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Fictional Women Around the World: Maria Rodriguez · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you a protection of iHeartRadio, and welcome
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to another edition of Fictional Women Around the World. And
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: thanks to Samantha for this suggestion, because I asked you.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know, we should start the new
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: year with a bang. Is there somebody you think we
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: should talk about? Is there someone I missed? And you said,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Maria from Sesame Street.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: We have to give owe to Sesame Street.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, yes, So I would love for you
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  Speaker 1: to have share your thoughts on this one. One of
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the reasons I actually didn't want Sesame Street as a kid.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know why my older brother did. But as
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: an adult, I've come to really enjoy it, which sounds strange,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: like I just see clips of it and I'm like,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: this is so wholesome, it's so nice. Their social media
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  Speaker 1: presence is great.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that that's really kind of brought them back.
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  Speaker 2: I will say, I'm not sure why. I remember watching
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: it as a kid. When I came to the US again,
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  Speaker 2: it was one of the three channels we had in
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  Speaker 2: the mountains of LJ, Georgia with no VCR all the things,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: So I remember watching PBS. I think I probably learned
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: English through watching I can't put that to the test.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I can't really tell you when or specifics, but I
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: know I watched TV enough that I probably learned a
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  Speaker 2: lot of my English through TV. In Sesme Street would
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  Speaker 2: have been something that my parents would have put on.
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  Speaker 2: I know they would have, So with that in mind,
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  Speaker 2: I will say Sesme Street also just kind of trends
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: when I was a teenager in high school. I have
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  Speaker 2: a picture of me on my sixteenth birthday blowing out
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  Speaker 2: candles of my cheesecake because I was that girl who
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: did not like cake, so my mother spoiled me with cheesecakes.
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  Speaker 2: But like, I had a shirt on with Cookie Monster
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: and it was cool to wear Sesame Street characters as
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  Speaker 2: a teenager. So that has come back round again, I believe.
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  Speaker 2: But I remember that as being a thing. So they
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: they come back, they're trendsetting like constantly, and they circulate
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: as the being relevant. Yeah, and I love it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And here in Atlanta we have the Center for
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Puppetry Arts, which is really cool and they have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the original muppets and stuff you can cook see.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I love it. But yeah, one of the other reasons.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know, this would be a good
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: thing to talk about as we're recording this, because things
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: are moving. It is January seventeenth, twenty twenty five. Warner
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Brothers Discovery did not renew Sesame Street's contract, so they're
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: looking for a new distributing partner. I keep seeing things
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: that feel like they've already found one, but I couldn't
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: pin it down. But this has raised a lot of
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  Speaker 1: concern around the decline in children's TV shows like this,
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  Speaker 1: and I remember when it was first sold to HBO
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: slash Max. You had to pay for that. It didn't
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  Speaker 1: used to be that way, and there being a lot
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of concern around that as well, So that might be
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: a topic we should come back and revisit. Also, the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: timing with the inauguration coming up, with Martin Luther King
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Day coming up. The actress who played Maria has been
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: very outspoken and has given a speech on Mlkday previously,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: so feels like the timing the timing is right. Also,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: just remember when Elmo asked if we were okay and
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: we broke the Internet?
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  Speaker 2: No, I mean, there was so many things between Rocco
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: and his disdain for Rocco, as well as as that
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: that Elmo has really kind of centered himself as the
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  Speaker 2: main one of the main characters. Yeah that's me sweet,
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  Speaker 2: But yeah.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I forgot about Rockco.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Don't forget about Rocco.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Essin now did a whole thing about that, Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 1: So also, I just had to put it in here.
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  Speaker 1: I was reading a lot from the actresses experience, and
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  Speaker 1: she did talk about a lot of Star Wars stuff,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the Frank Awe and James old Jones and Mark Hampbell.
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  Speaker 1: So I loved that. That was fun for me. I
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  Speaker 1: also wanted to do a quick shout out to the
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  Speaker 1: Muppet Wiki, who had an entry on Maria that was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: really helpful for this, because again I haven't seen the show,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: so it was really helpful to kind of get the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: history of the character through them, because a lot of
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: people haven't done a long history on a character. Necessarily,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of stuff has been written about her, but
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  Speaker 1: not like the kind of timeline that we like to
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  Speaker 1: do in these So just yes, thank you, all right,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: So here we go. Sesame Street is an educational children's
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  Speaker 1: show about the people and muppets that live on the
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  Speaker 1: fictional Sesame Street. It debuted in nineteen sixty nine and
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  Speaker 1: just wrapped its fifty fifth season. Celebrity guest often stopped by,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and the show has tackled some pretty big topics. It's
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  Speaker 1: hugely nostalgic for a lot of people. It's won over
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty Emmys and is broadcast around the world.
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  Speaker 1: One of the main stays of Sesame Street for many
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  Speaker 1: was the character Maria Figuera later Rodriguez, played by Sonia Manzano,
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  Speaker 1: who debuted in nineteen seventy one and stayed until twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 1: Maria was a Puerto Rican teenager who got a job
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  Speaker 1: at the library, which later became the fix It Shop.
