The “Ted Lasso” character Dani Rojas popularized the phrase “fútbol is life.” As one of the biggest sports around the world, this sentiment rings true for a lot of people.
In the new novel “Futbolista,” main character Gabriel Piña certainly sees it that way – until romance and a realization has him wondering if he is at odds with the sport he loves.
South Texas author Jonny Garza Villa spoke with the Texas Standard about jumping into the adult contemporary genre and how sports and romance go hand in hand. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: First of all, let’s, for the uninitiated, talk about that word “futbolista.”
Jonny Garza Villa: Yeah, “futbolista” is a sort of a Spanish term, meaning like soccer player.
I think it also has a sort of F-boy context for, you know, of someone who’s like really into the game. The sort of soccer player you envision – maybe even being a little macho-y, a little just sort of the fun-loving kind of guy.
Yeah, you say a little macho-y, but we’re talking about a sport where there’s a lot of macho. Why did you want to center your character around the world of fútbol?
I think there’s just so much to discuss when it comes to fútbol, to soccer, to the, I think, at-large view of male and masculine sports culture.
But also, specifically, I really wanted to look into and think about the Latine and Mexican view of fútbol, of soccer, and of that culture and how great it is and how accomplished it is, but also how exclusive it can be.
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Tell us a little bit more about the main character here, Gabriel. What kicks off this story?
Yeah, Gabi, Gabriel Piña, is starting off the story as a freshman at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, where he is the starting goalkeeper for their college soccer team.
Shh, folks! They grew up in the Corpus Christi area, the author here.
Yeah, a little bit of what I know.
But yeah, he is coming into college very sure of himself, very much knows exactly who he is. He’s getting the sort of attention he’s always dreamed of as a soccer player who has envisioned himself in the MLS with an El Tri kit on, and really seeing those dreams become something more tangible, more something within actual reach as long as he stays the straight and narrow path.
Did you say the “straight and narrow path”?
The straight and narrow path, which I think throughout the book he learns he may not necessarily really be attracted to and really want to stay on and have to sort of navigate as he realizes maybe he’s not as straight as he thinks he is, whether this beautiful game has room for him as a bisexual player who’s never seen a queer, out, male, brown, Mexican professional futbolista to anywhere.
This is your fourth book, and I know that in each one of your novels, your main characters have different aspect experience with their queerness, right? I mean, I think of “Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun,” more coming out.
What approach did you want to take with Gabriel that would sort of be a little bit different? Not only Mexican, and I think you’re talking a little about this, but in a sport that has so many of those hyper-masculine aspects.
Yeah, definitely. I think with each book that I write, I really wanted to think about how being brown, Mexican, queer, and in a space where all my characters so far have been South Texan in particular, that their experiences can differ holistically.
Like you said, with my first main character, it was sort of coming out – a lot of trauma in there, but then you have other characters where their queerness has sort of just always been and always been accepted.
Gabi, I really wanted to write another coming out story, but also from someone who really does embrace a lot of these really masculine parts of who he is, someone who’s really proud of who he is, someone who, again, does love this game for all that it is, but also is realizing that maybe it will never love him as much as he loves it and sort of trying to find his space in there regardless and knowing how great he is.
I really wanted to instill a character that has a lot of confidence and knows how good he is and what it is to still have to battle what is your place in this world, even knowing how good you are.
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How much autobiography do you weave into this? Were you a big fan? Were you player or what?
Not of soccer. No, I’m terrible.
But I think with “Futbolista” in particular, something that Gabi and I share is that this story revolves, also, within his first semester of college in his intro to philosophy class. And like him, I struggled with enjoying philosophy as a subject very much.
Why?
I think, for me, I came in as a PoliSci major and there’s this idea of a student is like, “well, it kind of depends on how you think of the idea.” And I’m like, no, as someone who believes in right and wrong, like there is a black and white and like we have to acknowledge that there is the correct answer here.
And I think, for Gabi as a math major, as a STEM major, he’s very much also like “I know and I live around the fact that there’s a correct answer and that there is a wrong answer and the fact that we can consider alternatives and we consider what may be right-ish or wrong-ish, or where some people might land that is different than me, that’s weird and that’s uncomfortable.”
Especially as someone who comes in knowing exactly who he is, I think putting him in a subject where one has to consider other options makes him incredibly uncomfortable, but also really drives that force of maybe there’s still so much to learn about me, which for this 18-year-old, is so surprising.
You talked about the genres of books, and I want to ask you about that because I think you’ve written three previous YA books, young adult books. This one, I guess, would fall more into a kind of a different category – adult contemporary, maybe sort of new adult books?
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, did you find that there’s a kind bright line or bold line that sort of separates those two? And I wonder if that had any effect on how you approached writing this time.
Yeah, I think that there’s a lot of similarities between my young adult novels and “Futbolista,” even as a new adult book. I think the voice is still sort of youthful. Again, he’s an 18-year-old. He’s dealing with 18 through 22-year olds in college.
And I guess the cutoff line, technically, for YA is 18, right?
18, sometimes 19 now. It’s sort of vague at this point.
Really, I feel like the sort of writing intimacy is something that’s obviously going to be different, but I was really fascinated to write something like that, where you have someone who’s more adult-y, who has really created a name for himself, where Gabi is sort of the new person on the block, and being able to write that freely without having to think about like an age category.
Now, for you, growing up outside of Corpus Christi, now in San Antonio, did you ever think that maybe you would be a writer?
No, actually, I never really grew up thinking about it. I really have never taken a creative writing class. I did not major in English or anything like that.
So what took you down that path?
I think, one, I had just a lot of time on my hand at the time, and I was also just becoming, I think, really inspired by reading.
And I’ve always been a reader, but I feel like reading books like “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, where I read for the first time like a young adult novel that had queer Mexican characters living in Texas and sort of like seeing that I could see myself…
Yeah, I was gonna say, you saw yourself.
Yeah, definitely that. And I’ve grown up with more storytellers in my family. I think of like my grandfather, and I have uncles who really just are incredible storytellers who will keep us around a dinner table for hours after we finished eating. And when I think about the sort of author I want to be, I picture myself as a storyteller first, as someone who will keep my reader at the fictional dining table with this main character and their friends as they go through life with them.
Coming into it and thinking about it that way has really allowed me to tell the stories that I really want to tell first, and have been really blessed to be able to tell those stories I want to tell.
