The Children of Sanchez

This is an anthropolgical study of an extended working class Mexican family in the 1950s. But if that sounds dull, I just want to say that it reads of a pretty gripping family saga; and as a work of psychology.
Father Sanchez has made something of himself through hard graft at the restaurant he works in, and a bit of enterprise. He seems exceptionally duty bound to his numerous children and grandchildren, forever helping them financially. And yet he is a flawed man- a womanizer, violent, harsh...
Lewis interviews each of his four children (by deceased first wife) three times. They take him through their lives, the events, the relationships...
Anthropologically, this introduces us to a very alien world. The machismo (wives expect to be show more beaten, kept short of funds); the lack of stability as marriage is a rare thing and people indulge in a succession of short lived affairs; the poverty; the corrupt police; the violence, drunkenness; the religion but, too, a bit of witchcraft... And what is it LIKE sharing one room with eighteen others- the ones you dislike,the ones with unsavory habits. the lack of privacy? The interviewees share their thoughts...

And then the story- one with no convenient tied-up ends as people lurch from one disaster to another. Infidelity, jail breaks, lottery wins..

But for me, it was predominantly a psychological masterpiece. Here we have four characters who know much of each others' lives. Yet the different slant on an event when relayed fronm two perspectives! Sanchez' disillusionment with the failures his children have turned out is set aside the traumatized Roberto- rejected, unloved, beaten as a child...and who (for perhaps that very reason) goes rather off the rails...

An absolute tour de force. show less

This is the heartbreaking story of a family from DF, who live near the Lowest level of poverty in the nation's capital. The Sanchez family, father Jesus, sons Roberto and Manuel, and daughters Consuelo and Marta, tell their stories via tape recorder to anthropologist Oscar Lewis. For those who live in a bubble and cannot relate to this kind of reality check, they may become depressed and put a bad review, as I saw at least one Goodreads reviewer do. Mexican society is extremely patriarchal, and more so among the poor. Machistas destroy families by treating their domestic partners cruelly, having multiple families, giving no thought to impregnating multiple women multiple times and then leaving these children to neglect and starvation. show more Those children naturally grow up and do the same thing; they never have a chance to get educated and break the cycle. I would estimate that 80% of the present globe's population is from this background, with all the cost in wasted lives, especially for the women, that this implies. show less

A pioneering work from a visionary anthropologist, The Children of Sanchez is hailed around the world as a watershed achievement in the study of poverty—a uniquely intimate investigation, as poignant today as when it was first published. It is the epic story of the Sánchez family, told entirely by its members—Jesus, the 50-year-old patriarch, and his four adult children—as their lives unfold in the Mexico City slum they call home. Weaving together their extraordinary personal narratives, Oscar Lewis creates a sympathetic but ultimately tragic portrait that is at once harrowing and humane, mystifying and moving. An invaluable document, full of verve and pathos, The Children of Sanchez reads like the best of fiction, with the added show more impact that it is all, undeniably, true. show less

Probably not bad from a sociological point of view, but I must admit to some skepticism about how much of this case study is actually true. Some meta material I've read suggests that the answer is "not all that much, really." Read as fiction, this simply wasn't all that interesting, so I'm afraid that I'm bailing around page 85 or so.

Summary: An anthropological documentary on the lives of four children and their father in the Mexico City slums relies on the words of the five protagonists themselves

An anthropological documentary on the lives of four children and their father in the Mexico City slums relies on the words of the five protagonists themselves.

Brutalmente crudo y humano a la vez.