Richard Blanco: Latino Makes History with Inaugural Poem

By Aiyana Baida, Voxxi

Richard Blanco stood before 800,000 people at the nation’s capital to speak the message of ‘one’ America.

At 44-years-old, Latino poet Richard Blanco made history at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration ceremony as the youngest, first Hispanic and first openly gay inaugural poet.

Blanco addressed the president, Vice President Joe Biden and America with his inaugural poem “One Today.” His poem spoke to the mundane life and experiences Americans share, from the classroom where teachers write up equations on chalkboards to the grief the nation felt when 20 children’s lives were taken in the Sandy Hook massacre, “20 children are marked absent today,” he said. Blanco related to hard-working Americans like his mother who for 20 years worked the grocery store check out line.

“My face, your face, millions of faces in mornings mirror,” a line from Blanco’s poem that addresses Americans plight as “one.”

Richard Blanco was born in Spain to Cuban exiles. He emigrated to the United States as an infant with his family and settled in Miami, where he studied engineering at Florida International University. After working as a civil engineer, he returned to the university to study creative writing, pursing an MFA in 1991.

“I’m beside myself, bestowed with this great honor, brimming over with excitement, awe, and gratitude,” said Blanco in a statement days before the inaugural ceremony. “In many ways, this is the very ‘stuff’ of the American Dream, which underlies so much of my work and my life’s story—America’s story, really.  I am thrilled by the thought of coming together during this great occasion to celebrate our country and its people through the power of poetry.”

Writing a poem for Obama’s inauguration, while an immense honor, was “the toughest assignment I’ve ever had,” Blanco said in a BBC interview.

He relates the theme for the inaugural poem to his first assignment in graduate school, which was about America. The poem became the first poem in his first book.

“I really sort of have keyed in to the theme of the inauguration, which is Our People, Our Future, and writing about America is a topic that obsesses me in terms of cultural negotiation and my background as a Cuban-American,” Blanco said to NPR.

There have only been five inaugural poets in history. The first to read a verse at an inauguration was Robert Frost in 1961 at President John F. Kennedy’s swearing-in ceremony. Frost recited “The Gift Outright.”

Other poets to recite at inaugural ceremonies include: Maya Angelou at President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration and Miller Williams in Clinton’s 1997 inaugural ceremony; Elizabeth Alexander at Obama’s first inauguration.

“I’m honored that Richard Blanco will join me and Vice President Biden at our second Inaugural,” Obama said in a statement.

“His contributions to the fields of poetry and the arts have already paved a path forward for future generations of writers. Richard’s writing will be wonderfully fitting for an Inaugural that will celebrate the strength of the American people and our nation’s great diversity.”

Richard Blanco on inaugural poem

This article was first published in Voxxi.

Aiyana Baida is a multimedia journalist whose work has been featured in Highlands Today, The Sun Sentinel, United Press International, The Miami Herald and The Miami New Times among other publications. Aiyana earned her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Miami in 2009 while freelancing for several media websites.