Ander & Santi Were Here

*Signed Bookplate*

Aristotle and DantemeetsThe Sun is Also a Starin this YA contemporary love story about a nonbinary Mexican American teen falling for the shy new waiter at their familys taqueria.

The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, TX is all Ander Martnez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce, the laughter of kids hitting a piata at the park, the mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially, their job at the familys taqueria. So as the days count down on their gap year until the day theyll leave for art school in Chicago, their head is filled with one relentless question: am I really ready to leave it all behind?

Their family, however, has the opposite worry: to keep them from becoming complacent, they fire Ander so they can focus on their murals and prepare for college. That is, until they meet Santiago Lpez Alvarado, the hot new waiter. Ander is immediately crushing and slides back into a few shifts, desperate to spend more time with him. A couple nights closing down the restaurant together; late night drives to drop Santi off after work; falling for each other is as natural as breathing. Through Santis eyes, Ander finally understands everything they are and want to be as an artist, and Ander becomes Santis first step toward making Santos Vista and the U.S. feel like home.

But they start to realize how fragile that sense of home is when vans are spotted following Santi on his walks to work. When ICE agents are waiting for them at Anders house. When they begin to feel like the entire world is against them. And when, eventually, the outside world starts to win.