My Thoughts:
Ander and Santi will pull you in and break your heart. This contemporary love story is a swoony story about a nonbinary Mexican American young adult, Ander, working at their family's taqueria and creating culturally relevant murals around the Santos Vista neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas. Santiago, Santi, is the shy new waiter that catches Ander's fancy. Although Ander's family knows that Santi is undocumented, Ander does not know until ICE comes to the taqueria and Ander must switch places with Santi.
Santi helps Ander to find value in their hispanic art aesthetic as good enough to stand up to western art standards. Ander helps Santi find home. I cried. I broke. I healed. The author's voice is authentic and brings difficult concepts like racism, homophobia, and immigration politics into a piece that is still a very romantic love story. This is going to be stand out in the romance lists because it is complex and swoony at the same time. Watch for this one! I loved it so much I listened to the audiobook and the narrator for the audiobook is just fabulous. This is one of my favorite audiobooks this year.
From the Publisher:
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.
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.
Publication Information:
Author: Jonny Garza Villa
Publisher: Wednesday Books (May 2, 2023)
Narrator: Avi Roque
Macmillan Audio
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