Women’s History Month | Maria on Sesame Street

 

POSTED ON Mar 05, 2020

 

Millions of children grew up listening to Sonia Manzano. She played ‘Maria’ for 44 years in the show Sesame Street. According to NBC News, the show celebrated its 50th year in 2019. Sesame Street has produced more than 5,000 episodes since 1969. In addition, the educational TV series has been broadcast in 150 countries.

During the celebration, Manzano said that as a child of the 50s,  she felt Latinos were invisible. But Sesame Street showed their culture and dreams like everybody else.

One of the most remarkable moments in Sesame Street is when her character Maria married Luis, who was played by Mexican-American actor Emilio Delgado. Delgado said that many adults told him that Sesame Street is an important part of their life.

Aside from Maria and Luis,  other Latino and Hispanic characters like Raul Julia appeared in the 1971 season; Carlo Alban, in 2011, and Ismael Cruz Cordova was cast in 2013.

How did Sesame Street begin?

Lloyd Morrisett and Joan Ganz Cooney, co-founders of Sesame Street, approached the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University in the early 1960s with a novel approach to teaching. They then tapped Muppets puppeteer Jim Henson to create different characters like Big Bird, and an urban street with four colorful characters.

Harvard Education Professor Joe Blatt said that the show used powerful media strategies like jingles and helps kids learn. Other countries also did a franchise of the show like Mexico, Israel, and many more.

Source: ‘L’ is for Latino: Sesame Street’s 50 years of positive Latino characters | “We were able to show our cultures,” says Sonia Manzano, who played Maria on Sesame Street, “and that we had hopes and dreams like everybody else.”