Volunteers fill in for ‘Pancho Claus’ after Tex-Mex Santa has heart attack

Richard Reyes in 2013 in his signature look. ‘Man, the shoes are too big to fill,’ said the pastor Mike Gomez. Photograph: Pat Sullivan/AP

A heart attack and subsequent surgery are preventing the Mexican-American version of Santa known to generations of Texas children as Pancho Claus from suiting up this Christmas.

Yet members of Richard Reyes’s community have taken it upon themselves to organize toy drives – and even don his iconic look – to keep his spirit alive for his scores of believers.