Question

Referring to the Book My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor,

What do Sotomayor’s descriptions of her childhood convey about Spanish-speaking communities in New York? In

what ways are the hardships in her household—the lack of financial resources, her father’s alcoholism, and the

tension between her parents—exacerbated by the strains of living in a marginalized society? What family or cultural

traditions help mitigate the difficulties she and her family face?

Answer 1

In her book, "My Beloved World"., Sonia Sotomayor shares about her childhood experiences and all the chances and opportunities that she readily took up =, that ultimately shaped her life. About her childhood, she writes about how her family and her extended family was not too well versed with speaking English, Hence it was at times tough to cope up with the children of her school. Her play mates in her childhood were mostly her cousins, who were more or less her age as well. She narrates about how her mother decided to shift her family to a new built community, and how this affected her socializing, as in the new neighborhood there were lesser people to interact with. All along this, in her narration, it becomes clear that the Spanish speaking communities are a close bound community who believe in having large families and also keeping together, as having  family close by is always a "help around the corner". However, since language was a barrier that she faces initially in her childhood, as her family had limited people who could speak English, she did face the problem of interacting freely in her school. She was not aware about the most common and well known fictional story characters and was laughed and ridiculed at.

Along with this, she was faced with the fate of having juvenile diabetes at a very very young age, the course of which led her to have no children of her own in her adulthood. She was detected with the disease at the age of 7 years, and has been taking insulin for the same since then. To add to this her own parents were always at each other's throats, thus leading to her mother being not present in the house most of the times, so as to avoid the screaming and shouting with each other, She had purposefully taken up a night shift job as a nurse for the same reason. However, this did noting to ease the situation, as her father was an alcoholic who died when Sonia was at a tender age of 9. All these stresses combined led to a Sonia having a childhood which was difficult as well as uncertain for her. However, one incident that she credits to, making her having a dream of being in courts, was her un-explainable interest in the court room dramas that she used to watch on the television that initiated her sense of hearing more and observing more as well. Thus, these hardships exacerbated her childhood.

However, being from a Spanish community, and having her family close by most of the time during her childhood, helped her cope with the circumstances relatively well. Her most refuge person was her maternal grand mother who was always there with her and for her and her mother. Her maternal aunts too were an emotional support to her family when her father died. Her cherished memories of visiting and staying with her grand mother along with her cousins were memories that she describes at length in her book. This shows how having a connection with the extended family help develop cherished memories and also help with the coping with the tough phases of one's life.