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  Speaker 1: She eventually became a full time partner at the shop,
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  Speaker 1: which the shop has gone through a lot of changes.
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  Speaker 1: I have to say I was trying to keep track
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  Speaker 1: of it, but she was generally involved in that. Over
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  Speaker 1: the years, she has been involved in a lot of
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  Speaker 1: Sesame Street segments, earning the nickname Skinny from Oscar the Grouch.
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  Speaker 1: She frequently acted as the mediator between the muppets. She
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: was the quote street man, as it's often called for
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  Speaker 1: their antics. For several years, she played the role of
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  Speaker 1: the tramp in the Charlie Chaplin pantomime skits. In nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy nine, she and the other characters of Sesame Street
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  Speaker 1: visited Puerto Rico for a few episodes. Though she was
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: romantically involved with David in the nineteen seventy she went
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  Speaker 1: on to Mary Louise. In nineteen eighty eight, her mother
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  Speaker 1: came from Puerto Rico for the wedding. I tried to
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: figure out if Big Bird officiated it, because the picture
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  Speaker 1: implied that he did. But I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Saying that little top tux, I remember this, I remember this.
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  Speaker 2: This is what I had to ask.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, keep quiet. Yeah. But Maria soon became pregnant and
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  Speaker 1: gave birth to her daughter, Gabby in nineteen eighty nine.
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  Speaker 1: Maria Louise ran The Fixed Chop and its various iteration
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  Speaker 1: as the mail At Shop the laundromat four years. In
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  Speaker 1: twenty eleven, she was hired as the superintendent of one,
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  Speaker 1: two three Sesame Street. She retired in twenty fifteen, though
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  Speaker 1: Manzano reprised the role in twenty nineteen for Sesame Street's
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  Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary celebration and in twenty twenty for Cian Inn's
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  Speaker 1: town hall, coming together, standing up to racism, and this
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  Speaker 1: character has a huge legacy. She was one of the
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  Speaker 1: first Latina characters on national television, and the actress who
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  Speaker 1: portrayed her, Manzano, was also a first generation Puerto Rican
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  Speaker 1: who grew up in the Bronx, and she was really
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  Speaker 1: like pivotal. She later became writer for the show, and
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  Speaker 1: she would write in like, no, this is not the
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  Speaker 1: fruit that would be in the stand in this neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: or in Puerto Rico or She was really passionate about
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: making the Bronx look like the Bronx, and that kind
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  Speaker 1: of that stayed. She won fifteen Emmys for her work
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  Speaker 1: as part of the writing staff. In twenty sixteen, she
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  Speaker 1: got a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmys quote
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  Speaker 1: in recognition as a pioneer and the representation of Latinos
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  Speaker 1: on television and for forty four years of portraying Maria
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  Speaker 1: on Sesame Street while positively impacting the lives of generation
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  Speaker 1: of children and their families. And she has so many
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  Speaker 1: awards and honorary degrees. She's also done a ton of stuff,
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  Speaker 1: so definitely go and check her out. She's written books,
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  Speaker 1: she's written young adult books, she's she helped, she helped
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  Speaker 1: create a PBS animated children's show called Alma's Way. So
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  Speaker 1: just a ton of stuff, and she's she's spoken a
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  Speaker 1: lot about this character and how it impacted her and
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  Speaker 1: how she learned more about herself through the role. She
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  Speaker 1: wrote a memoir called Becoming Maria, Love and Chaos in
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  Speaker 1: the South World, and she's really open about a lot
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: of stuff in there. And here's a quote from a
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  Speaker 1: radio interview. It was revolutionary. I have very strong feelings
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  Speaker 1: about it because I was born and raised in the
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  Speaker 1: South Bronx, and I watched a lot of television in
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  Speaker 1: the fifties, shows like Father Knows Best and Leave It
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  Speaker 1: to Beaver and shows like that. I never saw any
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  Speaker 1: Latin people, and you never saw people of color. So
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  Speaker 1: when I saw Susan on Sesame Street, I was a
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  Speaker 1: college student at Carnegie Mellon University, and I said, oh
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  Speaker 1: my goodness. I mean, there's this beautiful black woman with
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  Speaker 1: his gorgeous husband, Matt Robinson, Susan and Gordon. I said,
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  Speaker 1: this is really too much. So then I became Maria
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  Speaker 1: on the show. And by the way, because Latin activists
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  Speaker 1: demanded it so on the West Coast, and they said,
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  Speaker 1: if you have these role models for African American children,
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  Speaker 1: what about Latinos And they went okay, great, and it
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  Speaker 1: was so new that yeah, So then I got cast
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  Speaker 1: and then I became what I needed to see as
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  Speaker 1: a kid. And she's really talked about it and like
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  Speaker 1: the stress she felt about it, about being a good representation,
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  Speaker 1: but also how at least it sounded like from the
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  Speaker 1: interviews I read, the creators were very like, we want
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  Speaker 1: you to be you, we don't want you to be
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  Speaker 1: like she tells the story of one day they put
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like way too much makeup on her and the costume
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  Speaker 1: was bad, and they were like, no, that's not who
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  Speaker 1: she is, Like don't cast her for her, don't do this,
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  Speaker 1: and then her really coming into that her own as
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  Speaker 1: the writer and making those like no, we shouldn't, it
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  Speaker 1: should be this, that's not how we would do it,
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  Speaker 1: and then having that impact on millions of people who
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: watched and saw this. So it's really amazing, an amazing
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  Speaker 1: story now long like she was there for a long time.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's one of the first people that I
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  Speaker 2: think of. That's why I mentioned her, and I knew
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  Speaker 2: her name immediately, Like I forget so many things. We
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  Speaker 2: know this and I've talked about it by that I
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: didn't watch a lot of children's shows because I was
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: a little older, as well as the fact that I
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: didn't know English, so it was a little more difficult.
