Becoming Maria

I'm betting Sonia Manzaon hear's “I grew up with you,” an awful lot. It's probably true every time too: 44 years a is a long time to be on a television show and a number of successive generations are taught and inspired by it. Maria was always one of my favorites because so many of her scenes were with Oscar, and Oscar is best muppet. Also Super Grover. I digress.

My school district brought Sonia to speak at our district literacy training, and event which (as a math teacher) was less than useless for me and was starting to make me question career choices. Finishing with her was very smart. Listening to her talk about the power of art and literature and diversity reinvigorated me and made me stop counting the hours of summer vacation left for just a little while. I bought her memoir without a second thought.

This book is heart-wrenching, and made more so because it is probably not a big step away from where my students are right now. Sonia writes candidly and powerfully about her experiences with abuse, racism, sexism, and culture shock in and outside of the country where she was born. Some chapters physically hurt me to read, and others inspired me to be a better teacher to my students, to know that even if we come from different places, we can still connect if we recognize each other as humans. It's a good time in our cultural history to read this book too.

This isn't necessarily a book for Sesame Street fans of all ages, but I think it exemplifies the core of love and tolerance, even in chaos, at its heart.