Influence of Dora

A girl who hangs out with a monkey, goes on crazy adventures with her singing backpack and map, cannot find her Abuela’s house on her own and asks pointless questions all the time seems like a generic, annoying cartoon character, right? But she is not. Dora is one of the most revolutionary cartoon characters that has changed the way kids view the world.

According to zippia.com, Dora was the very first cartoon that was aired by Nickelodeon depicting Latinx kids under the age of 18. As of late 2022, Nickelodeon was the 8th largest cartoon producer in the world. Thus, Dora can get the recognition a queen like her deserves!

When the first season of Dora officially came out in 2000, Pat Buchanan was running for president, and he believed immigrants were invading and ruining America. Buchanan wrote multiple books about how immigrants were making Caucasians the minority.

“America is becoming Meximerica,” Buchanan said in his book, “Where The Right Went Wrong.”
“English is no longer the official language of the USA.” Seeing this statement and other sentiments like these, Nickelodeon took charge to spread the word that diversity is helping, not hurting.

I remember the day I was introduced to Dora. I was about four years old, and I was used to
seeing all of these American princesses who lived in the same old family with the same old blonde hair and blue eyes. I had no problem with this at all, but at this point, toddler-me was expecting the same old stuff. But, my entire world was, I kid you not, flipped upside down when I saw this girl with tan skin, like me, who spoke Spanish and boasted her roots and culture proudly and even taught about it to other kids and animals!

Even if I did not feel it at the time, I, a little girl with Indian roots, had a switch flipped in my head. From then on, I almost had an added sense of pride whenever I was recognized as a person of Indian roots, or called Indian-American. When some are reminded of their wonderfully mixed culture, they would shrug it off or try to forget about it or blend in to “not be weird.” But when people do that, they lose a part of themselves, their family-like community and their experiences.

In some ways, Dora might be just another cartoon, yet Dora can serve as a revolutionary checkpoint on the long, winded path to finding yourself and who you are, and crossing the threshold of the fear of being different or not fitting in — we should all know who we are and where we come from. The next time you watch Dora, think about how many possibilities there are. Go explore! Or, as Dora would say, “Vamanos! Let’s go!”