Arts & Entertainment
Sonia Manzano on ‘Sesame Street,’ Early Childhood Education and Sharing Puerto Rican Culture
Sunny day, sweepin’ the clouds away... that’s how Sonia Manzano spent her career for more than four decades. The actress hung out with Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and the whole “Sesame Street” gang when she played Maria on the beloved program.
Manzano was recently in Chicago, where she spoke with Chicago Commons and supporters about the importance of early childhood education.
WTTW News sat down with Manzano while she was in town and took a trip down memory lane.
“It was an exciting time, and I simply got cast,” Manzano said. “I think the most important things happen to you when you’re not paying that much attention. I didn’t realize it was going to go on for years and years.”
Manzano joined the production of “Sesame Street” in 1971 and retired in 2015 after 44 years as Maria. However, she did briefly reprise her role in 2019 for the television special “Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.”
“Sesame Street” first aired in 1969 after producer Joan Ganz Cooney discussed with Carnegie Foundation Vice President Lloyd Morrisett her vision to create a show for preschoolers that was both entertaining and educational. With a combination of its charismatic and vivacious puppets and catchy theme song, the show went on to be the most viewed children’s program in the world, airing in more than 120 countries.
It was a time for groundbreaking ideas, and the creators of “Sesame Street” joined the wave. The show’s racially diverse cast inspired Manzano to audition for a role.
“I saw Susan and Gordon,” Manzano said. “This beautiful African American couple. I was stunned because at that time you did not see people of color on television, and if you did they weren’t the beautiful Susan and Gordon. I was wondering how could I contribute to a society that didn’t see me.”
The topics also broke barriers and tested limits but kept viewers tuned in for decades. At 123 Sesame Street, kids had the chance to learn more than their ABCs and numbers. Characters also took the time to break down advanced subjects like pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Manzano herself was pregnant during the show. One episode showed an ultrasound of her baby. In another she sat on her outdoor steps and explained to a little girl how she fed her daughter Gabriella.
After her time on “Sesame Street,” Manzano stayed in the world of early childhood education shows. Her new series, “Alma’s Way,” aired in October 2021 on PBS Kids. The show reflects remnants of Manzano’s childhood, a young Puerto Rican girl growing in the South Bronx with her family. Manzano is also the voice of Alma’s grandmother on the show.
“The idea of ‘Alma’s Way’ is to make sure kids know everybody has a brain,” Manzano said. “Everybody can put two and two together. That’s just a given. So that these children who might be underserved or in stressful situations don’t think that just because they can’t pass a test or memorize information at the same moment that the next kid does, that has nothing to do with your intellectual powers.”
Aside from teaching critical thinking, “Alma’s Way” also makes a point to celebrate cultures and normalize speaking Spanish for a bilingual and multilingual audience.
Though the show has a different formula from “Sesame Street,” it still grasps what’s most important about children’s education: their curiosity.
Manzano continues to reach children beyond her shows through a number of children’s books she’s published throughout her career, eventually leading to her writing her own memoir in 2015: “Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx.”
It chronicles and re-creates events from her childhood to her audition for “Sesame Street.” She grew up in a house with domestic violence but found solace in television, leading her to a world of possibilities.
“You get to a certain age where you want to really make sense of your journey and the only way to make sense of it, I thought, was to take it outside of myself and write it down,” Manzano said.
The novel has an underlying theme of education and its ability to empower children. Manzano has continued to be a pioneer for early childhood education through books and television shows despite attempts to undermine publicly funded networks.
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order directing federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR. Manzano said the act is distressing and distracting but she believes “people will prevail.”
The Trump administration has also gone after DEI initiatives, such as institutions and agencies that promote and celebrate cultural and historical events. As a response, Manzano plans to write more books that continue to promote Puerto Rican history.
“I want to write more Puerto Rican stories so we are not forgotten,” Manzano said.
