Intro:
Rafael “Rafie” Casimiro Alvarez is a legend in the making. Leading his high school's mariachi group as lead vocalist, he has won 1st place prizes 3 years in a row at Extravaganza. While still in the emotional whirlwind of grieving his abuelo, who gave Rafie his love mariachi, his father gets a job in a new city. Rafie has to transfer schools his senior year, completely messing up his plans to make his abuelo proud by winning Extravaganza and coming home with a best lead vocalist trophy. To make matters worse, this boy (that Rafie is completely into but I didn’t tell you that) is already the lead vocalist at his new school. But no matter how big his crush is, Rafie is not letting anything get in the way of making his abuelo proud.
My thoughts Disclaimer:
I would not say I read many books, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Genuinely this book is so amazing. I laughed and cried so much. One of the main themes is Rafie learning to grieve his abuelo, which always had me crying since my abuelo passed away when I was 9 years old. When an important person in your life passes away, it is easy to turn them into an Idol. For, I think, many latinos, we want to live up to the expectations of our families, putting in the effort to make the sacrifices for our family worth something. For Rafie, he was putting huge expectations on himself to live up to the idea of his abuelo, forgetting the reason why he fell in love with mariachi in the first place. Rafie’s love interest, Rey Chavez, gives this back to him. Rey is such a precious angel and the most perfect baby boy, I love him so much. Both Rey and Rafie are quick witted, I'm so jealous, and seeing them get closer throughout the book is so beautiful. Rey has so much patience for Rafie, who is often a complete twat, but Rey gets his jabs in too. Rafie can bag on Rey all day, but once someone else looks at Rey the wrong way, Rafie is fully in their face, ready to throw down. I really appreciated both the queer and Mexican representation, and the characters intersecting identities. The book also is in spanglish, but not in a cringey way, so as long as you can read spanish you’ll be fine. Also, there are many parts that are very much horny teenage boy, so cuss words, a lot of flirting, and a handful of steamy situations but nothing too crazy, again in my opinion. Overall, this book has chente stuck in my head and gives me hope for my future.
Note:
I found this book at the Long Beach Public Library so this is a reminder to check out your local libraries. I also borrowed a Vicente Fernandez CD at the same visit with out even knowing he’d be mentioned in the book.
-Ema Rose
