Emilio Delgado

Emilio Delgado
Delgado as Luis on Sesame Street
Born	Emilio Ernest Delgado (1940-05-08)May 8, 1940 Calexico, California, U.S.
Died	March 10, 2022(2022-03-10) (aged 81) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1968–2022
Television	Sesame Street
Spouses	Barbara Snavely ​ ​ (m. 1963; div. 1975)​ Linda Moon ​ ​ (m. 1977; div. 1984)​ Carole Delgado ​ (m. 1990)​
Children	2

Emilio Ernest Delgado

Following his departure, the workshop stated that Delgado would continue to represent them at public events.[3] Delgado also appeared as Luis in the TV special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.^[4] He began his professional career in Los Angeles in 1968. Delgado lived in New York City with his wife Carole Delgado.

Life and career

Childhood, education and early roles

Delgado was born in Calexico, California, to Emilio Delgado and Carmen Rodriguez Delgado on May 8, 1940.^[5]

He was raised in his grandparents' house in Mexicali, Mexico, with his poor extended family.^[6] As a citizen of the United States, he would walk daily to attend a public school in Calexico.^[6] He began working odd jobs as a ten-year-old and at his uncle's bicycle shop at age 12. His family moved to Glendale, California, when he was a teenager. During high school, three years of which he attended Glendale High School, he became president of the Thespian Club; he played viola in the orchestra, trombone in jazz band, and was a drum major in the marching band.^[6]

Delgado was "adamantly and morally opposed" to the Vietnam War, but enlisted in the California Army National Guard for six years, serving domestically.^[6] A supply corporal, Delgado was deployed to the Watts riots in Los Angeles, in 1965, where he was "astonished to see weekend warriors being issued live ammunition to use against other Americans."^[6]

Delgado began acting professionally in 1968, after nine years of "trying to knock doors down in

As of 1970, he was the artistic director of the new Mexican-American Centre of Creative Arts, which taught Chicano high school and college students from the basement of the Euclid Heights Community Centre in East Los Angeles.^[9] Delgado told the Los Angeles Times: "We are 100% positive in our approach, and we are uncompromising in our belief that our kids will come away thinking of themselves as artists. Nothing is going to stop us from attaining our identification in American society."^[10]

Delgado had a guest role in an October 1970 episode Storefront Lawyers before being cast as a series regular in Angie's Garage in November 1970. The new children's series focused on serving Mexican-American children. He was billed as a singer-guitarist.^[11] He speculated that Sesame Street producers discovered him through the series.^[7]

Delgado recorded voice-over work in both English and Spanish.^[12]

Early years on Sesame Street (1971–1988)

On Sesame Street, his character Luis, along with Raul Julia as Rafael, were the first human additions to the original cast. Luis was a handyman, and an aspiring writer, who debuted on the show in 1971 simultaneously with Julia. Together they ran the L&R Fix-It Shop until Julia left the show after one season, and Luis ran the Fix-It Shop alone from then on.^{[citation needed]}

The enormous popularity of Sesame Street created a barrage of groups providing input on the curriculum in its second season.^[13] During the season, the program attempted to teach Spanish to children whose mother tongue was English. Producer Jon Stone told The Pittsburgh Press that their attempts were "a disaster. It was tokenism at best, and condescension at worst."^[14] For the third season, the show rebooted their efforts, adding Puerto Ricans and Chicanos, and creating new Spanish segments.^[14] Seven new cast members were added at the start of the season, including Delgado, Panchito Gómez, Raul Julia, and Sonia Manzano.^[15] Delgado was still enrolled at CalArts when he was cast.^[6] The character has been described as the "antithesis" of the Mexican and Latino stereotypes that proliferated television at the time, as he was "an honest, upstanding, hard-working, affable person."^[6] Delgado expected the role to last one or two seasons.^[6]

Delgado joined the series' live events by at least 1972, when he performed with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.^[16]

Delgado was named the coordinator of the

Delgado is believed to have played "the same role on U.S. television longer than any other Mexican-American actor," according to CalArts.[6]

Later seasons on Sesame Street (1988–2016)

During Sesame Street's 19th season, first aired in 1988, Luis fell in love with

Delgado later appeared at various pop culture conventions, often under the brand "Humans of Sesame Street".[18] Delgado also reprised the role of Luis in the TV special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.^[19]

Delgado also performed in live shows throughout his Sesame Street career, singing the songs of Sesame Street and entertaining thousands of children and their families.^[20]

Additional roles

Delgado took guest roles on other series while Sesame Street was not taping. Notably, he had a recurring role as national news editor Rubin Castillo on the television series Lou Grant.^[21][6]

Delgado starred in Quixote Nuevo that premiered in 2018 at

In Los Angeles, he was a company member of Inner City Rep, The Group Repertory, and LA Repertory. Some of his New York City theatre credits include Floating Home (HExTC), Boxing 2000 (Richard Maxwell NYC Players), Dismiss All the Poets (New York Fringe Festival 2002), Nilo Cruz's adaptation of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Dinosaurios (IATI), Night Over Taos INTAR Theatre an adaptation How the García Girls Lost Their Accents Round House Theatre and Emilio appeared in the role of King Claudius in Asolo Repertory Theatre production of Hamlet, Prince of Cuba, with alternating performances in English and Spanish, where one reviewer wrote that Delgado "is equally brilliant as King Claudius".^[22]

His other television appearances include

In the latter years of his life, just before his death, he also served on the board of directors at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, an LGBT safe-place, community activist center, and educational bridge dedicated to honoring Bayard Rustin through their mission and good works.^[25]

Personal life

Emilio and Carole were married in Bermuda, January 28, 1990. Delgado has a daughter, Lauren, and a son, Aram Delgado, from his previous marriage to Barbara Jean Snavely.^[6]

Delgado's voice has been described as "deep, smooth and sonorous, his words precise and deliberate."^[12]

Death

In December 2020, Delgado was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.^[5] He died from the disease at his home in Manhattan, New York City, on March 10, 2022, at the age of 81.^[5][26]

Filmography

• I Will Fight No More Forever - TV movie - Ollokot (1975)
• Born to the Wind - White Bull (1982)
• Luis Rodriguez
  (1985)
• Reggie's Prayer - Stadium Announcer (1996)
• The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland - Luis Rodriguez (1999)
• Perhaps Tomorrow - Zelgai (2010)
• A Case of You - Roberto (2013)
• Peeples - Chief Oneka (2013)
• Montauk - Eduardo (2013)
• Luz Marina - Carlos (2018)
• iGilbert - Rodolfo Gonzalez (2021)
• Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street - Self (2021)