Ander & Santi Were Here

A Novel

De: Jonny Garza Villa

Narrado por: Avi Roque

"[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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"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

listen.to.this.book

this book might go down as my favorite book ever. it was emotional. and heartwarming. and informative to those outside the cultures in the book. Ander and Santi were beautiful characters and I don't know how I'm supposed to read another book now

Such a beautiful and loving story

Such a powerful, necessary , and brilliant story. Loved everything about it. And the audible narrator did a wonderful job embodying the story characters too.

So beautiful

I read Ander and Santi Were Here in physical copy in a day because I couldn’t put it down, and immediately had to get it on audio. Avi is a wonderful narrator and this story will have a hold on my heart for a long long time.
Amazing story, amazing narration, highly recommend

Ander & Santi Were Here is a must read!

The book/audible was so good! It is really refreshing to read and re-imagine a family and community that supports Lgbtq+ Tejane/chicane/latine. It was the representation I didn’t know I needed. As a non-binary queer chicanx from San Antonio. This book felt like home. 💚💚💚

incredible. just incredible.

as someone who grew up in texas, as someone who has felt “too melanated”, i can’t recover from this book. the plot, the romance, the love, everything. i feel like a piece of me is missing after finishing this book.

i had a traumatizing relationship, and the ex loved sunflowers. it was his whole personality. without giving spoilers, this book helped me see sunflowers in a better light. instead of thinking of my ex, i will now think of ander and santi’s beautiful relationship. sunflowers are beautiful to me now.

i thank this artist for the POC, non-binary, and queer representation in this beautiful book. if anyone’s reading this, please read this book. you can’t not.