At 100 years old, Julian Garcia survived many of his childhood friends and was known as the oldest person alive from the small village of El Tepetate in Zacatecas, Mexico, where he was born.

Two years ago, Garcia surprised his family by surviving a pulmonary infection that had put him in a coma.

"The doctors told us that he wouldn't be able to breathe or walk on his own," said Guadalupe Castilla, his youngest daughter.

"He was walking with a cane," she said. "He was very active. ... Maybe that's why he lived a long life."

Julian Garcia died Monday when the car he was traveling in crashed into a parked tractor-trailer on Washington Street, about a block north of East 58th Avenue, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

One of Garcia's granddaughters, 21-year-old Lilia Castilla, was driving north on Washington when she steered into the semi.

Garcia's 10-year-old great-grandson, who was in the back seat without a seat belt, hit the back of Julian Garcia's seat. Castilla was released from a hospital Tuesday, but the boy remained hospitalized.

Mark Chavez, Adams County chief deputy coroner, said Julian Garcia suffered blunt force trauma.

Castilla was taking the boy and her grandfather out for a meal.

"He enjoyed going out to eat," said Guadalupe Castilla, Lilia's mother. "We don't know if they were on their way back or going there."

Lilia Castilla is his youngest grandchild and the one closest to him, relatives said.

"She can't talk about what happened," said Raquel Santiesteban, 35, the driver's older sister.

"She was his favorite. And she was very attached to him."

Born in 1907, Garcia told his family stories of growing up in his parent's humble adobe home during the Mexican Revolution.

"He would tell us there was a lot of hunger during that time, Guadalupe Castilla said.

"There was little maize, so they'd grind the corn with the cob and they would make gorditas," she said. "They would make holes in the adobe homes and would hide the food, so when the revolutionaries would come through (the village) they would not find them."

Garcia became one of the leaders in his village who helped distribute land to peasants after the revolution.

"He was very proud that he gave the best land to others," said Gonzalo Garcia, 44, one of the grandchildren. "He was an honest man."

Julian Garcia held many jobs and had many abilities, Gonzalo Garcia said.

"He was a shoemaker, a miner, a farmer, a laborer. He did everything. He was the pride of the family."

In the 1970s, Julian Garcia moved to Colorado to work so he could send money to his wife and be near his youngest daughter, relatives said.

He had recently started to collect aluminum cans and peel copper to earn some money, relatives said.

"You would never saw him laying around. He'd work for a bit, rest in the hammock and work some more. His dream was to work so he could provide for his family and for my mom," Guadalupe Castilla said.

Garcia had eight children, 44 grandchildren and more than 105 great-grandchildren, most of whom live in Colorado.

His body will be sent for burial to his hometown of El Tepetate, population 2,000, where the next-oldest person is 98 years old, Gonzalo Garcia said. His family members said he will rest in the same plot as his wife, Refugia Castorena, who died in 1986.

CSP said the accident is still under investigation.

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