Emilio DelgadoPhoto: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO
Emilio Delgado, best known for playing kind-hearted repair shop owner Luis Rodriguez on the legendary children’s entertainment program Sesame Street for 45 years, has died. In 2020, Delgado was diagnosed with multiple myeloma; he was 81 when he died this morning at his home in New York.
Delgado was born in Calexico, California, on the US-Mexico border. He gravitated towards music and performing from an early age. He had early successes on stage and also served as Artistic Director of the Mexican American Center for the Creative Arts, teaching drama to Los Angeles high school students.
Delgado’s life changed more or less forever when, in 1971, he received a job offer in which he was asked to leave California, fly to New York and join the cast of Sesame Street. The series was already a cultural institution at that point, debuting in 1969 and drawing both national acclaim and subsequent accusations of underrepresentation in terms of Latino performers, writers, and viewpoints.
To remedy these shortcomings, the show’s producers brought in a panel of Hispanic and Latino voices both in front of and behind the camera, including a new cast that included Panchito Gomez, Sonia Manzano, Delgado and Raul Julia – the latter of which quickly established themselves as Luis and Rafael , owners of the L&R Fix-It store. Julia left the series after one season; Delgado remained there for the next four decades, passing on the lessons to a generation of children.
As Luis, Delgado was instrumental in many of the most iconic moments in the show’s long history, including his character’s wedding to Maria of Manzano and the famous scene in which the adults on Sesame Street explain Mr. Hooper’s death to a grieving Big Bird. He remained on the show until 2016, when Sesame Workshop refused to renew his contract due to the retooling that accompanied the show’s move to HBO. (Delgado would continue to be associated with the series, appearing in its 50th anniversary special in 2019; his last film was as a talking head in a 2021 Street Gang documentary about the series.)
In addition to his usual street performance, Delgado also continued to work outside of the series, making occasional appearances in productions filmed in New York City. (Among other things, he played 5 roles of different characters in various Law & Order franchises). brighter and safer. In his own words, Delgado remarked on the rarity of this kind of role in 1970s America: “I realized I got a role on television, which was the role of a Hispanic, Mexican American who looked like an ordinary person.” He was part of the area, he had his own business. It was a role that hadn’t been shown before.”