by Dalia Hajir
El Paso is celebrating the magnanimous accomplishment of Benjamin Sáenz’s book Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, reaching No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list for young adult hardcover books this past October 2021. This dream-come-true is a first time for Sáenz, and Borderlands dedicates this space to commemorate his superb work and achievement.
Sáenz’s bestseller is the sequel to the 2014 novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which he lovingly refers to as Ari and Dante. It’s the story of two Mexican American teenage boys from a 1980s El Paso, Texas, who meet for the first time at a swimming class and eventually fall in love. The book won multiple prizes, including a Stonewall Book Award, given to exceptional books showcasing the LGBTQIA+ experience. The story speaks to fans on a personal level, leaving them begging for a sequel. Sáenz hadn’t planned to write one. Eventually, he decided to do it, challenging himself to make the sequel even better than the original.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Sáenz expresses his thoughts about surpassing the first book, “Well, the sequel is always going to live in the shadow of the original. That’s just the way it is. But the sequel is a better book because it’s more real. The first book was about two people discovering each other, and it’s a small, intimate book, more inward-looking. The sequel centers on the world in which they live. One of the things I didn’t even mention in the first book was AIDS. The sequel takes place in the middle of the AIDS pandemic and the hatred that comes with that.” The sequel, which took Sáenz five years to complete, promises an astounding development in the boys’ relationship and their growth as individuals as they struggle with theirsexual and cultural identity within a world that won’t readily accept them.
Photo caption: Benjamin Alire Sáenz courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
While its sequel flies off the shelves, Ari and Dante is currently being made into a movie, casting Eugenio Derbez as Aristotle’s father, Eva Longoria as Soledad Quintana, and newcomers Max Pelayo and Reese Gonzales as Aristotle and Dante, respectively. It is directed by Aitch Alberto, a determined trans woman who moved all strings to bring the film to its maximum potential. She cast all Mexican Americans and one Mexican (Derbez), something irregular even for a movie about Latinos, Sáenz observes. The Dallas Morning News reports Sáenz as saying, “It’s all true to the book, and that’s important. That just doesn’t happen very often.” Sáenz is excited about everyone working in the film.
Sáenz is a phenomenal writer whose career spans over three decades and is the only Mexican American who has won a PEN Faulkner Award for his fiction book Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club. Most of his writing centers and is inspired by the intricacies of living in the border.
Sáenz was born in Old Picacho, New Mexico, growing up on a farm with six siblings and graduating from Las Cruces High School in 1972, followed by a fruitful experience in higher education. He earned a B.A. in Humanities and Philosophy from Thomas Seminary in Denver. He then studied theology at the University of Louvain in Leuven, Belgium, and spent a few years as a priest in El Paso. However, he left the order and returned to school, earning an M.A. degree in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and spent a year at the University of Iowa in the American Literature Ph.D. program, where he earned a Wallace Stegner Fellowship. He then spent two years at Stanford as a Ph.D. student. Before completing theprogram, he moved back to El Paso to teach in the UTEP bilingual MFA program. Retired from teaching in 2016, Sáenz continues to live in El Paso, the place he calls his home. El Paso begs you – never stop writing, Benjamin Alire Sáenz!
Ari and Dante is a must-read for any young mind searching for a love story that stirs the soul and rips it apart. Where no single moment or character lacks dimensionality, the life-changing bond the boys form seems to be from another realm – powerful, devastating and beautiful.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by
A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship--the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.
"I Lost Myself and Found Myself in the City in which I Love" | Benjamin Alire Sáenz | TEDxElPaso
