Discussion Questions for Sonia Sotomayor’s
My Beloved World
Overall Discussion Questions
How did Sonia Sotomayor’s family, cultural, and personal life help her to become
a better student, lawyer, and judge?
Based on Sonia Sotomayor’s experiences, discuss whether there should be
affirmative action (race and gender-based) in higher education and employment.
Beyond admissions criteria, discuss whether cultural/racial identity should be a
part of any academic or employment activities.
Compare and contrast your own academic experiences with Sonia Sotomayor’s
academic and professional career. Describe ways in which Sonia Sotomayor’s
example encourages your behavior or motivates you.
Based on Sonia Sotomayor’s experiences, describe what is beloved about the
practice of law and explain how to excel in legal practice.
How was networking an essential part of Sonia Sotomayor’s success?
Based on Sonia Sotomayor’s experiences, discuss whether or not success comes
only to those who are confident that they will succeed.
Specific Discussion Questions
Did Sonia Sotomayor aspire to become a Supreme Court Justice? What did she
aspire to become? Is it a worthwhile goal to have similar aspirations? (p. viii)
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What physical malady did Sonia Sotomayor have? What did Abuelita attempt to
do to help? (p. 7) How did the malady lead her to assert more of her
independence? (p. 11)
What was daily family life like for Sonia Sotomayor? (pp. 12-15) What was her
relationship like with Abuelita (p. 16)?
How did Sonia Sotomayor feel about her personal image? (p. 20) When did she
come to reconciliation with it? (pp. 282-283)
What was the velada practice? What distinguished it from witchcraft? (pp. 2324)
What was Sonia Sotomayor’s mother’s relationship with her father like? (pp. 3839) In her words, why was there no forgiveness in the relationship? (p. 39)
What happened to Sonia Sotomayor’s father? (Chapter 5) What memories did
she have of that day? (p. 45)
What was one of Sonia Sotomayor’s favorite books? (p 48)
Why, in part, was Abuelita mad about her son’s death? (pp. 48-49) What was
Sonia Sotomayor’s explanation for the sadness? What did Sonia Sotomayor later
come to appreciate? (p. 51)
What incident led Sonia Sotomayor’s mother to grow through her grief and open
up to her daughter? (pp. 49-52)
How did Sonia Sotomayor’s parents meet? When did her father’s life take a turn
for the worse? (p. 62)
What did Sonia Sotomayor’s mother do to show her commitment to her
daughter’s education? (p. 70) What set of books interested Sonia Sotomayor?
(p. 70)
What did Sonia Sotomayor do to become one of the most successful 5th grade
students? (p. 72)
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Because of her illness, what type of life outlook did Sonia Sotomayor take? (p. 78)
How did Sonia Sotomayor’s professional aspirations evolve? (p. 79) Why did
Sonia Sotomayor like the judges? (p. 81)
How does Sonia Sotomayor grow socially? (pp. 83-84)
What Sonia Sotomayor believe she had to become in order to be a lawyer? How
did she begin to develop it? (pp. 86-87)
What did Blessed Sacrament find odd about Sonia Sotomayor’s ambitions? (the
yearbook inscription) (p. 88)
How did Sonia Sotomayor serve as a representative for her peers in Spanish class?
(p. 90)
Why did the book Lord of the Flies interest Sonia Sotomayor? (p. 92)
What positives and negatives did Sonia Sotomayor learn about police and law
enforcement as she headed out into her first jobs? (pp. 94-97)
How did Sonia Sotomayor grow in terms of interracial relationships? (p. 103)
What did Sonia Sotomayor’s junior high history teacher, Ms. Katz, tell Sonia
Sotomayor that she needed to know? (p 104) What progressive ideas did Sonia
Sotomayor also learn about for the first time?
What did Kenny Moy teach Sonia Sotomayor not to do during debate? (p. 110)
What did Sonia Sotomayor enjoy about logic? (p. 111)
“Half of debate is …..” Fill in the rest of the sentence. (p. 111) What new type of
listening did Socia Sotomayor learn about? (p. 111)
What triumph came with Sonia Sotomayor formally speaking about the murder of
Kitty Genovese?
What happened when Sonia Sotomayor’s mother wanter to quit her nursing
program? What did Sonia Sotomayor learn from that experience? (p. 113-115)
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How did Sonia Sotomayor pick out which colleges to apply to? (pp. 116-117)
What happened when Sonia Sotomayor visited Harvard? (pp. 120-121) How was
her trip to Princeton? (p. 123)
How did Sonia Sotomayor figure out which courses to take at Princeton? How did
her choices compare with that of her peers? (p. 130)
What creative work did Sonia Sotomayor do during her work-study at Princeton?
What improvement did Sonia Sotomayor have to make in her writing skills? (p.
134)
How did Hispanics at Princeton get the University of hire Hispanic administrators?
(p. 148)
What leadership positions did Sonia Sotomayor fill at Princeton University? (pp.
148-149)
What course did Sonia Sotomayor recreate on her own? (p. 150) What was the
final paper assignment in this course? (p. 155)
What community service project did Sonia Sotomayor start after reading about it
in the paper? (pp. 158-159)
How was Yale Law School different from college? (p. 171)
Were law school classmates friends with each other? (p. 173)
Who was one of Sonia Sotomayor’s primary mentors? (pp. 176-177)
How did Sonia Sotomayor distinguish herself at Yale Law School? (pp. 178-180)
What did Rudy mean when he said that Sonia Sotomayor argued like a guy? (p.
181)
What was it like for Sonia Sotomayor to work at a law firm her second summer
after law school? (pp. 182-183)
What law firm recruiting incident led to interview changes at Yale? (pp. 189-191)
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How did Sonia Sotomayor find her first job after law school? (pp. 193-195)
Describe the challenges that Justice Sotomayor faced as a prosecutor. (pp. 198208)
When Justice Sotomayor lost 2 cases with the same defendant back-to-back, what
important lesson did Justice Sotomayor learn about her legal presentation? (pp.
209-212)
What is PRLDEF? How was Justice Sotomayor associated with it? What was the
public perception problem of working with PRLDEF? ch. 22
What kind of work did Justice Sotomayor do with the New York City Campaign
Finance Board? (pp. 217-218_
Think about Chapters 23 - 24. How would you characterize your friendships?
What conflicts have arisen for you about your family life/romantic life and
professional life?
How did working in the D.A.’s Office change Justice Sotomayor’s character? (p.
237)
How did Justice Sotomayor interact with the Harlem community after allegations
of police brutality? Describe her interactions with Attorney Vernon Mason. (p.
239-240)
What kind of work indicated to Justice Sotomayor that she was now thinking like
a lawyer? (p. 242)
What motivated Justice Sotomayor to be a determined lawyer? (chapter 26)
Who were the major figures in her life determine those characteristics?
How did Justice Sotomayor choose the law firm where she gained employment?
(pp. 259-260)
What was Justice Sotomayor’s most engaging case as a member of a law firm?
(pp. 264-269)
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