Maria from "Sesame Street"

We were asked an interesting question in class the other day - when was the first time you were exposed to a Latino/a in the media? I had to think about it for a few minutes, but I think the first Spanish-speaking person I ever saw on television had to be Maria from "Sesame Street" (played by Sonia Manzano, who also wrote for the show). Although from what I remember, I didn't really have an understanding of the concepts of race or ethnicity at that age. I'm pretty sure I thought Maria was a lady just like my mom, who happened to know Spanish. Here's a cute clip from back in the day - I was 2 years old at the time. It's so strange hearing Maria's voice now because it is so familiar to me - I was a huge fan of "Sesame Street" as a child and dragged my Bert and Ernie dolls around everywhere.
Anyway, I don't remember really understanding what a Latino was until I was in middle school. I went to a pretty diverse Montessori school as a child, so I saw my friends as just like me, except maybe they had darker skin and knew how to speak another language. Coming from an Italian-American family helped to blur the ethnic lines even more, as my relatives had similar names, accents and complexions to the Latinos I knew, like my dad's friends from Costa Rica. I wonder if the concept of ethnicity would have been clearer to me if shows like "Dora the Explorer" and "Handy Manny" had been around back then, because they specifically emphasize Latino culture and Spanish language. Although, I must say, I think Maria from "Sesame Street" definitely paved the way for them.