Sonia Manzano

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For nearly 5 decades, Sonia Manzano played the part of Maria on Sesame Street. She was the first Latina on the show – it was a big step forward for Latinas on TV! In 2021, she launched her own show called Alma’s Way. It’s an animated kids series about Alma Rivera, a 6-year-old Puerto Rican girl living in the Bronx.

This conversation was originally published in October of 2021.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:16.6	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of Maximum Fun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:36.1	It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne. In 1971, Sonia Monsano was in her early 20s. She was a junior in college studying acting. She'd just gone back home to New York for her first gig. She had a role in an off-Broadway musical called Godspell. And while she was in the Big Apple, she got an audition for another part. This time,
0:56.8	it was a TV show for kids set in New York. She got that part, and her life changed forever.
1:04.3	The show, of course, was Sesame Street. Sonia played Maria, one of the human friends to Big Bird and Grover and the Count.
1:12.9	Maria!
1:13.8	Oh!
1:14.3	Did I give you a scare?
1:15.4	Yes.
1:15.9	Oh, sorry.
1:16.8	I just wanted to find out, why are you walking around like that, muttering to yourself?
1:21.0	Well, I'm trying to figure out the right way to go in there and ask Louise to give me a raise.
1:31.8	Oh, I see. Uh, Maria? What's a raise?
1:36.6	Well, it means that I'm going to ask them to pay me more money for the work I do in the fix-it shop.
1:41.9	Oh, oh, more, oh, that's very important. You're telling me.
1:47.5	Sonia performed on Sesame Street for over four decades.
1:52.9	She's an absolute legend of children's television who helped change what the medium could be.
1:58.2	In 2021, Manzano got to create a show of her own, Alma's way.
2:03.2	It's an animated show that centers on the title character, Alma Rivera.
2:08.8	She's a six-year-old living in the Bronx. She's Puerto Rican. When I talked to Monsano that year,
	...

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