The paper highlights the importance of affectivity in school retention in public secondary schools in Guadalajara, Mexico, in a socioeconomic context where the students themselves often decide whether to stay in school or to drop out. In such contexts, students' feelings towards the school and the teachers can become crucial in deciding whether to persist with school or not, especially when they are already under pressure due to economic difficulties and other family pressures. Yet currently, pressures to achieve efficiency in schools limit staff capacity to establish more personal contact with students. The article looks at how three key spaces within Mexican secondaries could potentially reinforce one another to help attend to students' emotional well-being, but also points to obstacles that currently prevent these spaces from being used in a constructive way.