Richard Blanco: FIU Alumni, writer, professor and poet-laureate

Kaysea Suzana | Assistant Entertainment Director

Poet laureate Richard Blanco writes about the intersection of home, being Cuban-American, class and sexuality within identity.

Blanco was the first Hispanic, first openly-gay, and first immigrant inaugural poet, having received the title as the fifth inaugural poet under the Obama administration, as well as the National Humanities Medal from President Biden.

Blanco is also the first poet laureate for Miami-Dade County.

Having studied both an undergrad civil engineering degree and a master’s in creative writing, Blanco had returned to FIU to teach creative writing, and now Latinx literature.

“I see myself in my students, and they see themselves in me,” Blanco said.

“What keeps me in the job is that I feel like I can offer them my expertise and my teachings, especially in a place I feel like can make a difference. I feel like my teaching is mission driven.”

Blanco, born to Cuban refugees, recounts the struggle to pursue an education while also being part of the working-class.

“There was a challenge rooted in my working-class, immigrant background. I had to make a living. I had to get a job that was paying the bills and put food on the table,” Blanco said.

Aware of the starving artist trope, Blanco adds that he makes sure to speak to his students about the importance of making a practical choice for their lives.

Blanco mentioned that he too faced the challenge of a wavering identity, specifically in balancing his work and his passion.

“Sometimes I would feel like a fake because I had a day job that was not related to poetry. I’ve made peace with that and realized that it’s a plus not a minus,” Blanco said. 

On top of that, being an immigrant, Blanco was aware of the difficulties of not having the finances and stability that others had.

“I wasn’t a trust-fund baby. My parents paid for my education and really pushed for me to get into a job that paid well,” Blanco said.

Last year, Blanco, in accordance with Miami-Dade county, founded the Miami Favorite Poems Project.

This project invited pillars of literature such as Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, and novelist Sandra Cisneros while also offering a sign-up sheet for anyone to submit their poems.

Last year’s event also featured the attendance of Miami-Dade county mayor Daniella Levine Cava 

Blanco mentioned that he was inspired to start the project to connect people more to poetry, and to overall make it accessible for those who might feel repelled.

“People often say they don’t get poetry or care for it. But if you ask them what their favorite poem is, they often have one. Poetry is one of those things that they’ll always remember,” Blanco said.

Having just recently released a collection, featuring old and new poems, Blanco spoke about his process on structuring the book.

“The new poems begin the book, with past poems making more of a flashback before you’re back to the new poems. It’s a bit of narration within a poem. People often don’t realize how carefully poets craft the structures of their books,” Blanco said.

The collection, titled ‘Homeland of my body: New & Selected Poems’  is meant to illustrate Blanco’s intersection of identity, what constitutes ‘home’ for him as grew older.

Blanco mentioned that it was in writing that he managed to explore facets of his identity, whether it was as an immigrant, as a working-class student, or as a gay man.

“For my first two books, I did not connect them with home, identity or sexuality. In my third book, it dawned on me that sexuality is in a way, a kind of home we make. You have to go out and find people who accept you, a home where you can feel safe,” Blanco said.