There are two different programs for independent students. I tried both programs, for two weeks each. Even after a month, I found it exhausting to converse in Spanish for three hours at a time, although my teacher, Verania Aguayo, never seemed to share my frustration. For two weeks I began my day with Ra l Moreno, whose drill sergeant style appealed to me and was just what I needed. He relentlessly guided my classmates and me through the fundamentals of verb conjugation and sentence formation.
Classes are small, and there's no place to hide.
I spent two hours a day for one week enthralled by Ross Gandy, who grew up in Texas, taught for years in the California State University system, has written several books about Mexico, and first came to the country nearly 30 years ago. Clearly a master of Mexican history, he endlessly paced the classroom floor, stopping to write up, down and sideways on a giant blackboard, firing imaginary guns while he explained the Mexican revolution, and intoning in a chantlike voice the decades of struggle between the Catholic Church and the Mexican government. But my closest relationship was with Francisco lvarez Manilla, known to his students as Paco. Paco is a lawyer turned teacher and a wonderful one. And that he was.