ABSTRACT
When Dr. Asela Rodríguez de Laguna informed me of her generous wish that I should share with my dear friend, Luis Rafael Sánchez, the honor of being a keynote speaker at this meeting of Puerto Rican writers and distinguished scholars of our literature, my first reaction was to get hold of my best English-Spanish dictionary and look up the meaning of the word keynote. I was dumbfounded by the first definition: it refers to music theory and denotes “the tonic note of a key or scale.” For an instant I thought: a “key” is, as well, a small instrument used to open doors, including, (why not?) those to fame; and a “scale” is what Calixto used to climb up to Melibea’s bedroom. But, of course, the dictionary is not referring to these two meanings but to the first, the one having to do with music theory. Since—wisely enough— I was not being invited to sing or play the piano, I moved on to the second definition in the dictionary, and it was there that my problems began. Because what I stumbled across—and I use the verb in its most literal sense—was keynote defined as “fundamental principle, basic idea or keystone.” Stones, I said to myself, are what will surely rain all over me if I dare to take on the responsibility that Doña Asela is so keen to put on my poor shoulders. Only God and she know why.
