I’m putting together my lesson plan for day one of the fall semester. I’m going with Sandra Cisneros and “Geraldo with No Name.” It’s from House on Mango Street. You know, the poor little girl Esperanza: “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting…” Cisneros sticks pretty close to this very theme in “Geraldo with No Name.”

I hope we can open up a discussion about what to do with all the kids coming across our southern border. Will anyone in my classes have anything to say?