New Yorkers: Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor, Born and Raised in The Bronx

Earlier this month, Sonia Sotomayor, the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, released her memoir My Beloved World, which Oprah called a “love letter” to her life growing up in The Bronx. “Because that’s what it is,” responded Sotomayor, who lived in a South Bronx tenement and the well-maintained, racially and ethnically mixed, working-class Bronxdale Houses housing project in Soundview during her childhood. “So many people grew up with challenges, as I did. There weren’t always happy things happening to me or around me. But when you look at the core of goodness within yourself—at the optimism and hope—you realize it comes from the environment you grew up in.” Now that’s one Wise Latina! The New York Times describes Sotomayor’s book as “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.” 

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