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‘Sesame Street’s’ Maria, Sonia Manzano, remembers Emilio Delgado

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Who higher to memorialize him than the actress who labored alongside him for greater than 40 years?

Sonia Manzano, who for many years performed Luis’ co-worker and eventual spouse, Maria, remembered her late co-star as a socially acutely aware man devoted to bettering the portrayal of Latino characters on TV in a short however heartfelt piece for Time.

“My nephew, who’s now in his 50s, advised me that as somewhat boy, he wished to develop up and grow to be a person like Luis,” Manzano mentioned within the Time piece. “How great that Emilio’s power, heat, and kindness have been enticing sufficient for kids to need to emulate.”

Manzano and Delgado co-starred on “Sesame Road” for many years — Manzano’s Maria and Delgado’s Luis ran the Repair-It Store collectively earlier than their characters married in 1988, in an emotional (and fictional) wedding ceremony attended by the human and Muppet residents of Sesame Road (Elmo was their ring bearer).

When the “broadly watched onscreen wedding ceremony” aired, Manzano mentioned, “Latinos on tv have been the butt of the joke.” However the real looking and respectful portrayal of two Latino characters on a public TV collection — earlier than and after their wedding ceremony — was significant to viewers, she mentioned.

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“Our wedding ceremony introduced flesh-and-blood Latinos wanting the identical issues out of life as different People. To like, get married, have a child, ship them to daycare, go tenting,” Manzano mentioned. “Our affection for one another got here via so strongly folks thought we had actually gotten married.”

Each Manzano and Delgado appeared on the collection from 1971 till 2015. After his stint on the collection ended, Delgado joined the board of the Bayard Rustin Heart for Social Justice, which highlighted his historical past of activism, from his early help of United Farm Employees to his work in help of Latinos in media.

“Emilio held youngsters in excessive regard, noticed adults as people, all the time defended the underdog, and was eternally constructive,” Manzano mentioned. “I’ll miss him.”

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