Dante Quintana

"“Swimming and you, Ari. Those are the things I love the most.”"Dante Quintana is the second main character of Benjamin Alire Sáenz's 2012 novel, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. He is Ari Mendoza's best friend and eventual boyfriend. The two began dating after Dante had been pining after him for about one year. During his pining, he made no secret of his affections for Ari and slowly grew more impatient with how slow Ari was to reciprocate.

He is the son of Sam Quintana and Soledad Quintana. According to him, he used to go by the nickname "Dan" when he was younger, but eventually stopped doing so when he realized everyone would find out his name was actually "Dante," anyway. He loves swimming and Ari the most.

In October 2021, it was announced that Reese Gonzales would be portraying Dante in the film adaptation of the original novel, directed by Aitch Alberto.

Physical Appearance
Dante is said to have lighter skin than Ari, and looking significantly "less Mexican" than not only Ari, but also "everyone [else]." Shortly before Dante leaves El Paso, TX and moves to Chicago, IL with his parents, Ari describes his hair as "dark" and "long," enough so for the breeze to look alive in it. In his letters to Ari from Chicago, Dante describes having long hair as a nuisance for a swimmer, and that he decided to cut it short. His hair length is not again specified throughout the rest of the novel. Immediately after returning to El Paso, TX from Chicago, IL, Ari discovered that Dante was now taller than him. According to Dante himself, he was now 5'11" and "exactly as tall as [his] dad." It is unclear whether Dante's fair skin and self-described "less Mexican" physical presentation objectively makes him white-passing, or if these things are simply a byproduct of his insecurities stemming from the difficulty he experiences trying to fit in among his Mexican relatives, and that he is actually more clearly Latinx than he talks about himself to be.

Personality and Cognitive Style
Dante presents himself to the world with a friendly and amicable exterior. Ari described Dante when he first met him as someone who lived in a mean world who somehow managed to evade any of that meanness rubbing off on him. According to the book's blurb on the back cover, Dante is "articulate and self-assured." Sam, Dante's father, has described Dante as "an intellectual," and that it is something he shouldn't be ashamed of. Dante may be more insecure than he lets on to most people, as when Dante told Ari that his father described him as such and gave him the advice, he followed up with, "Ari, I'm trying not to be ashamed." Despite the fact that Dante is, by default, friendly and kind to all, Soledad told Ari while he and Ari were recuperating in the hospital from the accident in the rain that, "Everybody likes Dante. But he's always been something of a loner." She then proceeded to tell Ari that he was the closest friend Dante had ever had, clearing the way for a safe assumption that Dante had never developed such a close relationship with anyone before meeting Ari.

Dante can become upset, however, if the people he loves and values do not give him the same attention that he gives them and desires from them. However, if given a good explanation or reason, he is willing to forgive them almost instantly. When Ari fell sick with influenza, a virus that Liliana Mendoza thought Ari managed to pick up from the germs at the public pool, Ari neglected to contact Dante for multiple days. This radio silence presumably led Dante to become angry with Ari, as when Ari finally called him, Ari noticed that Dante sounded mad. But, by the time Dante had arrived at Ari's place following that same phone call, there was no anger or hostility in Dante's demeanor to speak of, allowing one to presume that Dante was no longer mad at Ari.