What was probably the most important moment was when Matt Robinson, the “Sesame Street” writer who also played Gordon, pulled me aside to say, “You weren’t hired to just be the cute little Latina, you know — you have to make sure the Hispanic content is accurate.” I was taken aback. Who elected me president of Puerto Ricans? Who thought I should represent them? I was simply an actress.
I went back to my own childhood and remembered the lack of any Latin cultural representation on television, but how could I make it happen on “Sesame Street”? I wasn’t a writer or producer, but I noticed the street’s fruit cart showcasing the usual apples and bananas. With knees knocking, I meekly suggested to the producers that if Latin people lived on Sesame Street, the cart would include foods Puerto Ricans eat — platanos and cocos and yautia. They complied.
Diversifying the fruit cart was a small thing, but it led me to understand the real power lay behind the camera. I became a writer and developed Maria into an ideal version of me. I became what I wish I had seen on television growing up.
Naturally, I thought I was just the first of many. Surely after the success of “Sesame Street” and my contribution to it, all kinds of Latinx talent would flood the media. Not so. Though there are more Latinas in children’s television than there were when I started out more than 50 years ago, there certainly aren’t as many as I would have thought — in front of or behind the camera. Why is that? Why are we allowed through the door in such a painfully slow way?
In the early days of “Sesame Street,” the public demanded diversity of Muppets. Why not have an African American character as popular as Cookie Monster? Writer Matt Robinson came up with Roosevelt Franklin, a funny little Muppet boy who was wildly popular and memorable (in fact, in a recent documentary about “Sesame Street,” the musician and entrepreneur Questlove talked about how he had related to that character as a kid). But the response from African American academics was varied. The attributes of Roosevelt Franklin as a role model came under debate. Ultimately, the responsibility of representing a whole community weighed too heavily on this 3-pound bit of felt with a Don King Afro. Sadly, Roosevelt was retired.
In retrospect, the answer might’ve been simply to create more Black characters. After all, African American culture is not monolithic. Neither is Latin culture — and that’s something we are trying to make clear in “Alma’s Way,” a show I created for PBS KIDS and developed with Fred Rogers Productions. Though the series centers on a Puerto Rican family, we celebrate many Latinx characters.
