I first saw Sesame Street at the student union of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh-and I was stunned. Photo by David Attie/Courtesy Macrocosm Entertainment Why not? Sesame Street grabbed me by the throat even before I was cast as Maria. Perhaps even on some level also enabling me to feel enough a part of things to find my way to Sesame Street. That protest fired up my heart and mind as well, making me feel like a part of society. And just when I was beginning to think that Puerto Ricans like myself were doomed to watch from the sidelines, a group called the Young Lords protested the lack of garbage pickup in El Barrio by setting the trash on fire, finally getting the attention of New York City officials. It seemed everyone in the late 60s in America was in for a change.īy night I observed the goings-on from my home in the Bronx, and by day with my friends at the High School of Performing Arts. Sesame Street was shot out a of a cannon in 1969, fueled by the social unrest of Black Americans tired of being treated as second-class citizens, young people marching on Washington to protest an unpopular war, farmworkers demanding decent labor conditions-the list of grievances that were being protested went on and on. Above: Photo by David Attie/Courtesy Macrocosm Entertainment
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