Speak Up, Santiago

by | Dec 12, 2024

Santiago—Santi to his friends—is both excited and nervous to spend the summer with his beloved Abuela Emma. Excited, because he loves his grandmother (and her Colombian cooking), and her small town sounds like an interesting change from his NYC home. Nervous, because a big goal for this visit is to practice his Spanish, and he’s afraid he won’t be able to keep up.

Santi is half Colombian, half white, and his parents intended to raise him bilingual. But since he had some trouble learning to talk, they decided to start with just English. Now Santi is twelve, and is taking classes, but he’s embarrassed not to be fluent in the language spoken by half his family. This visit will be an immersion experience – just what he needs to improve. If he can understand enough of his abuela’s Spanish to stay afloat, that is.

At first, things go better than Santi expected. He can understand and speak enough Spanish to get by, and his abuela is patient and kind. Plus, he meets a crew of friendly local kids who show him around town and invite him to join their soccer team. Santi loves soccer! But it’s not all smooth sailing. Sometimes he feels like his Spanish will never be good enough, or like he isn’t Colombian enough. People laugh at his accent or act shocked that he doesn’t know Colombian slang. It makes Santi want to stop talking to anyone, including his abuela and his friends. Can his summer be saved?

This is a good-hearted book full of imperfect but well-intentioned people. They make mistakes, like Abuela Emma joking about Santi’s accent, or Santi taking out his frustration on his friends, but they apologize and forgive each other. Santi works diligently to improve his Spanish, which eventually allows him to have real heart-to-heart conversations with his abuela.

Santi’s struggle is a common one. In a note at the start of the book, author Julio Anta (who is Colombian American and Cuban American) discusses his own difficulties with navigating English and Spanish growing up. He explains that he modeled Santi partly on his son, who is also part Colombian and part white, and also struggled with language early on, complicating his parents’ plans to raise him bilingual.

This is the first of a planned series of Hillside Valley graphic novels. Each will follow one of the kids we meet in this story, with the other kids appearing as supporting characters. This volume introduces the town of Hillside Valley, with its charming main street, diverse and close-knit community, and woodsy mountain surroundings.

The art style is a slightly simplified realism – the characters a little cartoonified, the colors a little brighter than natural. The characters are distinct and expressive, and the backgrounds are clean, with just enough detail to set the scenes. There is some good visual variety, from mountain scenery to soccer field action to plates full of Abuela Emma’s Colombian dishes.

Much of the plot revolves around language. When Santi speaks Spanish, or another character speaks and he understands, their dialog appears in Spanish with an English translation following it in an attached speech bubble. These translation bubbles are outlined with dashed lines, while the speech bubbles actually spoken have solid outlines. If, however, a character speaks Spanish and Santi does not understand, then there is no translation bubble—and sometimes, a few of the Spanish words are scribbled out to indicate that Santi didn’t catch them. This is an effective and interesting way to put readers in Santi’s shoes.

Santi’s struggle with being a Latino kid who isn’t fluent in Spanish is relatable, but not commonly explored, especially in graphic novels. This book is an interesting and heartfelt addition to the category of middle-grade realistic fiction.

Speak Up, Santiago
By Julio Anta
Art by Gabi Mendez
Penguin Random House Graphic, 2025
ISBN: 9780593651636

Company Age Rating: 8-12
Series ISBNs and Order
Related media: 

NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
Creator Representation:  Colombian-American, Cuban-American, Mexican-American,  Queer,
Character Representation: Colombian-American,