Maria From “Sesame Street, ”Sonia Manzano, Remembers Being Scolded for ‘Throwing in a Lot of Spanglish’ on the Show (Exclusive)

Sonia Manzano is recalling how producers and cast members on Sesame Street told her that not everyone could understand the Spanglish words she often used in the early days of the show.

In a new documentary — STREET SMART: Lessons From a TV Icon — Manzano, who portrayed Maria on the show from 1971 to 2015, recalls how producers told her before filming, “Sonia, be yourself. We just want you to be yourself.”

“So I’m throwing in a lot of Spanglish, right?” Manzano, 75, adds in the documentary. “[They said], ‘Speak Spanish the way you speak Spanish,’ so I’m saying ‘Ruo’ for roof and ‘char’ for lunch…So the front office comes down and they tell [production], ‘You know, those aren’t really Spanish words.].’ ”

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She continues: “And I said, of course they’re Spanish words, my mother uses those words….So I go to my friend Emilio Delgado [the actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner] you know, the Chicano, who has a stronger grasp of Spanish than I have. And I said to him, ‘Emilio, is this some kind of conspiracy against me?’ ”

“And he looks at me in the most sincere way and says, ‘I gotta tell you. I don’t know what you’re saying, either,’ ” she adds with a laugh.

The moment, she says in the documentary, set the tone for her relationship with Delgado on set and also served as something of an acting lesson.

“Well, it set up our relationship and it made me reflect that you have to make choices in art,” Manzano says in the documentary. “I thought, let me use real Spanish words because I don’t want these little Chicano kids not knowing what I’m saying, or Peruvian kids or wherever.”

Speaking to PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, Manzano said the incident taught her an important lesson. “The lesson is this: Don’t hide. If you don’t know something, don’t hide. Face it head on because something better will come of it.”

Manzano added that, when she first joined the cast, she thought “it would be better for me if everybody thought I was born in Puerto Rico.”

“Somehow, I thought that was that would make me more authentic and more pleasing to the audience,” she said. “And then I was paranoid, you know, I was thinking, ‘What if somebody asked me like, what the population of San Juan is … I’ll be busted.’ ”

She continued: “It’s terrible. You can’t do your best looking over your shoulder. And I finally said to the producers,’I wasn’t born there. I’m a Nuyorican. I didn’t go [to Puerto Rico] till I was 14 years old, and they said, ‘OK, fine.’ So it taught me how people censor themselves. And I wasn’t gonna do that.”

Directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Ernie Bustamante, STREET SMART traces Manzano’s  journey from the South Bronx to the world of television. The film features rare interviews, original animation, and reenactments and delves into the struggles, triumphs, and defining moments that shaped the actress’ life and career. The documentary has been featured at numerous film festivals, with a wide release date still pending.

Manzano was one of the first Latinas on a national television show and has spent her career advocating for diversity on television. She also created the PBS animated series Alma’s Way and has, over the course of her career, won 15 Daytime Emmy Awards and received a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award in 2016.