""It was so hopeful," Manzano says. "It meant to me that anything was possible [and] that I could get out of this environment and do like Jiminy Cricket says.""
""We lived at a time when Latin people were absolutely invisible. We weren't in the newspapers or on television. And you wondered what you were gonna contribute to a society that was blind to you.""
""I always remembered myself as a kid, watching hours and hours of television and never seeing anybody who looked like me," Manzano says. "And when I got the opportunity to be on 'Sesame Street,' I remembered that little girl and I said, 'I'm gonna be what I should have seen as a little girl.'""
Sonia Manzano grew up in the South Bronx in an abusive household and found refuge in television, especially Jiminy Cricket's "When You Wish Upon a Star," which gave her hope and a sense that escape was possible. She rarely saw Latin people represented in media and felt invisible and uncertain about her place in society. When cast as Maria on Sesame Street, she intentionally presented herself as the visible role model she lacked as a child. She aimed to show other children who looked like her that they belonged, could aspire, and could imagine different futures.
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