Rosita la Monstrua de las Cuevas

Joanne Freeman: Okay, guys. I have a confession.

Brian Balogh: Yeah, Joanne. Let’s hear it.

Joanne Freeman: I’ve always had this wish to one day meet a Muppet.

Ed Ayers: Who hasn’t had that wish? Did your wish come true?

Joanne Freeman: It did. I am very happy to report that it did.

Rosita: Is that you, Joanne? Hola.

Joanne Freeman: It is me.

Rosita: I’m a furry monster.

Joanne Freeman: Meet Rosita. Well, actually her full name is …

Carmen Osbahr: Rosita, la monstrua de las cuevas.

Joanne Freeman: She’s an adorable turquoise monster who’s been a recurring character on Sesame Street for nearly 30 years. Rosita stands out among her furry friends because she’s bilingual. You can often find her teaching her fellow Muppets words or phrases in Spanish.

Carmen Osbahr: She loves to share her culture with her friends. She’s actually teaching Elmo to say a few words. She loves music. She plays a guitar. She’s just happy to be part of the gang.

Joanne Freeman: It’s easy to imagine beloved characters like Big Bird, Elmo and Rosita as actual living and autonomous creatures. But the reality is that behind every character is a talented Muppeteer bringing them to life.

Carmen Osbahr: Yeah, my name is Carmen Osbahr and I’m a Muppeteer on Sesame Street. I perform Rosita and Ovejita for the Word on the Street, and chickens, and penguins, and monsters. There I am to help with that.

Joanne Freeman: Carmen has been with Rosita since the character was introduced in 1991. Carmen even worked with the show to create Rosita’s personality and appearance.

Carmen Osbahr: I wanted live hands, for her to be very touchable, like grab things, hug friends and beautiful huge arms. I also said, “I don’t want her tiny. I want a big monster.” Then they asked me, “Well, what will be her name?” I thought, “Well, it has to be with an R so people can roll the R when they say Rosita and I can teach them how to roll the R,” so Rosita came along too.

Joanne Freeman: By the time Carmen joined Sesame Street, she was already a skilled puppeteer. She had worked on the show Plaza Sesamo in Mexico City. Today, it’s just called Sesamo. It’s the version of Sesame Street for Spanish speakers in Latin America. Carmen says it was actually the first episode of Plaza Sesamo in 1972 that initially sparked her fascination for puppetry.

Carmen Osbahr: I wonder too, “Wow, how do they do that?” It’s just I didn’t know that they wear those things and their costumes. I had no idea. When the opportunity came to me when I was 18 to take a workshop, that was for me the moment, the moment that I realized that there was nothing else I wanted to do than perform puppets. It was so difficult, Joanne. I realized that it was not just you are not wearing a puppet. It was a little guy with just one expression right into your hand, above your head, and that you have to do everything else. It was so challenging.

Joanne Freeman: But Carmen got the hang of it and eventually landed a job with Plaza Sesamo. After a few years working in Mexico, she was invited to check out the set of Sesame Street in New York City. That’s when a conversation with Jim Henson changed her life.

Carmen Osbahr: I walk in and I saw the puppeteers there with Bert and Ernie. I couldn’t believe it. It was just so magical. It was magical to see them working together. They were so much fun and they make these characters. Then Jim Henson invited me to be part of a workshop. I thought, “Oh, you know what, maybe they need a bilingual character. I don’t know.”

Carmen Osbahr: Yes, I was part of that workshop for two weeks and it was so much fun. I was just about to go to Mexico. We were in the studio and he called me. He was on the other side of the room and he called me. I just walked to him and he said, “Hey, Carmen. After the workshop, I just wanted to ask you if you want to be part of my Muppet family.” He really gave me a family because I left country, and I left my home and everybody, and I came here all by myself. He gave me all the Muppeteers and everybody’s been wonderful. Now I’ve just been here for 30 years.

Joanne Freeman: You describe wonderfully the characteristics you wanted. You wanted her to be able to hug. What were some of the aspects that you thought she was bringing to the show that maybe weren’t there before her character was there?

Carmen Osbahr: Well, first of all, she was going through the struggles that I was going, and that being new in a new country, and she was new in a new street. It was very natural for her to be doing what I was doing.

