MEXICO CITY -- The father of a Mexican family made famous in American anthropologist Oscar Lewis's book 'The Children of Sanchez' was buried Wednesday, a victim of a hit-and-run automobile accident.
Santos Hernandez Rivera, 87, who told his life's story to Lewis in the early 1960s and was depicted in the book as Jesus Sanchez, died late Monday after an accident in the eastern city borough of Iztapalapa, a police spokesman said.
Lewis changed the names of the characters in his books on the family to protect their identities.
He was buried in a simple ceremony at a public cemetery.
Hernandez lived most of his life in the central working class barrio of Tepito, famous for its high crime rate, its market of smuggled foreign luxury items and for being the birthplace of many of Mexico's most famous boxers.
In a two-room flat in the Casa Blanca housing project, he raised his four children, while working long hours at a popular restaurant not far from the city's main square, the Zocalo.
The housing project was demolished in the September 1985 earthquakes, and the family moved to a newly constructed two-room flat.
For nearly two years, Lewis met regularly with Hernandez, his two sons and two daughers, taping their conversations and making an authentic portrait of the grinding poverty of the urban working class.
For a long time, the book was not available in Spanish in Mexico, as it painted an unflattering although realistic portrait and was considered 'downgrading' by government officials.
However, the book was later made into a movie with Anthony Quinn playing the lead role and Hernandez became a popular folklore hero.
'He was a real character, not only for his personality but his simple way of life,' said Leopoldo Gomez, Hernandez's employer, when he learned of his death.
