Sotomayor maintains Puerto Rican roots

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor wasn't born in Puerto Rico but she keeps in close touch with family back on the island, relatives said Tuesday.

The 54-year-old federal appeals court judge — nominated by President Barack Obama to be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court — calls relatives often and visits whenever she's on the island, said Jose Garcia Baez, one of a number of cousins on Puerto Rico's west coast.

"She is a typical Puerto Rican," said Garcia, a lawyer in the western city of Mayaguez. "She always has kept in touch with Puerto Rico regardless of the job she has had."

The judge last visited in April, Garcia said, spending time with an elderly aunt who was recovering from surgery. He said she typically comes once or twice a year, visiting a number of "aunties," as she refers to older female relatives regardless of their precise relation to her.

Sotomayor's parents left Puerto Rico decades ago. Her father, who died when she was 9, was from the Santurce area of San Juan. Her mother, a nurse, was from Lajas, a still mostly rural area on Puerto Rico's southwest coast.

A half dozen cousins and other relatives gathered in Garcia's law office in Mayaguez but declined to provide details about the family's history on the island, saying they were waiting first for the judge's permission.

But they expressed pride at her accomplishment.

"She is not a woman who grew up in opulence," said cousin Jose Alberto Baez. "She comes from struggle and hard work."