The Prince of los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood

by Richard Blanco

Overview

“In this vibrant memoir, Obama-inaugural poet Richard Blanco tenderly, exhilaratingly chronicles his Miami childhood amid a colorful, if suffocating, family of Cuban exiles, as well as his quest to find his artistic voice and the courage to accept himself as a gay man.” — O, The Oprah Magazine

A poignant, hilarious, and inspiring memoir from the first Latino and openly gay inaugural poet, which explores his coming-of-age as the child of Cuban immigrants and his attempts to understand his place in America while grappling with his burgeoning artistic and sexual identities.

Richard Blanco’s childhood and adolescence were experienced between two imaginary worlds: his parents’ nostalgic world of 1950s Cuba and his imagined America, the country he saw on reruns of The Brady Bunch and Leave it to Beaver—an “exotic” life he yearned for as much as he yearned to see “la patria.”

A prismatic and lyrical narrative rich with the colors, sounds, smells, and textures of Miami, Richard Blanco’s personal narrative is a resonant account of how he discovered his authentic self and ultimately, a deeper understanding of what it means to be American. His is a singular yet universal story that beautifully illuminates the experience of “becoming;” how we are shaped by experiences, memories, and our complex stories: the humor, love, yearning, and tenderness that define a life. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062313775
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/23/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	245,532
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

An accomplished author, engineer, and educator, Richard blanco has published several volumes of acclaimed poetry. He is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, a recipient of several honorary doctorates, and a dynamic speaker supporting diversity, marriage equality, immigration, poetry in education, cultural exchange, and other important issues of our day. Currently, he shares his time between Boston and Bethel, Maine.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xv

Author's Note xvii

1 The First Real San Giving Day 1

2 Losing the Farm 39

3 El Ratoncito Miguel 69

4 Queen of the Copa 109

5 It Takes Un Pueblo 151

6 Listening to Mermaids 189

7 El Farito 219

Editorial Reviews

In this vibrant memoir, Obama-inaugural poet Richard Blanco tenderly, exhilaratingly chronicles his Miami childhood amid a colorful, if suffocating, family of Cuban exiles, as well as his quest to find his artistic voice and the courage to accept himself as a gay man.” — O, The Oprah Magazine

“Richard Blanco takes us on a thought-provoking, often hilarious ride in ... his coming-of-age memoir. The Cuban and Spanish intellectual, who was the first Latino, openly gay man and immigrant to be commissioned a presidential inaugural poet, illustrates the story of his childhood in the 1970s.” — Latina Magazine

“The Prince of Los Cocuyos had me laughing time and again with its warm, sweetly self-deprecating portrait of an immigrant family attempting to straddle Cuban traditions and American trends.” — Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree

“Thank you, Richard, for this. The Prince of los Cocuyos is revelation and homecoming.” — Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

“I adored every minute spent with young ‘Riqui’ and his endearing extended family. And at the end-an ending so beautiful and throat-catching-I felt wonderfully drenched in love.” — Monica Wood, author of When We Were the Kennedys

“[The Prince of los Cocuyos] includes portraits and scenes, intimately and lovingly rendered… Having honored our nation as a whole in verse, he honors it again, but this time as witness to the life and fortune of one exceptionally American family.” — Los Angeles Review of Books

“... the anecdotes Blanco shares – such as trying to convince his grandmother to go shopping at the Winn-Dixie supermarket she so feared – are muy cubano and will give readers a sense of Cuban family spirit.: — TheGuardian.com

“In Richard Blanco’s Miami, memories linger outside coffee windows and in Cuban grocery store aisles… In a series of loosely intertwined stories, Blanco describes a childhood marked by loss, humor and hints of an exotic land called America.” — Associated Press

“A warm, emotionally intimate memoir.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Blanco has a natural, unforced style that allows his characters’ vibrancy and humor to shine through.” — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“A work that is incredibly poignant at one moment, yet hysterically funny with the turn of the page.” — Huffington Post

“Filled with colorful characters, often poignant and sometimes melancholy, Blanco’s episodic memoir is a meditation on belonging, on self-acceptance, and on his family’s almost mystical connection to Cuba.” — Booklist

“Blanco’s touching reminiscence has a deep emotional truth. . . . [An] alternately hilarious and moving new memoir.” — Bookpage

“... this memoir is an exceptional introduction to the writer and his capabilities. The Prince of los Cocuyos embodies the best of his poetic style, in particular his eye for detail and ability to put the reader right in the place where he is.” — Orlando Weekly

“[A] sensual new memoir… Blanco’s ear for poetry comes to light in the memoir’s full-bodied language and knack for description… [evoking] the flavors, fabrics and smells of rundown South Beach hotels, all-night pig roasts, disco-era Quinces debuts.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Forged from truth and grace, Blanco has crafted a deeply compelling and moving memoir about place, self and family.” — Augusten Burroughs, author of This Is How and Running With Scissors

“The Prince of Los Cocuyos is equal parts touching, heart-ache-inducing, and laugh-out-loud funny.” — The Daily Beast

“Funny and poignant, Richard Blanco’s The Prince of Los Cocuyos follows the author and his Cuban-American family in Miami. The details of this very American, yet immigrant experience make all the difference.” — Los Angeles Campus Circle

“Like many a great bildungsroman, The Prince of Los Cocuyos ... portrays a character who feels torn between several different worlds. . . . His search for identity, belonging, and home is one that any reader, regardless of sexual orientation or ancestry, is one that anyone can identify with.” — The Advocate

“His eloquent and poetic writing has the ability to induce laughter, tears, and anger, sometimes on the same page… Highly recommended, Richard Blanco’s coming-of-age story is told with humor and humility and is a pleasure to read.” — Edge Media Network

From the Publisher

I adored every minute spent with young ‘Riqui’ and his endearing extended family. And at the end-an ending so beautiful and throat-catching-I felt wonderfully drenched in love.

Monica Wood

[The Prince of los Cocuyos] includes portraits and scenes, intimately and lovingly rendered… Having honored our nation as a whole in verse, he honors it again, but this time as witness to the life and fortune of one exceptionally American family.

Los Angeles Review of Books

... the anecdotes Blanco shares – such as trying to convince his grandmother to go shopping at the Winn-Dixie supermarket she so feared – are muy cubano and will give readers a sense of Cuban family spirit.:

TheGuardian.com

Funny and poignant, Richard Blanco’s The Prince of Los Cocuyos follows the author and his Cuban-American family in Miami. The details of this very American, yet immigrant experience make all the difference.

Los Angeles Campus Circle

[A] sensual new memoir… Blanco’s ear for poetry comes to light in the memoir’s full-bodied language and knack for description… [evoking] the flavors, fabrics and smells of rundown South Beach hotels, all-night pig roasts, disco-era Quinces debuts.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Blanco’s touching reminiscence has a deep emotional truth. . . . [An] alternately hilarious and moving new memoir.

Bookpage

Forged from truth and grace, Blanco has crafted a deeply compelling and moving memoir about place, self and family.

Augusten Burroughs

... this memoir is an exceptional introduction to the writer and his capabilities. The Prince of los Cocuyos embodies the best of his poetic style, in particular his eye for detail and ability to put the reader right in the place where he is.

Orlando Weekly

The Prince of Los Cocuyos is equal parts touching, heart-ache-inducing, and laugh-out-loud funny.

The Daily Beast

[A] sensual new memoir… Blanco’s ear for poetry comes to light in the memoir’s full-bodied language and knack for description… [evoking] the flavors, fabrics and smells of rundown South Beach hotels, all-night pig roasts, disco-era Quinces debuts.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Filled with colorful characters, often poignant and sometimes melancholy, Blanco’s episodic memoir is a meditation on belonging, on self-acceptance, and on his family’s almost mystical connection to Cuba.

Booklist

In Richard Blanco’s Miami, memories linger outside coffee windows and in Cuban grocery store aisles… In a series of loosely intertwined stories, Blanco describes a childhood marked by loss, humor and hints of an exotic land called America.

Associated Press Staff

Thank you, Richard, for this. The Prince of los Cocuyos is revelation and homecoming.

Sandra Cisneros

In this vibrant memoir, Obama-inaugural poet Richard Blanco tenderly, exhilaratingly chronicles his Miami childhood amid a colorful, if suffocating, family of Cuban exiles, as well as his quest to find his artistic voice and the courage to accept himself as a gay man.

