Richard Blanco: The Prince of Los Cocuyos

Inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, made waves at President Obama’s second inauguration with his poem, One Today. He was the first immigrant, first Latino, the youngest and the first openly gay poet at the podium. He recently published his memoir, The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. He talks about growing up in a suburb of Miami with his exile parents while navigating his own many identities. The stories are delightfully written, especially meeting the cast of characters at his grocery store job at El Cocuyo.

In the wake of President Obama’s announcement to end the Cuban embargo, I talked to Richard Blanco about his memoir, his thoughts on “both sides of the 90 miles” (between Miami and Cuba), and his experience as an inaugural poet. For KBOO’s arts program, Stage & Studio, he joined me by phone from his Miami home during the Christmas holidays.

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Air date: 3/31/2015: