned the family.  Celina was raised by her older siblings.  She enrolled in the U.S. Army, which sent her for a year to Manhattan.  She decided to stay, and there met her future husband Juan Sotomayor.  A nurse, the family lived in the Bronxdale Houses, a South Bronx housing project.  Her eldest child Sonia was born in 1954, and the next Juan shortly afterwards.  Juan Sr. died in 1963 or 1964.  After Juan died, Celina much later married again to Omar Lopez, and they moved to a retirement community in Margate, Florida.