cardozo spoke spanish fluently and could read and understand portuguese he was an erudite person who demonstrated an interest in his sephardic lineage although he apparently could never identify exactly whether his ancestors originated in portugal or spain in either case they would have been iberian jews themselves the descendents of latin speaking jews present in iberia since roman times sonia sotomayor is a light skinned afro puerto rican which means many of her ancestors were forcibly removed from west africa and transported as slaves to cuba puerto rico and santo domingo she likely does not have the luxury of tracing her genealogy back through the centuries to spain or any other part of iberia unless she were inclined to investigate the history of the slave holders who owned her african ancestors and had sexual relations with them a not very uplifting undertaking