Some have described the academic underperformance of Latino children, on the one hand, and their relatively strong socioemotional competencies on the other, as a "Latino Paradox." We unpack the affective climate of early elementary classrooms to explore how this paradox is addressed in a rural school district where children from low-income Latino families predominate. Using quantitative and qualitative data from a reliable observation instrument, we describe the quality of "emotional support" rendered through classroom interactions, analyze relationships between emotional support and a series of teacher characteristics, and assess how highly supportive teachers interact differently than less supportive teachers in ways that are responsive to children's cultural and linguistic backgrounds. We provide evidence--Spanish use associated with greater emotional support--for attending to both universal and cultural dimensions of classroom interactions to address the Latino paradox.