A Strong Conversation with Richard Blanco
Courtesy of artist
Richard Blanco is an internationally renowned Cuban poet, public speaker, teacher, civil engineer and memoirist. Blanco’s poetry and writings explore being an immigrant and being queer in America. He is the first immigrant, the first Latino, the first openly gay person, and at the time the youngest person to be the U.S. Inaugural Poet, where he was the fifth poet to read at a United States Presidential Inauguration, having read the poem "One Today" for Barack Obama's Second Inauguration. He has been a professor at Georgetown University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, American University, Wesleyan University, Colby College, Central Connecticut State University, Carlow University, and is currently a professor at Florida International University. He serves as the first Education Ambassador for the Academy of American Poets. He has received Honorary Doctor of Letters from Macalester College, Colby College, and the University of Rhode Island, Maine College of Art, Lesley University, University of Miami.
Blanco's poetry has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The New Republic, Indiana Review, New York Times Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, and TriQuarterly Review, etc. He has published articles and essays in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, Indiana Review, and several anthologies, including Norton Anthology of Latino Literature and Great American Prose Poems. Blanco is part of the online Letras Latinas Oral History Project archive. He has been awarded several awards, grants, and done residences for his poetry including Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, Maine Literary Award for Poetry, Paterson Poetry Prize, Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, Gerda Haas Award for Excellence In Holocaust and Human Rights Education and Advocacy, Maine Literary Award for Memoir for The Prince of los Cocuyos, Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir for The Prince of los Cocuyos, Miami Beach Art Council Grant, Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, Residency Fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, PEN/Beyond Margins Award for Directions to the Beach of the Dead. Richard was appointed as a founding member of the Obama Foundation Advisory Council and has lectured at the US National Archives Poetry of LGBTQ history for Human and Civil Rights. Since 2014 he has hosted the visiting writer’s program and retreat at Gould Academy. Richard is also a member of the prestigious Macondo Writers Workshop.
Richard has a strong passion for reaching out through poetry to change how poetry is taught to all ages including grade school to nursing homes, at diverse writers workshops such as the Omega Institute, Maine Media Workshops, correctional institutions, and non-profits including the Writer's Center.
I had the pleasure and honor of asking Richard about what he would say to his younger self, how the “American dream” is similar to those born in the country and those who have immigrated to the country, and so much more.
UZOMAH: Can you discuss how poetry came into your life?
RICHARD: As an immigrant working-class family from Cuba, we spoke only Spanish at home and had practically no books except for an encyclopedia set. I had very little access to poetry or the arts and humanities. As such, I studied civil engineering. Ironically, my professional career as an engineer involved a lot of writing: reports, studies, letters, proposals, etc. It was then that I started to pay close attention to language, and I began to explore writing poetry in my late twenties.
U: What about poetry makes each poem a work of art?
R: Well, that’s hard to say. What constitutes “a work of art” is subjective to a degree, and a poem is a complex combination of various craft elements that must all come together. But I would say that a poem that is transcendent is art. That is a poem that manages to somehow transform both me as a poet and my readers.
U: If you could name one of your poems, which one best describes your poetic style and statement as a poet?
R: That would be the poem “Looking for the Gulf Motel.” It is one of those transcendent poems. It captures the essence of home, longing, loss, and other such themes that are at the center of my work. As regards to style, the poem is very imagistic, narrative, and sensual, which is my signature, so to speak.
U: What are some things, and who are some people who influence you outside the literary world?
R: I like to read a lot of books on psychology, philosophy, and spiritual practices. These subjects encourage me to focus on myself as a human being first. Becoming more aware of myself—and of human nature, in general, allows me to write better poems that delve deeper into the complexities and nuances of “life.”
U: What is the hardest lesson you have learned from Latin American communities and Americans about being both queer and an immigrant?
R: I wouldn’t say that I’ve had any “hard” lessons. But I have had some important realizations. For years I thought that my life as a Cuban immigrant had nothing to do with my life as a gay man. Now I understand they are very intertwined; the intersection of these two experiences and identities very much define my “story.” It’s what I call my “cultural sexuality.”
U: How is the “American dream” similar to those born in the country and those who have immigrated?
R: Because of the sacrifices immigrants have made to come to this country, I think they pursue the American Dream more passionately and appreciate it more deeply; what’s more, they don’t take for granted the freedoms and protections of our democracy.
U: How important is the immigrant’s journey and documenting it through writing important to the fabric that makes up America?
R: Part of my role as a poet is to be an emotional historian. That is, to record the lives of immigrants like me and my family for posterity. And that’s important “information” one can’t find in newspapers, news programs, statistics, etc.; it is uniquely told through the art of poetry and captures more than facts. The immigrant story has historically been at the heart of our national identity and continues to be part of it, with new waves of immigrants constantly coming to settle here.
U: What have been the most meaningful or memorable lessons you have learned in life and through your writing that you could share?
R: That the meaning or idea of home is as complex as love. That is to say, my sense of home is like that of love, constantly changing and evolving as I change and evolve. Home and love are ultimately undefinable in finite terms. As the poet Basho noted: “Life is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
U: What would you say to your younger self you wish you would have heard while finding your path?
R: I’d like to have told my younger self, “it’s okay to be a unicorn.” For years I’ve struggled with the feeling that I was somehow defective because I didn’t “stick to” one thing 100%. I enjoy exploring all sorts of knowledge and forms of expression. Hence, that’s why I’m an engineer and poet, and now I am also writing plays, scripts for television shows, musical lyrics for composers, among other projects. I’m finally accepting that I am the proverbial Renaissance man.
You can find more about Richard’s poetry and new projects on his site.
