Rosita is a Muppet character on the

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

''. Fluent in both

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

and

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish () is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexico and its bordering regions. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, more than double any other country in the world. Spanish is spo ...

, she is the first regular

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

Muppet on the show. Rosita comes from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and likes to play the

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

History

Rosita was introduced to the series in 1991. Rosita was originally designed to look similar to a fruit bat and bore the name Rosita, La Monstrua de las Cuevas ("the monster of the caves"). Her wings were removed in 2004 (in the show's 35th season) but restored in 2021 (in the show's 52nd season). She wears a ribbon in her hair, but in deference to Zoe she only wears one instead of two. Rosita is performed by Carmen Osbahr, who originally worked on Mexico's ''

Plaza Sésamo ''Plaza Sésamo'' () is the first Sesame Street international co-productions, international co-production of the Educational television, educational Children's television series, children's television series ''Sesame Street''. Its first season p ...

''. In July 2022, Sesame Place in Pennsylvania faced criticism after a family claimed in an

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

post that the character snubbed their two young Black children by ignoring them as they waved to her. The video went viral as other users posted similar incidents of costumed characters and black children at the park, with those on social media calling for a boycott of the park. The park released a statement that the costume had made it difficult for the performer to see the girls. They later followed with another statement that the performer had not intentionally snubbed the girls, but instead rejected a request "from someone in the crowd who asked Rosita to hold their child for a photo which is not permitted." On July 19, Sesame Place Pennsylvania formally apologized to the family and invited the family back for a personal meet-and-greet with the characters. They also announced that their employees will undergo racial bias training to ensure park guests have an "inclusive, equitable and entertaining" experience.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosita (Sesame Street Fictional bats Fictional monsters Fictional Mexican people Mexico in fiction Sesame Street Muppet characters Television characters introduced in 1991 American female characters in television