Though the policies of President Barack Obama’s first term sent mixed messages to Hispanic Americans — the DREAM Act failed in the Senate in 2010 and more immigrants were deported during his first term than any other president’s term — his inaugural ceremony Monday gave the Latino community reasons to be hopeful.

While Obama elaborated on the platform of his second term, he made several allusions to policies that will benefit Latinos, including immigration reform and cultural acceptance. 

“Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity — until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country,” Obama said.

While echoing promises of making the American dream more accessible to all, the president surrounded himself with exemplars of that dream — two Cubans: a poet and a reverend.

Richard Blanco, born in Spain to a Cuban-exile mother, was the inaugural poet and shared his poem “One Today,” which immediately followed the president’s inaugural address. Blanco’s verses painted an image of the United States that broke through the archetypal balladry of America’s heartland. Blanco’s America in “One Today” is a land of what N.C. State psychology professor Rupert Nacoste calls neo-diversity — a time of rapid social change in a world that’s no longer defined black and white. Latinos stand at the junction of neo-diversity, and as Blanco put it, we’re a nation of “one light breathing color into stain glass windows.”

“Hear: the doors we open / for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,

buon giorno, howdy, namaste or buenos días / in the language my mother taught me — in every language / spoken into one wind carrying our lives / without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.”

After Blanco’s speech, Rev. Luis León, an episcopal Cuban exile, gave the benediction with a Spanish flair at the end, uttering the conclusion of his blessing in Spanish before finishing in English. 

“Señor Presidente, señor Vicepresidente, que Dios bendiga todos sus días. Todo esto lo ruego, en el más santo nombre, amén. / Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, may God bless you all your days. All this we pray, in your most holy name, amen.”

In his recognition of God’s omniscience, León’s use of English and Spanish parallels the nature of our political world: We aren’t a nation of one people or of one language, but out of many, we are one — E pluribus unum, the seal of our nation.

The messages that Obama and his cohorts sent yesterday should give all minorities hope, and as Latinos, we hope that we will see the changes Obama promised in his last term. We hope he can muster not just our nation but also the legislature to act on the immigration reform that is long overdue. Obama spoke of our “solemn duty … [to] what is our lasting birthright.” And though 11 million of our brothers and sisters may not be able to call this country their birthright, it is the spirit of the immigrant that forged this country and that will forever keep it, in Obama’s words, “awesome.”