Ander & Santi Were Here

A Novel

By: Jonny Garza Villa

Narrated by: Avi Roque

Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year 2023

Long-listed, ALA Stonewall Book Award Honor Book, 2023

"[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.

©2023 Jonny Garza Villa (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"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

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.

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

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.

Beautifully colorful and sweet

I am in awe of how perfectly the author has told such a sweet and tender story infused with enough sass and color to keep if fun and light in parts while presenting the heavy, dark realities of life for undocumented immigrants in a grim light, but still managing to keep it all so hopeful.
Ander is such a sassy character and I love him so much. And Santi is quiet and beautiful. My heart broke for the two of them time and again, but the way it ended was like a wonderful gift.
I especially loved all of the imagery and food that was sprinkled throughout the book. I felt like I was watching a movie rather than listening to an audiobook.

Beautiful story!

I admit I ugly cried at about the three-quarter mark. Big ugly tears. I loved it.

The author made me SEE!!!

I loved the book, the narrator is perfect and as an older white woman who tries very hard to pronounce Spanish correctly I love and respect everything this author writes. You go Johnny! l'll read everything you write so please write more and more.

Stop Searching, This Is Your Next Obsession

Easily my favorite read of the year! The story is beautiful and the characters feel like your friends and family. I need five seasons on Netflix!

I’d recommend this book, but not the audio version.

This book is really important and I would recommend it to people, but I wouldn’t recommend the audio version. I personally didn’t like the narrator at all.