In this episode, AGG and Sergio sit down with Santiago Jose Sanchez to discuss their debut novel, exploring themes of immigrant families drifting apart, the struggle of feeling like someone else, and the journey to find belonging. They also delve into why they chose not to include a coming-out narrative in their book, the personal significance of Hombrecito, navigating pain and loss, and their experiences growing up in both Miami and Colombia.

About the Author: @sntsnchz
Santiago Jose Sanchez is a queer Colombian American writer and artist born in Ibagué, Colombia. Their stories have been featured in McSweeney’s Quarterly, ZYZZYVA, Subtropics, and Joyland. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Yale University, Sanchez teaches  at  Grinnell College and lives in Iowa, Miami, and New York City. Hombrecito is their debut novel. 

About the Book: Hombrecito
Santiago Jose Sanchez plunges us into the heart of one boy’s life. His mother takes him and his brother from Colombia to America, leaving their absent father behind but disappearing herself once they get to Miami. As he grows, the boy embraces his queerness as wholeheartedly as he embraces his new home, but not without a sense of loss. His relationship with his mother becomes fraught, tangled, a love so intense that it borders on vivid pain but is also the axis around which his every decision revolves. 

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Produced by Antonio Caro @agcaromaya