Actress Dascha Polanco (Orange Is the New Black) can’t remember a time in her life when she didn’t watch children’s TV shows. Classics like Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood entertained her as a little girl. When Polanco had her first daughter as a teenager, Dora the Explorer was popular.
“I remember when Dora [the Explorer] first came out, and I was very proud to see something like that on TV,” Polanco, 41, told Latina Media Co during a recent interview. “It was the first [show] to teach Spanish in a way that wasn’t so obvious. Dora has been able to reach the world and represent [Latinos]. People really connected with the experience.”
Polanco, who was born in the Dominican Republic, will now get the opportunity to see viewers connect with her own animated character from the Dora franchise. In the second season of Dora, a new version of the children’s show that premiered its first season last April, Polanco lends her voice to La Reina, a purple iguana who rules all the reptiles in the rainforest. La Reina wears a colorful headdress and necklace. In one episode, the character accepts a bouquet of flowers from her new friends and dances and sings with a bed of beautiful roses.
Polanco said she sees a lot of herself in La Reina because she’s a natural leader. “I have been in leadership roles throughout my career, so being La Reina was very honorable,” Polanco said. “She uses her team and her community to solve problems. She’s a leader, but she will also put on some music and get down.”
Polanco is no stranger to animated projects. Before her guest role in Dora, she gave voice to a handful of characters in TV series like Karma’s World and movies like DC League of Super-Pets.
“I really love kids, so I would love to do a lot more animation and a lot more kid’s shows, movies, and projects,” she shared. “I think it’s important to be able to influence the youth. [Dora] is something I never saw growing up. So, it’s come full circle for me.”
Indeed, things have changed across the TV landscape, since Polanco became a mom in the late 90s. These days, there are a lot more channels to choose from, and it’s easier to incorporate representative TV and other technology as part of an everyday routine. Let’s be honest: every modern parent has used Disney+ or one of its competitors to babysit their kid at one time or another.
“I’ve done it myself, but it’s so important that we teach balance at a very young age,” Polanco advised. “But we also have to do what works best for us. Everybody’s structure is different. We can’t really have a formula for every single person because culture gets involved.”
Polanco can’t help but think back to her childhood growing up in the 1980s. She remembers being allowed to watch TV during the week for about an hour after school and then going outside to play. She feels children’s attention spans 40 years ago were much longer than today’s generation. Luckily, Polanco said, each Dora episode is only 11 minutes long.
“Kids don’t have the discipline anymore to sit through a whole 30-minute show like we did,” she said. “Maybe parents can incorporate an episode of Dora and then take their kids to go have their own adventure at the park. I think this is a great opportunity for us, as a Latino community, to educate our kids via entertainment but also take advantage of spending time together.”
The second season of Dora is currently airing on Nickelodeon and streaming on Paramount+.