Carmen Osbahr: I remember right at the beginning, Rosita was struggling with her words and her accent, and she was the only one that was feeling bad about what was happening, but everybody else was saying, “Absolutely no. You don’t have to feel bad. You speak two languages. None of us speak two languages. On the contrary, it’s great that you’re able to speak two languages.”

Carmen Osbahr: I think it’s great that there’s one more character in a rainbow of characters on Sesame Street because I think Sesame Street has always been so important. You see the cast in 1969, you have Roscoe there, you have Gordon, you have Maria and Louis. In those days, you didn’t have people of color on a TV show. The kids finally were able to identify. It’s like, “Oh, there’s somebody that looks like me on TV.” With Rosita, I think they continue what they started in 1969, just adding another color in the rainbow.

Joanne Freeman: What was response when her character first appeared and added that color to the rainbow? How did people respond to her character?

Carmen Osbahr: Oh, it was great. Oh, gosh, I had a lot of letters. Everybody was really happy that there was a bilingual monster. It still is overwhelming. I’m honored to represent my people.

Carmen Osbahr: The other day, we were performing at the Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis, with all the celebrations of the 50th Anniversary. It was amazing experience to sing live. At the end, we went through the audience and there were little kids that were trying to talk to Rosita in Spanish, the little words that they knew. They all say hello, they say, “Hola,” and they tell her, her name in Spanish. It’s just adorable.

Joanne Freeman: Now has there been, have you noticed in the time that you’ve been Rosita, has there been a change in the way that people respond to her character at all?

Carmen Osbahr: Well, now they know her better. There’s so many characters on Sesame Street, but they definitely know and identify her as she plays the guitar, and she speaks Spanish. That is really good.

Carmen Osbahr: Also, Rosita has been part of a lot of the outreach projects that Sesame Workshop has. Rosita has been part of videos for the military families for the last 10 years. The audience too is not just the people that they see me through the show, but they see Rosita now in videos that are specific for dealing with changes for the military, or losing somebody, or incarceration and all this wonderful work that the Sesame Workshop has for communities.

Carmen Osbahr: Actually, I have to say in the outreach, Rosita’s dad is in a wheelchair. I was able to go to Walter Reed visiting some families there. But I was able to go to the preschool that they have there. It was really special moment because Rosita came in, and I did some songs with them and Rosita sang.

Carmen Osbahr: But then a little girl came really quietly and gave her a hug, and she told her, “I know that you are dealing with a lot at home because your daddy is in a wheelchair. My daddy is in a wheelchair too, but everything is going to be okay. You will see.” I really … That completely … The kids are amazing with the characters because they know them. They share things and they’re their friends, but it was just so special to have that moment with that little girl.

Joanne Freeman: The most rewarding thing in the world, right? That kid just said to you, “I learned what I was suppose to learn and now I’m going to give it to someone else.”

Carmen Osbahr: Yes. Yes.

Joanne Freeman: Now, you talked about originally being really taken with just puppets and puppeteering generally, but thinking back to when you were a kid, what do you think it would have meant if there had been some kind of a Rosita puppet character that you could have gotten to know as a kid?

Carmen Osbahr: Well, that would be great. Absolutely. But you know, I’m a mom and I have to tell you that these videos help me as mom with my kid. Actually, in my family, we were going through changes when I was doing the video of changes. I didn’t know how to talk to my kid about it. We’re not in the military or anything, but any regular family goes through a lot of health issues and stuff, and I was going through changes at home. Thank god I had the help of Sesame Street because I was able to talk to my kid in a way that we both were understanding what was happening. Thank god for that, really, seriously.

Joanne Freeman: Related to that questions then, how do you feel that it’s important for kids, whether it’s your kids or someone else’s kids? Why do you feel it’s important for kids to be able to see themselves in Muppet form, whether or not it’s a hugging monster or some other kind of creature?

Carmen Osbahr: I think it’s very important and I hope they really get the message that we’re trying to send them. Sometimes I think about Oscar the Grouch. Oscar the Grouch is just a wonderful character that he is who he is. He is a grouch, he likes trash and he’s fine about it. It’s like, “This is who I am and this is what you get when you see me.”

Carmen Osbahr: I think that it’s very important for the kids to know that no matter how you look, no matter what is your color, no matter where you come from, you are who you are and you’re special, and also that kids should be allowed to have fun, and to be goofy, and to make mistakes and learn from them, and just talk to your friends and have a community.