![]() ![]() She describes difficult moments, like watching her father drunkenly smash all the furniture in their tiny apartment’s living room and seeing the black eyes and bruises he would leave on her mother. Much of the book focuses on her Puerto Rican parents’ turbulent-and often violent-relationship. ![]() “That’s why I segued into writing.” Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx is Manzano’s first memoir, a poignant coming-of-age chronicle of her childhood in the South Bronx in the ’50s and ’60s. But with fewer episodes and fewer human-driven segments being produced each season, along with an ever-expanding cast of Muppets, she had begun to feel that there was “less to go around” for each cast member.“I still had a lot of creative energy,” she says. ![]() Sudden as the announcement felt to us, leaving Sesame Street was a move Manzano had been planning for years-she just hadn’t gotten around to picking a date. “I just sort of fade off into the distance,” Manzano says, laughing. She had made the decision in between the show’s 45th and 46th seasons, which means there will be no onscreen goodbye to Maria. And so that’s very gratifying.”Manzano, 65, unwittingly prompted a day of mourning on social media in July when she casually broke the news of her Sesame Street retirement to a group of librarians from the American Library Association. “Then I think what they really mean is I was the first one they saw as a real human being. “I’ve heard Anglos from the Midwest say, ‘You were the first Latina I ever knew’ and I think, ‘Wait a second, there’s no Latin people out in the Midwest?’” she says. Sometimes they’re funny (“You were my girlfriend!”) and sometimes they’re sad (“I was abused as a child but when I watched you for that hour every day, I was comforted.”)And sometimes they’re mind-boggling. Great place to meet Oscar the Grouch!”Manzano played Maria for 44 years on Sesame Street, guiding generations of kids through everything from the alphabet to feminism to 9/11-so she’s used to awkwardly impassioned greetings from fans. Without thinking, I hug her “hello” like she's a relative, someone I’ve known since before I can remember-forgetting for a second that to her, I’m a stranger.She hugs me back anyway-then cracks a joke about the coffee shop where we’re sitting: “Café Grumpy, what a funny name. 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.Sonia Manzano, the beloved writer and actress best known as Maria from Sesame Street, has a presence so familiar it’s strange to think we’ve never actually met. 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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