Since the age of fourteen — through the years he was being starved and beaten at home — Santiago had run a study group in the courtyard of the building, every night, for free.

He helped the neighborhood children who struggled with mathematics and English.

He lent out his own study guides, the borrowed and precious ones.

He corrected scholarship applications for kids whose parents couldn’t read the forms.

“My daughter got into the Politécnico because of him,” Joaquín said.

“When I couldn’t pay for a tutor, Santiago sat with her after his own work, night after night.

And half the time he came to us with nothing in his own stomach — but he’d bring a little bread for the younger ones anyway.