BETHEL, Maine - Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco of Maine calls the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana "an extraordinary day.''
Blanco read a new poem at the event called "Matters of the Sea,'' or "Cosas del Mar'' in Spanish. He says the idea is that the 90 miles of water between Cuba and Florida both separates and unites the two nations.
He says he looks forward to "a new era of U.S.-Cuban relations and the Cuba.''
Blanco was President Obama's inaugural poet in 2013. The son of Cuban exiles, he came to the U.S. in 1968 from Spain. He currently lives in Bethel.