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The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

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Published:
HarperCollins 2014
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Description

“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. 

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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
09/30/2014
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780062313782
ASIN:
B00HPWVW3A
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Richard Blanco. (2014). The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Richard Blanco. 2014. The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Richard Blanco, The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. HarperCollins, 2014.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Richard Blanco. The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. HarperCollins, 2014.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 16:52:15
Date Updated:
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        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.

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fullDescription

“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. 

reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: O, The Oprah Magazine
      • content:

        "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...

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from August 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.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        September 15, 2014
        When Blanco was named America's fifth Inaugural poet, he became the first Latino and openly gay man to be so honored. Now, in his memoir of growing up in Miami, he writes of his search for a place where he belonged. Conceived in Cuba, born in Spain, and raised in Miami, he felt rootless as he grew up watching reruns of I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch, and Bewitched while dreaming of having a real American family. He persuades his bewildered relatives to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, with unfortunate results. He finds an unlikely soul mate in an elderly Jewish woman who, like him, is a little from everywhere. He gets a job working in his great uncle's market, a place that comes to seem like home until a new man is hired with whom he falls in love and is forced to accept that he is gay, another outsider condition of being. 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

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“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...

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