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  Speaker 2: But I can't quite remember all the things. And this
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  Speaker 2: was one of the shows of course, Like I said that,
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  Speaker 2: I did as I'm pretty sure my parents put on
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  Speaker 2: for me, and remembering Maria, remembering her specifically again because
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  Speaker 2: feeling that connection as a brown person obviously, but also
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  Speaker 2: her motherly nature or sisterly nature I guess probably when
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  Speaker 2: I saw her, No, she was a lot older than me,
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  Speaker 2: but just having her as a representation and genuinely kind
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  Speaker 2: and I think that's one of the things that seesme
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  Speaker 2: Street continues to grow and learn, is to represent people well,
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  Speaker 2: like if not just throwing in a token like many
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  Speaker 2: of the other things, or bringing in a person that
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: kind of looks like it could be, they actually bring
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  Speaker 2: people in to represent these characters really well because they
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: understand these characters really well and then open it up
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  Speaker 2: really hard dialogue through puppets, Like it's such an amazing thing,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: but they actually mesh well with human characters as well,
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  Speaker 2: so you know, it's really fantastic. I feel like it
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: was something that I didn't necessarily connect it to but wanted,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that's for a lot of people. But again, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I remember Gordon and Susan looked so well in that
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  Speaker 2: they were such kind like parental figures as well. That
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  Speaker 2: was guiding Sesame Street in its way and opening up
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  Speaker 2: this diversity as well as like, yeah, it felt like
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  Speaker 2: New York with puppets. Yeah, it did such a good job.
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  Speaker 2: But Maria was a seminal character with me finding a
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: marginalized woman, a minority, I guess at that point in
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: these characters fulfilling roles of caretaker and loving friend and
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: seeing that was something that significantly I remember. I might
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: not remember all the things that she went through. I
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: forgot that they did wedding, but I remember, I remember,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: like I remember this, but all of those things, and
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize she had like the character had a child,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: like what was pregnant. I'm like, they did the thing,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: they went through the gamut of raising the children through
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Sesame Street, and I remember that vividly and loving that
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: the human characters is what I remember more as a
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: children than I do, even like the puppets to a
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: certain degree. So when I say like Elmo has become
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: a main character, he wasn't at that point.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: M hm.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Cookie Monster was the of course Cookie Monster, and all
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  Speaker 2: of them were present, but they weren't the seminal characters
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  Speaker 2: that I felt like I was watching the humans interacting
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: with the puppets, you know what, does that make sense?
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  Speaker 2: And the puppets were not puppets. There were real life
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: characters to me, So I'm not saying that, but I
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  Speaker 2: do remember at that point in time those human characters
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  Speaker 2: as well, and it kind of like has changed a
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: little bit because I don't know much about T's Me
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: treat today, so I don't know who the characters on
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  Speaker 2: there are the human characters. But I remember Maria, I
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: remember Gordon, I remember Luise like I remember them vividly.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean those are formative when you're a kid,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: formative memories, and clearly this character was so important just
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: so many people, and so I'm very glad that you
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: suggested it.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for doing the work for me.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Oh you helped me out plenty. And if I got
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: anything wrong, please let me know, listeners, because I really have.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I've only seen like clips. I don't know why. I
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: don't know what happened. Something went awrise somewhere in my child.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Maybe you were watching horror movies then, like you were
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: talking about X File, so it could have been No,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I wasn't scary enough for you.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe well, but that's a mystery for me to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: solve later. But in the meantime, listeners, if you have
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: any thoughts about this, this character or Sesame Street or
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: any suggestions, please let us know. You can email us
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: at Stephania mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com or Hello
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: at stuff I'll Never Told You dot com. You can
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: find us on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast, or
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok at stuff we Never Told You.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: We're also on YouTube. We have a tea public store,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and we have a book you could get wherever you
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: get your books. Thanks it is always to our super
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: producer because senior executive producer at Andre con Tribber Joey.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I'll
• 15:26
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