Sonia Manzano, who portrayed Maria on "Sesame Street" for 44 years, recalls vividly what it's like to be a child.
"I remember being scared or how I would go into my head and was bored or made up a game," she said via Zoom on Wednesday. "When I was in time out, I made up a dance with my feet on the ground ... I thought raviolis were Saltines with fork lines. That's the power of children: They can entertain themselves and put two and two together."
Manzano's new series on PBS Kids, "Alma's Way," is about showing other children that they have that power too. It encourages children to value who they are, what they think and how they feel through the lens of a Puerto Rican girl's experiences in the Bronx.
Manzano; "Alma's Way" Executive Producer Ellen Doherty; and producer Olubunmi Mia Olufemi discussed the making of the inclusive kids' show Friday during "From the Bronx to Bentonville: A Conversation with the Team Behind 'Alma's Way.'" It was the final Reel Magic Mornings event for this year's Bentonville Film Festival and took place at Thaden School.
"Alma is the show of my dreams," Mia Olufemi says. "I'm a third culture kid, my mom Haitian, father Nigerian, but I had an American experience. Working on a show as diverse as 'Alma's Way,' the opportunity to create characters who look like me and with a background of people I grew up with, is just a dream."
Olufemi gained some experience producing equitable and inclusive shows during her time working on "Molly of Denali," an animated series about a 10-year-old Alaskan girl, her dog Suki and her friends.
Manzano, of course, gained her experience on "Sesame Street," first as an actress and then as a writer, too.
"I grew up in the '50s in New York City watching lots of TV and wondering what I could possibly contribute to a society that didn't see me," Manzano said. "It took a toll, but I was happy when 'Sesame Street' came out of the '60s and ... wanted to have a diverse cast."
During her time as Maria, Manzano absorbed the practice of reaching children by never talking down to them, by realizing that they understand if you're trying to cram something down their throats and acknowledging their sense of humor, she says.
Manzano was a "Sesame Street" writer for 15 years, and making that switch was a big change, she said. While writing is very precise, acting is not. It's "loose, irreverent. That's how you come alive," she said.
After "Sesame Street," Manzano turned to writing children's books, which she was content doing. She had never dreamed of doing her own show, but when a PBS executive approached her about creating a kids' show with the goals of it left entirely up to her, she couldn't say no.
Manzano noticed that so much is expected of children these days -- schools spend so much time and effort on testing, and the pandemic had kindergarteners at the computer for several hours a day. Not to mention the pressures of learning information at the same rate as their peers and the expectation of children from bilingual households to know English well right away. It's no wonder they get discouraged, she said.
"They think they are less-than or not smart," Manzano said. "They get turned off to thinking and figuring things out before they're out of the gate. ('Alma's Way') shows that there's a thought bubble and to enjoy the process of following that line of thinking."
Her hope is that "Alma's Way" will show children that they can think well and find refuge in their minds and opinions.
Sonia Manzano is once again writing a character that she also plays. Her first was Maria on Sesame Street. Now she's back as Granny Isa in Alma's Way. Isa was her mother's name.