 Sonia Maria Sotomayor was born in the New York City borough of The Bronx . Her father was Juan Sotomayor ( born c . 1921 ) , from the area of Santurce , San Juan , Puerto Rico , and her mother was Celina Báez ( born 1927 ) , an orphan from the neighborhood of Santa Rosa in <unk> , a still mostly rural area on Puerto Rico 's southwest coast . 
