Time Magazine\u2019s<\/a> 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Time (alongside titles like \u201cLittle Women,\u201d \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird\u201d and \u201cCatcher in the Rye.\u201d)<\/p>\nThe novels are set in El Paso in the 1980s and center on two gay Mexican American teen boys \u2013 Aristotle \u201cAri\u201d Mendoza and Dante Quintana \u2013 who forge a friendship, explore their sexuality and help each other find their place in the world.<\/p>\n
![\"“Aristotle](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cAristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World\u201d ranked No. 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list of young adult hardcover books.<\/p>\n
Published in 2014 and translated into 25 languages, \u201cAristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe\u201d is coming to the big screen next year \u2013 a feat S\u00e1enz is both proud of and nervous about.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might not seem it, but I\u2019m really a private person despite everything that\u2019s out there about my life,\u201d S\u00e1enz says. \u201cPublishing my books is putting out a little piece of me every time.\u201d<\/p>\n
S\u00e1enz has been working the media circuit, which he says makes him uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rather be home, writing, enjoying music, cooking and eating,\u201d he says with a laugh, rattling off a list of recipes he mastered during the pandemic \u2013 including canning green chile salsa and cooking red and green tamales.<\/p>\n
It was also during the pandemic that S\u00e1enz finished writing the Aristotle and Dante sequel. The film adaptation of the original story started filming earlier this year, although it had been in the works for at least five years, S\u00e1enz says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Writer and director Aitch Alberto adapted the book for the movie, which is being produced by \u201cHamilton\u201d and \u201cIn the Heights\u201d actor and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda (who also narrates the Ari & Dante audio books); Mexican actor and comedian Eugenio Derbez (\u201cHow to be a Latin Lover,\u201d \u201cOverboard\u201d); and actress Kyra Sedgwick (\u201cThe Closer\u201d).<\/p>\n
Derbez and Eva Longoria (\u201cDesperate Housewives,\u201d \u201cDevious Maids\u201d) star in the film, with newcomers Max Pelayo and Reese Gonzales\u00a0playing Aristotle and Dante, respectively.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1enz, too, will make a cameo appearance, though he won\u2019t divulge any details.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe nobody will notice,\u201d he says, adding that a release date for the film has yet to be set.<\/p>\n
He finishes lunch, runs his fingers through his gray hair, and dusts off his shirt. He makes his way to his corner office in the living room and tidies up his wooden work desk. Lighters and cigarettes, bills and letters, thoughts and notes scribbled on paper, a chrome lamp and his laptop are scattered on top; some of his acclaimed books stacked up front.<\/p>\n
Under the desk plays his beloved Yorkie, Jesus Antonio S\u00e1enz.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe goes by \u2018Chuy,\u2019\u201d S\u00e1enz says.<\/p>\n
All around are paintings. Some hang on walls, others sit on couches and the floor. Most are his own doing \u2013 his new creative outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
‘What I Can’t Bear Losing’ is a self-portrait by\u00a0Benjamin Alire S\u00e1enz, who says painting makes up for the “poverty of language” in his books because they often say more than his words ever could.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo provided by Benjamin Alire S\u00e1enz<\/p>\n
\u201cThe poverty of language,\u201d he says, \u201cis when words aren\u2019t enough to express emotion, thoughts, feelings. These paintings allow me to express myself differently when the words run out.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no shortage of words when S\u00e1enz reflects on his 67 years of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had an interesting life. I\u2019ve had a painful life and I\u2019ve had a wonderful life. It took me a long time to get to what and where I am,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
His story begins in Old Picacho near Las Cruces, the fourth of seven children raised on a 20-acre farm where the family grew and picked onions, corn, squash, tomatoes, chiles and other vegetables.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also had hogs and cows, so we ate well. We were poor, but we ate well,\u201d S\u00e1enz says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Despite having a large family, S\u00e1enz grew up feeling distant from them. He found his fondest friendships in his dogs, Rusty and Buster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He escaped the real world through books.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always reading,\u201d he says. \u201cMy mom would look for me and she\u2019d find me lying down in the cotton fields, reading, imagining I was the king of the jungle out there. My imagination would take me places I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapter 2: Foundation of faith<\/p>\n
Both his grandmothers were incredibly religious and always went to church, S\u00e1enz says, setting the foundation for his faith.<\/p>\n
He graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1972, entering the St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado, that fall. He received a bachelor\u2019s in humanities and philosophy in 1977.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had an interesting life. I\u2019ve had a painful life and I\u2019ve had a wonderful life. It took me a long time to get to what and where I am,\u201d says El Paso author and poet Benjamin Alire S\u00e1enz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo by Cosima Rangel <\/p>\n
S\u00e1enz was ordained a Catholic priest after completing his theological studies at the University of Louvain in Belgium. He returned to El Paso, serving at Lady of Our Light Church in the Lower Valley for a short time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw it as a way of creating social change, so it seemed kind of natural for me,\u201d S\u00e1enz says about his decision to become a priest.<\/p>\n
