'WATCH: Soprano Martina Arroyo, Pianist Herbie Hancock Honored at 2013 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington

The theme continued when Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic member of the nation's highest court, introduced opera diva Arroyo. The daughter of a Puerto Rican father and an African-American mother, Arroyo grew up in an unlikely place for a future opera star: New York City's Harlem neighborhood.