Ander  Santi Were Here, Jonny Garza Villa
Ander  Santi Were Here, Jonny Garza Villa
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Ander & Santi Were Here
A Novel

Author: Jonny Garza Villa

Narrator: Avi Roque

Unabridged: 12 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/02/2023


Synopsis

"[Avi] Roque's warm and musical narration is utter perfection. They capture Ander and Santi's fear with vivid immediacy and also infuse their voices with bubbly happiness. In moments of tenderness, their breath catches. They switch easily between Spanish and English and use a half-dozen unique accents for different characters. This audiobook is a heartbreaking, joyful love letter to queer Latinx communities."- AudioFile

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Wednesday Books.

About Jonny Garza Villa

JONNY GARZA VILLA (they/them) is an author of contemporary young adult literature with characters and settings inspired by their own Tejane, Chicane, and queer identities, including the Pura Belpré Honor Book Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun and Ander & Santi Were Here, a Bookshop.org Best YA of 2023 selection. Whatever the storyline, Jonny ultimately hopes Latines, and, more specifically, queer Mexican American young people will feel seen in their writing. When not writing, Jonny enjoys reading, playing Dungeons and Dragons, visiting taquerías, listening to Selena, and caring for their many cacti children. They live in San Antonio.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Marieke on November 06, 2022

Pure. Heartfelt. Tender. Colorful. While reading Ander and Santi were Here, another book came constantly to mind: Boy from the Mish/Ready where You Are (AU/US) by Gary Lonesborough. I felt the same vibes; two teens falling in love, and not much is happening. Both stories are even repetitive at times......more

Goodreads review by Shawna on March 14, 2022

It’s impossible to put into words exactly how this book made me feel. It was one of the most heartbreaking yet beautiful love stories that I’ve ever had the privilege of reading. I felt so much happiness and joy reading this book, but soon after that I had my heart torn to shreds in the last quarter......more

Goodreads review by Lance on May 02, 2023

Happy release day to this wonderful and timely romance! If you haven’t done so already, please go pick up a copy at your local bookstore/borrow it from your local library! E-ARC generously provided by St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much! 4 stars. Both a deft renderi......more

Goodreads review by Mai on October 25, 2024

Latine Heritage Month This is not only YA. It is Latine. It is queer. It deals with the undocumented. People that say kids don't have it tough, haven't been a kid in far too long. It's not only tough. It can be devastating. In San Antonio, a city I'm very familiar with, Ander/AJ Martínez are living ou......more

Goodreads review by Melany on August 28, 2022

If I could give this 10 stars, I would. I absolutely LOVED the story. Santi and Ander are beautiful souls you just want to become besties with. I loved the perspective for the LGBTQ+ community, an artist lifestyle and showing what living with the injustice to people who may not seem like "Starbucks......more


Quotes

"In Santi, Garza Villa has done a superb job of verisimilitude, taking their readers into the precarious life and circumstances of an undocumented teen. The love between the two teens is beautifully realized without a false note, proving that Garza Villa is as much an artist as Ander." - Booklist, Starred Review

"[A] blistering tale of enduring love and communal care." - Publishers Weekly

"Explores love and growing up viewed through artistic lenses.... A relevant coming-of-age journey." - Kirkus

"This book is a living, breathing love letter, and I felt every beat of it. Jonny Garza Villa’s fiercely vulnerable writing leaves a permanent mark." – Becky Albertalli, award-winning author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“Beautifully heartbreaking. This book will fill you with warmth while breaking you to pieces, and the tears you shed will be completely worth it.” - Dustin Thao, New York Times bestselling author of You've Reached Sam

"With a swoony romance full of sex positivity, humor, and PAIN, Jonny Garza Villa will destroy your heart and piece it back together and you will thank them for it." – Sonora Reyes, author of The Lesbiana's Guide To Catholic School

“A beautiful ode to holding on—to our precious family histories, to home wherever we choose to make it, and most importantly, to love.” – Laekan Zea Kemp, author of Pura Belpré Honor book Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet

"Jonny has done it again. Ander & Santi Were Here is at times hilariously debauched and painfully poignant, both a warm testament to community and love as well as a fiery call to action. I'll read anything they write, and you should too." -Aaron H. Aceves, author of This Is Why They Hate Us

"Ander & Santi Were Here is a uniquely soft heartbeat—devastating in its truth and profound in its beauty. JGV offers their readers another brilliant story, one that arrives ready to expose the truth of living and loving undocumented in America. At its core, ANDER AND SANTI is both a love story and a loud message made up of undeniably romantic moments, great banter, clutch-your-pillow flirting, and raw exposure to obstacles the Latine community meets head-on every day. Ander, Santi and Jonny Garza Villa have given readers a kind of poetry within this story that is meant to move you." – Cam Montgomery, author of By Any Means Necessary

"A romance that knows no borders, Ander & Santi Were Here is a rich, relatable, Latine story not soon to be forgotten." – e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, ALA winning author of the Fat Angie series


Awards

  • Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year
  • ALA Stonewall Book Award - Honor Book