Earlier today, I wrote that through his talent as a poet, and through his history and culture, gay Latino poet Richard Blanco gives voice to those who haven't previously occupied the national stage of American history--to people of color, Latinos and Latinas, gay and lesbian folks, etc. Here's Blanco's essay "Making a Man Out of Me," which points out that, far more than Whitman or Bishop or Wilde, his personal history, his experiences growing up in a Cuban-American family, are responsible for his poetry:
