Born in El Tejado de Bejar, Spain, on 8 June 1901 (he claimed to be born in 1902), Sanchez emigrated to Cuba at age 17 and worked as a farmer, before emigrating in 1920 to the United States where he lived until his death and worked as a coal miner. In 1934, he married Pearl Emilie Chiasera and had the son John and the daughter Irene, whom he lived with after his wife's death in 1988 to 2007 when he moved to a retirement home in Grand Island, New York, and lived there until his death at age 112 years, 97 days, and believed the secret to his long life to be one banana and one tablet of Anacin a day. At age 112, he had 7 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great-grandchildren.