Robert Fortune Sanchez (20 March 1934 – 20 January 2012) was the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the United States.
Born in Socorro, New Mexico, he was the son of Julius Caesar Sanchez and Priscilla Fortune, whose ancestors included the first Spanish colonists in the region, then part of New Spain.
At the completion of these studies, he was ordained to the priesthood there for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on 20 December 1959, by the Rector of the college, Archbishop Martin John O'Connor.
Sanchez became a noted spokesman for the Latino community within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United States and spoke out often on political issues affecting this population.
Later in 1993, Archbishop Sanchez moved to the midwest and then specifically to Minnesota where he helped on a farm run by the Sisters of Mercy near Jackson, MN.
[3] Later, he moved back to the southwest to live with the retired Friars Minor of the region, not making any public appearances, until 2009 when he was transferred to a facility for patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease.