 Cover art by Max Reed Today we celebrate the book birthday of Canto Contigo. We sat down with Musa Jonny Garza Villa to learn all about the inspiration behind this book. But first, a little bit about the book: Canto Contigo is a contemporary young adult novel with a dash of magical realism; part grief story, part rivals-to-lovers romance; and all about the epic highs and lows of high school mariachi. It follows Rafie Álvarez, who, months after losing his abuelo, moves to San Antonio just before his senior year and, with that, leaves the nationally acclaimed North Amistad High School’s Mariachi Alma de la Frontera he’s been leading the past three years. His singular saving grace is knowing that his new group, the Selena Quintanilla-Perez’s Mariachi Todos Colores—a group that’s always been a far second to the one he left—will be begging him to be their lead vocalist. However, what he gets instead is a literal run-in with their current lead who has no intention of stepping down but does have a very familiar (and very kissable) face. What 3 words would you use to describe your book? Queer. Mexican. Musical. How would you describe your main character? Why did you create your character that way? Rafie is very much a Leo sun, main character energy exuding off of him. He is either God’s gift to mariachi or has a god-complex himself, depending on how you see it. He is someone who has grown up surrounded by love and by a family who has shown him unequivocal support and is currently going through the messy business of grieving the loss of a close family member for the very first time. He is someone who is falling in love, who is realizing he has lost love, and who is trying to figure out what it looks like to give love. I wanted to make Rafie complicated. But I also wanted there to be a reason why he is the way he is. I can fully acknowledge that Rafie is an unlikeable character, but I also hope that readers meet me halfway here and recognize that we as people aren’t always likable. That we go through loss and hardships and grief, and sometimes we do so terribly; sometimes we don’t necessarily go through these but rather find ourselves lost in them, and that can make us act, well, shitty. Especially when we’re young and we close ourselves off to others and, for whatever reason, can’t see the hands reaching out and offering us grace and understanding. Especially when it comes to characters that live across marginalizations, it’s almost expected that, if a character is going to be unlikeable, they have to be “soft boy,” they have to be “sulking in a corner, no one understands me.” I want one who is showing those cracks openly and loudly. I want one who is kicking and screaming until he has no tears left and we can finally reach a point where he’s ready to take that hand. To figure out how to leave that dark place. And to realize that, through it all, he was never unworthy of love. Where did you get the idea to write this particular story? From this-- I saw this photograph and was obsessed with needing to tell their story. So I did.  Photo by Juaquin Duro What was the most challenging part of the publication process with this story? This is the first book I sold on proposal (in other words, I sold the book without my publisher seeing the entire thing, but, rather, the first fifty or so pages and a synopsis). To be honest, ever since I first drafted this manuscript in the latter part of 2020, I’ve hated something about it. And I spent a year and then another year trying to figure out what exactly I hated about it and how to make this into a story that I wanted to share with people and a story that really honored Rafie’s character and the person in my own life this book is dedicated to. And, truly, at the point my publisher bought Canto Contigo, I hadn’t even finished a draft that I was happy with; I just knew that, if I didn’t sell this book, I was never going to hit that point. And, luckily, I did. But it was a journey that was rushed and way more panicked than either of my previous books. Selling books on proposal is not for the weak. What comes next for you as an author? I’d like to hope that the details are out in the world before this post goes live, but, just in case that’s not our reality, I can say that I do have a fourth young adult book coming out soon. Vibes-wise, we’re going back to Corpus Christi, Texas for this one, the main character is an eighteen-year-old college freshman, a goalkeeper on the football (soccer) team, and realizes that maybe he’s not as straight as he thought he was. Aside from that, I’m eager to try adult romance and see how that goes. So, for any of y’all who are into that, stay tuned.
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