Ander & Santi Were Here: A Novel
A STONEWALL YOUNG ADULT HONOR BOOK
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets The Sun is Also a Star in this YA contemporary love story from Jonny Garza Villa, Ander & Santi Were Here, about a nonbinary Mexican American teen falling for the shy new waiter at their family’s taqueria.
Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.
The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander Martínez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce. The mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially their job at their family's taquería. It's the place that has inspired Ander as a muralist, and, as they get ready to leave for art school, it's all of these things that give them hesitancy. That give them the thought, are they ready to leave it all behind?
To keep Ander from becoming complacent during their gap year, their family "fires" them so they can transition from restaurant life to focusing on their murals and prepare for college. That is, until they meet Santiago López Alvarado, the hot new waiter. Falling for each other becomes as natural as breathing. Through Santi's eyes, Ander starts to understand who they are and want to be as an artist, and Ander becomes Santi's first steps toward making Santos Vista and the United States feel like home.
Until ICE agents come for Santi, and Ander realizes how fragile that sense of home is. How love can only hold on so long when the whole world is against them. And when, eventually, the world starts to win.
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Community Reviews
I really appreciated how the book began with an author’s note. This was the first book I ever read that had that before. Maybe it should become more common. It clearly set the intentions of what the author was trying to achieve. Jonny Garza Villa utilized both their identity and background to create a story not just about love but about the immigrant experience and the narratives we are allowed to tell.
I loved the intersection of Mexican culture and cuisine. The more chapters I read, the more hungry I became for Mexican food. The San Antonio atmosphere was beautifully written as well. The author wrote from the heart and it showed throughout their book. I want to read more of their work!
Ander and Santiago were well-written protagonists. They felt real. They felt authentic. You genuinely wanted to see them stay together! And there was this looming threat throughout the story that created high stakes for them. How often do romance stories, especially YA romance stories, have a legitimate threatening antagonist in their narratives?
The ending surprised me. It is not often that a romance novel has you in suspense because you don’t know what is going to happen. I think the ending was also meant to rebuke the generic immigrant story that we often hear and retell. This book may be categorized as a YA contemporary queer romance but it’s so much more than that.
I could not recommend this book enough. Read it immediately! You will not regret it!
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