Eight-year-old pan-Latina goes on excursions; with an educational objective, she explores mountains, forests, jungles and oceans with the assistance of friendly animated but inanimate objects and animals: Backpack, Map, Boots the Monkey and many others, who help to guide her along her purposeful path.

She's profoundly independent and resiliently energetic. With her large brown eyes and a can-do spirit, Dora Marquez explores a world where choices and consequences are not only commonplace - but make relative differences. And, while outcomes are predictable, and the show functions outside of the realm of possibility, "Dora the Explorer" does grant 2-to-5 year old onlookers an opportunity to "assist" with riddles, puzzles, the Spanish language, and counting. Withstanding long-winded journeys, obstacles and run-ins with Swiper the item-nipping fox, one wonders how a little cartoon Latina girl was given such a noble task, and what her presence on television means.

Dora was once Tess, and not Latina. Nickelodeon's Valerie Walsh Valdes and Chris Glifford were given an opportunity to create their own show, and together they dreamt up a spunky blue-eyed blonde girl by the name of Tess, who had a bevy of animal friends who flocked alongside Tess during daily exploration. Network executives countered that idea, and introduced the concept of creating a bilingual Latina girl called Dora, in order to address the underrepresented minority in television programming. Latino writers were hired, as well as Latino consultants, who helped to shape and develop Dora.

Dora's induction into mainstream media made it possible to not only address the lack of Latinos in children's programming, but also the lack of authenticity relating to how many Latinos communicate with one another in Spanish. Though, Dora does not fully communicate in Spanish, it's not only observed that the young girl is bilingual, but often she equips viewers with select words and phrases to quietly build their Spanish vocabulary, with no pronounced objective to teach Spanish.

"We wanted to give an authentic cultural identity to the character, but also to the world around her," said Walsh Valdes, the co-creator and executive producer of both Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go. "It's not just kids who speak Spanish that identify with Dora. Other bilingual kids see themselves in her."

Dora's presence on television functions to normalize bilingualism among children. At least 15 percent of U.S. children come from a home where more than one language is spoken, yet most children are unaware of this; and they remain shy about sharing their second language publicly.

The benefits of bilingualism, alone, should be enough to brighten anyone to the idea of speaking another language. Bilingualism and its cognitive advantages have been studied and documented. The ability to speak two languages can be credited for delaying the onset of dementia, enhancing intellectual development and improving memory. The largest study ever done regarding the subject was recently conducted; which included 648 individuals and took into account confounding variables. During the 20th century, many researchers, educators and policy makers functioned under the belief that a second language would interfere a child's cognitive learning abilities, causing language disorders, language delays or confusion, but those theories have been debunked.

Even the show's co-creator Valdes, who isn't bilingual, sees the benefits of speaking two languages at home, and is raising her daughter to be bilingual. She receives help teaching Spanish to her child, utilizing her Latina nanny and her Cuban-born husband, a writer for "Dora the Explorer."

"I don't speak Spanish, but I'm learning more from my daughter than I ever did in high school," Walsh Valdez shared. "My husband says she is as verbal in Spanish as she is in English, which is amazing!"

Beyond instilling confidence in second-language dialogue, Dora also prompts children to be more vocal, with the interactive quality of the show. Dora's commands and momentary silences are met with enthusiasm and responses. And, children learn that by utilizing their verbal skills and deductive reasoning, they "help" to push the show along and complete the missions.  

Dora also does good, and the show teaches children to do good as well. She shares, she cares, she helps, and she is empathetic. She has a positive attitude, a good moral compass (and, would do well with a real compass), and she's forgiving. On more than one occasion, she goes out of her way to save Swiper, even though he often swipes things from her.

But, not everyone loves "Dora the Explorer."

Lois Leveen of Bitch Magazine said that Dora was "phenotypically and culturally a mestizo (racially mixed) revision of the Spanish conquistadors who invaded and pillaged the Americas." She also stated that Dora's monolithic Latino identity was chosen particularly because it appeals to the dominate culture and marketers. Leveen claimed that Dora's "cinnamon" complexion, European-straight hair and non-threatening demeanor has positioned her as a tool for Anglo use, and that non-threatening status keeps her from ever addressing topic such of immigration, and her domain alienates references to social class, labor and the economy.

"Dora is less a global citizen than a global commodity, a marketing dream of multicultural merchandise that simultaneously appeals to Anglo and Latino parents and children," Leveen said. "Ultimately, Dora is the product of a global television market and serves the transnational capital interests of Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, and Mattel, whose subsidiary Fisher-Price makes Dora toys that are sold worldwide. As the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood documents, the Dora franchise has earned over $3.6 billion dollars in retail sales since debuting in 2000."

Ethnic and social responsibility dictates that whenever a minority (in this case, cartoon minority) is in the mainstream media it's an opportunity to verbalize social constraints, economic strife and class struggles... but, that isn't the responsibility/objective of a show geared toward toddlers. At three and four-years-old, it's up to parents, not Nickelodeon, to share information regarding socio-economics. And, many won't be surprised to discover that parents don't often discuss immigration, welfare or discrimination with their three-year-old children - though it does affect them. While the show will never blatantly tackle the social concerns of Latinos, the show could attempt to explore similar issues under relative circumstances, but, perhaps what might be most important is that "Dora the Explorer" teaches children empowerment through community and independence.  

Blogger Allison Boutwell stated that the "Dora the Explorer" "exemplifies the dumbing down of U.S. society and culture." Boutwell also made the observation that Dora only speaks with an accent when speaking in Spanish, though not in English -a technique that, suggestively, many young Spanish speakers do not master until they're much older.

She went on to state that Dora and her friends were helpless, the audience-directed prompts were pointless, and that show thrives on repetition. Also, that the teaching of good moral values and the reinforcement of participatory culture is sullied by unrealistic pauses and intellectual vacancy.

"Much of television is predictable these days. Part of the problem is the overuse of genre -producers play it safe. Another problem is producers themselves.  Shows are cranked out like a product exiting a piece of machinery," Boutwell said. "Shows are not created for quality but for money, therefore predictability and replication reign. In fact, of the four 'Dora the Explorer' shows that I watched in one day, two shows had the same exact format and nearly the same exact script.  The show embodies the predictability commonly seen in popular culture generally, but popular children's television shows specifically."

Boutwell's thorough critique may have been true in parts, much like Leveen's, but she ignores the considerably large fact that television has unintentionally taken on the role of "babysitter" for a number of families, and Dora is keeps these children company while they color in their coloring-books and eat their snacks.

When parents are busy, preparing meals and taking care of the rest of the family, their 2-to-5 year olds rest in front of the television and consume hours of programming. The benefit of having a show such as "Dora the Explorer" is, at the very least, it provides those children "someone" who is positive to interact with during that alone time. Also, they are allowed to access vocabulary that they don't normally because they aren't often asked questions about how to problem solve. The extended pauses are provided to presumably allow children to state their answers, as children don't generally muster together sentences as quickly or as coherently as adults do.

While "Dora the Explorer" does have its flaws, the series did give provide not only Latino children, but all children, with an idol who can conceivably do anything. The show reaches children worldwide and has been produced in 30 other languages.