Vallejo fell flat last Thursday. I'm hoping he does better today. It's not really Vallejo's fault. It was my naive optimism thinking that students would easily get him. This could be a long semester.

That linguistic specificity: "¡De puro calor tengo frío / hermana envidia!"

That's what gets me every time: "El acento me pende del zapato" (I have an accent hanging from my shoe). The presence of the voice in the writing. How exactly is that done? It is so strong it even comes through in English.