He pauses briefly, trying to find his words, holding back tears. S\u00e1enz says he was sexually abused by a family member as a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t make my desire to be a priest any less sincere, but it was a factor in it,\u201d he says about the abuse. \u201cWhen I became I priest, I realized that I was also a spokesman for the Catholic Church, and I didn\u2019t necessarily want that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He left the priesthood three years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be a good Catholic, but I couldn\u2019t be a spokesman for (the church), especially with all the issues, the abuse. Too painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapter 3: School, writing & marriage<\/p>\n
S\u00e1enz returned to school, earning a master’s in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. He spent a year at the University of Iowa as a doctoral student in American literature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“You have to learn to be vulnerable on the page,” says El Paso author and poet Benjamin Alire S\u00e1enz.<\/p>\n
Photo by Cosima Rangel <\/p>\n
As a Wallace E. Stegner fellow at Stanford University in 1991, he completed his first book of poems, \u201cCalendar of Dust,\u201d which won an American Book Award. He moved back to the border and began teaching at UTEP\u2019s bilingual master of fine arts program, later serving as department chair.<\/p>\n
In 1995, he wrote his first novel, \u201cCarry Me Like Water,\u201d which received critical acclaim. He dove into writing, publishing poetry, short stories, novels, young adult novels and children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n
Along the way, he married an El Paso woman he adored. They spent 15 years together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say they were happy, devoted years,\u201d he says thoughtfully.<\/p>\n
But his life wasn\u2019t complete \u2013 or true.<\/p>\n
He fought many internal and private battles, including the trauma of his childhood abuse. He took to drugs and drinking to cope, eventually entering rehab and therapy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was in therapy that he faced his truth: He came out as gay.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if I feared it or was ashamed of it or just didn’t acknowlege it,” he says. “I had to come to terms with it.”<\/p>\n
He kept writing, finally feeling free.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFaulkner said to be a writer, you have to abandon all fears,\u201d S\u00e1enz says somberly, referring to the Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner. \u201cYou have to have courage; and you have to write things that don\u2019t make you feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
That vulnerability was key in his 20th book, \u201cEverything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club,\u201d a collection of stories anchored at the popular Ju\u00e1rez bar a few blocks from the Santa Fe Street international bridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t take a lot to guess that I knew a lot about drugs and drinking,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book saved him. It served as an outlet during a troubling time in his life. It was also a mirror into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou write with what you know and with all your heart,\u201d S\u00e1enz says. \u201cAnd that means sometimes writing about the anger that resides within you and all the imperfections. All my characters are so fragile and wounded and hurt and angry, and struggle to be decent when all the world has tried to make them hard and indecent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the coming-of-age novels, Ari and Dante grapple with their racial and ethnic identities, their strained family relationships \u2013 and their sexuality and feelings toward one another.<\/p>\n
When it comes to love, Dante is the first to feel secure in his feelings for Ari; while Ari feels confused and ashamed about loving another boy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Benjamin Alire S\u00e1enz’s\u00a0critically acclaimed YA novel \u201cAristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe\u201d is being adapted into a film by writer and director Aitch Alberto.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a struggle very close to S\u00e1enz, who says developing the characters was another kind of coming out for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a painful thing when you try to be vulnerable. You have to learn how to be vulnerable on the page,\u201d he says. \u201cIf readers don\u2019t sense your humanity in your books, they\u2019re not going to sense theirs.”<\/p>\n
Which character does he most identify with?<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth. But maybe at the end, more Ari,\u201d S\u00e1enz says. \u201cEverybody loves Dante, and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018What about Ari? He\u2019s telling the story.\u2019 We think that Dante is beautiful because Ari makes him beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like S\u00e1enz, Ari eventually discovers and accepts himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the guy that once he discovers what the truth is, he doesn\u2019t run from it,\u201d S\u00e1enz says. \u201cOnce he discovers that he loves Dante, that becomes one of the truths of his life. He\u2019s not going to run from it. He\u2019s going to live it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Award-winning Chicano author Benjamin Alire S\u00e1enz died Tuesday in El Paso. The acclaimed, author, poet, novelist and UTEP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[137842,137843,137841,137844,138,140,139,1183,4533],"class_list":["post-391183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe","tag-aristotle-and-dante-dive-into-the-waters-of-the-world","tag-benjamin-alire-saenz","tag-chicano-author","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-lgbtq","tag-utep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}