The progenitor of the family, Carlos Sodi, emigrated from Florence to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in the 19th century.
The family was a part of the Oaxacan liberal elite during the Porfiriato, owning numerous estates and large tracts of land.
Strong allies to the regime, several members of the family occupied important political positions in the government of General Porfirio Díaz.
[2]: 68 Demetrio Sodi Guergué, son of the latter, in continuation of his family's close ties to the Porfirian regime, was promoted to Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in 1906, a position he would occupy until 1914.
[5] The family was also a shareholder in La Natividad mine, the most productive and technologically advanced in the state by 1906, which employed 450 workers, with Demetrio Sodi having sat on the board of directors.