O Magazine

★ 08/11/2014
Growing up in the 1970s in a Cuban-American community in Miami, poet Blanco was besieged by his exiled relatives’ nostalgia for the life they had left behind in Cuba in the 1960s; yet he also yearned for a American identity free from the immigrant experience. In seven chapters Blanco moves through the milestones of his adolescence living with his mother, father, older brother, Carlos (“Caco”), and grandparents, specifically his overbearing abuela, who had saved enough money working as a bookie in New York City for the family to move to a new house with a terra-cotta roof and lawn in the Westchester suburb of Miami—pronounced “Guechesta.” In the first chapter, “The First Real San Giving Day,” young Ricardo accompanied his abuela to help buy the chicken specials at the Winn-Dixie, a gringo store she highly suspected (“We don’t belong here”); yet her grandson gradually won her over to the American selections such as Easy Cheese and even engineered a Thanksgiving feast for the family that was as foreign as it was instructive. Being chosen as the companion for lovely Deycita’s quinceañera ball made Blanco, however, begin to wonder whether he liked girls at all, confirmed by his first dreamy crush on the former Cuban prisoner and new hire at the bodega where he worked for many summers, El Cocuyito (“The Firefly”). Blanco has a natural, unforced style that allows his characters’ vibrancy and humor to shine through. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Richard Blanco takes us on a thought-provoking, often hilarious ride in ... his coming-of-age memoir. The Cuban and Spanish intellectual, who was the first Latino, openly gay man and immigrant to be commissioned a presidential inaugural poet, illustrates the story of his childhood in the 1970s.

Latina Magazine

In this vibrant memoir, Obama-inaugural poet Richard Blanco tenderly, exhilaratingly chronicles his Miami childhood amid a colorful, if suffocating, family of Cuban exiles, as well as his quest to find his artistic voice and the courage to accept himself as a gay man.

The Oprah Magazine O

The Prince of Los Cocuyos had me laughing time and again with its warm, sweetly self-deprecating portrait of an immigrant family attempting to straddle Cuban traditions and American trends.

Andrew Solomon

In Richard Blanco’s Miami, memories linger outside coffee windows and in Cuban grocery store aisles… In a series of loosely intertwined stories, Blanco describes a childhood marked by loss, humor and hints of an exotic land called America.

Associated Press

Like many a great bildungsroman, The Prince of Los Cocuyos ... portrays a character who feels torn between several different worlds. . . . His search for identity, belonging, and home is one that any reader, regardless of sexual orientation or ancestry, is one that anyone can identify with.

The Advocate

Filled with colorful characters, often poignant and sometimes melancholy, Blanco’s episodic memoir is a meditation on belonging, on self-acceptance, and on his family’s almost mystical connection to Cuba.

Booklist

His eloquent and poetic writing has the ability to induce laughter, tears, and anger, sometimes on the same page… Highly recommended, Richard Blanco’s coming-of-age story is told with humor and humility and is a pleasure to read.

Edge Media Network

A work that is incredibly poignant at one moment, yet hysterically funny with the turn of the page.

Huffington Post

04/15/2014
Widely known as the youngest and the first Latino, immigrant, and openly gay poet to serve as inaugural poet, the multi-award-winning Blanco explores his coming of age as the child of Cuban immigrants and his negotiating his conflicted artistic, cultural, and social identities.

Library Journal

2014-07-14
An award-winning poet's memoir of growing up in Miami as the gay son of Cuban immigrants. Revolution changed Cuba forever. Yet Blanco's (For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey, 2013, etc.) family seemed determined to hang on to whatever they could of the lives they knew before Fidel Castro's takeover. Once the family settled in Miami, his parents went to work at an uncle's bodega and ate only Cuban food. Meanwhile, Blanco dreamed of becoming like his gringo school friends who ate "Pop-Tarts, Ritz Crackers and Cool Whip." He tried to introduce his family to American customs like Thanksgiving, only to see those traditions transformed into something with a distinctly Cuban twist. At the same time, Blanco was still fascinated by the country his family had left behind. Not only did they re-create it through the food they sold and ate, but also through the garden that his grandfather planted with the loquat, papaya and avocado trees that reminded them of their "lost [Cuban] paradise." Born in Madrid just before his family left Spain for the United States, the author soon realized that he existed in a world that was neither completely Cuban nor American: He was "a little from everywhere." The homosexual desires that surfaced during adolescence and which he kept hidden from his family only added to his feelings of separateness. As a cure for his love of "unmanly" things like his paint-by-number sets and his cousin's Easy-Bake Oven, Blanco's homophobic grandmother sent him to work at the bodega. In this space of working-class machismo, Blanco came into contact with a closeted Cuban homosexual who told him about the forbidden affair he had with another man before fleeing to the U.S. Their friendship started the author on the journey toward accepting not only his own gayness, but also the "ghosts of Cuba" that haunted him. A warm, emotionally intimate memoir.

Kirkus Reviews