The Children of Sanchez Read Online Free PDF Page A

related by blood and all were bound by ties of
compradzgo
.
    The Sánchez family was one of a random sample of seventy-one families selected for study in the Casa Grande. Jesús Sánchez was in the middle-income group in the
vecindad
, earning a wage of 12.50
pesos
, or one dollar a day, as a food buyer in the La Gloria restaurant. He could hardly support even himself on this amount and supplemented his income by selling lottery tickets, by raising and selling pigs, pigeons, chickens, and singing birds, and, in all probability, by receiving “commissions” in the markets. Jesús was secretive about these extra sources of income, but with them he managed to support, on a very modest scale, three different households located in widelyseparated parts of the city. At the time of my investigation, he lived with his younger, favorite wife, Delila, in a room on the Street of the Lost Child, where he supported her, his two children by her, her son by her first husband, her mother, and the four children of his son Manuel. Jesús’ older wife, Lupita, their two daughters, and two grandchildren, all of whom he supported, lived in a small house he had built in the El Dorado Colony on the outskirts of the city. Jesús also maintained the room in the Casa Grande for his daughter Marta and her children, his daughter Consuelo, and his son Roberto.
    Except for an old radio, there were no luxury items in the Sánchez home in the Casa Grande, but there was usually enough to eat and the family could boast of having had more education than most of their neighbors. Jesús had had only one year of schooling, but Manuel, his eldest son, had completed the six grades of primary school. Consuelo had also graduated from primary school and had completed two years of commercial school as well. Roberto left school in the third grade; Marta completed the fourth.
    The Sánchez family differed from some of their neighbors by having a servant, who came during the day to clean, do the laundry, and prepare the meals. This was after the death of Jesús’ first wife, Lenore, and while the children were young. The servant was a neighbor or relative, usually a widow or a deserted wife who was willing to work for very little pay. Although this gave the family some prestige, it was not a sign of wealth and was not unusual in the
vecindad
.
    I was introduced to the Sánchez household by one of my
vecindad
friends. On my first visit I found the door ajar, and as I waited for someone to answer my knock, I could see the rather dreary, run-down interior. The little vestibule which housed the kitchen and the toilet was badly in need of painting and was furnished with only a two-burner kerosene stove, a table, and two unpainted wooden chairs. Neither the kitchen nor the larger bedroom beyond the inner doorway had any of the air of self-conscious prosperity I had seen in some of the better-to-do Casa Grande rooms.
    Consuelo came to the door. She looked thin and pale and explained that she had just recovered from a serious illness. Marta, her younger sister, carrying an infant wrapped in a shawl, joined her but said nothing. I explained that I was a North American professor and anthropologist and had spent a number of years living in a Mexicanvillage studying its customs. I was now comparing the life of city
vecindad
families with that of the village and was looking for people in the Casa Grande who would be willing to help me.
    To get things started, I asked where they thought people were better off, in the country or in the city. After a few questions of this nature, which I had used to advantage in previous interviews, I began at once with some of the items on my first questionnaire. These called for the sex, age, place of birth, education, occupation, and work history of each family member.
    I was almost finished with these questions when the father, Jesús Sánchez, walked in brusquely, carrying a sack of food supplies over his shoulder. He was a short, stocky,