![]() “That makes me feel great that I can rub elbows with people of their ilk.” “I’m thrilled to be in the company of Fred Rogers and Carol Spinney,” the man inside the Big Bird suit. The actress and author is not the first icon of PBS children’s programming to be honored at the museum’s annual fundraiser, and she name-checks a “Neighborhood” legend and a longtime “Sesame Street” Muppeteer when discussing her award. The Children’s Discovery Museum will pay tribute to Manzano at the Legacy awards gala on May 19. She adds that her own memoir, named one of the best young adult books of 2015 by both the New York Times and the Kirkus Review, was her way of “paying tribute to my crazy family.” “It’s a miserable story told with compassion and a sense of humor,” she says of McCourt’s memoir. Manzano had already written three children’s picture books and a young adult novel when she was inspired to write about her childhood after reading “Angela’s Ashes,” Frank McCourt’s account of growing up impoverished in Ireland. Aimed at teenage readers, “Becoming Maria” recounts her path from a poor family ravaged by her father’s alcoholism to a theater scholarship at Carnegie Mellon University. It was in part to make sense of her own world that Manzano decided to write her memoir in 2015. “As a trusted adult, one of Manzano’s greatest contributions as Maria was helping children better understand themselves and make sense of the world,” Jennings adds. Marilee Jennings, executive director of the Children’s Discovery Museum, says Manzano’s ability to help children develop social and emotional skills like empathy, compassion and acceptance are a big part of the legacy she’s created for children. “We helped kids deal with what society threw at them.” “Each new crop of kids had new problems,” she says. Over the course of Manzano’s 44-year career-which was capped by a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Daytime Emmys-the show dealt with everything from the aftermath of 9-11 to what it’s like to have a parent serving jail time. Initially, she adds, “it was an effort to banish racism and to let African Americans enter elementary school at the same level as their middle class peers and give them a better shot at succeeding.” In addition to teaching preschoolers their ABCs and 123s, Manzano says, “Sesame Street” has always been intended to reflect contemporary social and cultural issues. “I started to see them implement my ideas and thought I should start writing myself.” ![]() “They asked my opinion on the Latino content,” she recalls. The show’s producers asked Manzano to come up with issues and stories that reflected her culture. So in answer to your question, I don't think there really was an ep where they broke up, unless it happened sometime in the 70s before I was born.“People demanded to see Latinos on the show,” she says. It's a bit curious that they wouldn't have known before, considering that Susan and Gordon have been married from the beginning. I don't think anything like this was ever done with Maria and David, so they didn't understand love until they saw it with Maria and Luis. They both mentioned that they loved each other. I think Big Bird talked to Maria while Snuffy talked to Luis. They were surprised about this since a grown up wouldn't need to hold another grown ups hand while crossing the street, so they talked to them about that. Big Bird and Snuffy were doing some exploring and they saw Maria and Luis holding hands when they crossed the street. I remember the episode pretty well where this was first established. I do remember seeing Maria and Luis together on the show quite often before this happened. David told Big Bird and Snuffy that he and Maria would always be friends. I do recall reading on another thread where it happened when Maria and Luis fell in Love. ![]() I don't know if anything was said on the show that Maria and David were a couple, though it has been referenced many times, especially when David kissed her on Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.
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