A Death in the Sanchez Family

By: Oscar Lewis

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Synopsis: A Death in the Sanchez family is a short and poignant account of how the poor die—of the death of Aunt Guadalupe, and of her funeral, to which the members of the Sanchez family come as mourners. Jhe Children of Sanchez by Professor Lewis has become an anthropological classic, which is read and studied throughout the world. In this short book Professor Lewis revisits the members of the family, now a few years older, on the occasion of the death of their old aunt. As in his previous books, Professor Lewis allows the members of the family to tell their own stories: their reactions to the funeral and their memories of the impoverished but often heroic life of their deceased aunt. As Professor Lewis writes: "For the poor, death is almost as great a hardship as life itself.” The struggle to get Aunt Guadalupe decently into the earth is one of the themes of this book. But Professor Lewis’ main subject is how her death illuminated her life, and how her life and death reflected the culture of poverty in which she lived.