"I needed to surround myself with younger people," she said, "because doesn't take place when I was a kid." She wants it to be an accurate reflection of her own experience, while still resonating with kids today. Those harmful formative experiences make representing Puerto Ricans and the diversity of the Bronx Sonia's fundamental purpose and priority with Alma's Way.
I think that's a first." She "struggled with racial identity" as a kid, she said, recalling being afraid to travel through the South with her cousin Eddie because he was light-skinned and she was dark she thought they'd be barred from riding the bus together. Sonia, who also voices the character of Granny Isa on Alma's Way and wrote several scripts for the first season, added: "We have Afro-Puerto Ricans in the show. "As someone who grew up watching television and loving television and never seeing anybody who looked like me on television, I'm thrilled that I was not only able to be Maria but to now have a little girl that little girls can look at and say, 'Oh wow, she looks like me.'" But, for her, the stakes are higher and more personal. And I want the parents to be engaged with the show and talk about it," she said.
"I want kids to trust themselves and to trust their instincts. Sonia, a Bronx native, hopes the show will empower children to think for themselves. 4, follows the life of a Bronx-dwelling first-grader named Alma, who lives with her multigenerational Puerto Rican family, troubleshooting issues she faces with impressive critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Alma's Way, which premieres on PBS on Oct. "I would have rather stick a pin in my eye than do a kids' show," Sonia told POPSUGAR Latina, explaining that she didn't believe anything could live up to the work she had done on Sesame Street.īut the Emmy winner decided to put aside her misgivings and eventually hit on gold while mining her own life for inspiration. Despite her initial trepidation about returning to children's programming, she agreed.
Several years ago, Sonia, who is Afro-Puerto Rican, was asked by PBS exec Linda Simensky to develop a Latinx-focused TV series for kids. A groundbreaking new animated TV series called Alma's Way, about a 6-year-old Puerto Rican girl, is coming to PBS Kids - and it couldn't have happened without TV legend Sonia Manzano, who played Maria on Sesame Street for more than four decades.
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