Ander & Santi Were Here
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Average rating4.5
**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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ARC received by wednesday books in exchange for an honest review...
“I think, if this is my last day, the last day of life as I know it, the last few hours of happiness and having things and people who can take my mind away from the worries and mierda out there, then at least I know I've made the best out of it.”
When I read this book I had a bad news. So at first I was not going to finish it but I did and I am happy I did. 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 had reading.
When a book's characters reference Adam Silvera's [b: They Both Die at the End 33385229 They Both Die at the End Adam Silvera https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1494333138l/33385229.SY75.jpg 49456196], you know you've got a heartbreaker in your hands. But I'm not sorry I took the plunge. Author Jonny Garza Villa has grown as an author by leaps and bounds from their debut novel, [b:Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun 55144174 Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun Jonny Garza Villa https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1612262882l/55144174.SY75.jpg 81129680]. Nonbinary Ander and undocumented person Santi's star-crossed love story is sweet, funny, hot (but not explicit), and undeniable. The plot is enriched by the descriptions of Ander's murals and his struggle to be true to his roots while not limiting his work to “Mexican themes.” Villa doesn't claim to speak for the undocumented, but in Ander they show how even a well-meaning ally can fuck things up (don't get him started on [b:American Dirt 45046527 American Dirt Jeanine Cummins https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559127861l/45046527.SY75.jpg 69749472] though). And with Santiago Garcia, they make a irrefutable case for welcoming all to our country, not just those who are “refugees with a a morning-show-worthy backstory, [and who are] STEM geniuses.”This is one of those books whose final 100 pages require you to be alone with a box of Kleenex to process all of the feelz, despite a HFN ending. It's definitely not a “comfort read,” but it's an unforgettable one.
