Sonia Manzano pays tribute to Emilio Delgado, her Sesame Street husband

TIME

Manzano, whose character Maria married Delgado's Luis on Sesame Street in a widely watched on-screen wedding in 1988, writes of her former co-star in Time magazine: "When I first met Emilio, in the late sixties, I thought he was an activist for the Cesar Chavez Farm Workers Union, because as a supporter he went around pinning Boycott Grapes buttons on everyone he came into contact with!"  "Ultimately, his social consciousness didn’t end there. Days later, I realized he was one of us: a child of the ’60s and an actor happy to have a job. He could not have realized the impact he would have, especially on Latino children. My nephew, who is now in his 50s, told me that as a little boy, he wanted to grow up and become a man like Luis. How wonderful that Emilio’s strength, warmth, and kindness were attractive enough for children to want to emulate. Sesame Street always wanted the human cast members to be themselves, and in allowing Emilio to be himself they hit the jackpot."