Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an American lawyer who is currently serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York on June 25th, 1954. Her parents, Juan Sotomayor and Celina Baez, both moved from Puerto Rico to New York during World War II. Sonia takes pride in being a “Nuyorican”, and grew up in a Puerto Rican community in the Eastern part of The Bronx. She was inspired to become a lawyer after watching the Perry Mason TV series after her initial dream of wanting to become a detective was crushed by her diabetes diagnosis.

Sotomayor later attended Princeton University, where says her time there was completely life-changing even though felt left out in a predominantly white school. During her time at Princeton, she did not like the fact that there wasn’t a single Latino professor or any curriculum about Latin American history. After being ignored by the university’s president, she decided to tell a New York Times reporter about the lack of effort on Princeton’s behalf, which eventually led to the school becoming a more inclusive environment.

In 1976 she attended Yale Law School, where she eventually became an editor for the Yale Law Journal. She was also the co-chair of a group for POC students at Yale. Fast forward to May 26th 2009, former president of the United States nominated Sonia to become a Justice, making her the first Latina woman to serve as member of the Supreme Court. She was one of the six justices that voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act. In 2019, Sotomayor was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame for impact on the United States as a woman of color in power.

“The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever,” state Sotomayor.