More Stuff About America Ferrera's Destitute And Deceased Dad

Ever since America Ferrera's father Gregoria Ferrera, (pictured above), died penniless and overweight in his native Honduras two weeks ago, he's been getting more press coverage than Michael Jackson. It seems the media really wants to paint him as a victim who was neglected by his movie star daughter as he lay dying of overweight-related illnesses like diabetes and kidney failure.

TVNotas spoke to his neighbors and friends in Honduras who say that America wanted nothing to do with her dad and left him to die without the medical care he needed. Rumualdo Bueso, a childhood friend of "Don Gregorio", as he was affectionately known in his pueblo of La Esperanza, says it was all his ex-wife's fault that none of his six kids had anything to do with him.

According to Bueso, Ferrera's entire decision to sell everything and move to the United States was because of the "bad influence of his wife", América Hayes (pictured above, bottom right). Once he was there, as we've heard before, he had a debilitating auto accident. Bueso said it was then he was administered cortisone which caused him to balloon up to 400 pounds. He received $25,000 in insurance money, Bueso says, which he shared with his wife. "But when the money ran out, she wanted him to work. Since he was so sick and overweight, he couldn't." According to Bueso, the couple fought and, though Ferrera didn't hit his wife, he broke a door and she had him arrested. It was at that point he decided to leave the States for Honduras, telling no one of his plan. "When I heard he was here, I went and got him," Bueso says. "He was staying with his sister and she couldn't handle him. I told him here he could be on a diet of fruits and vegetables. He lost 250 pounds. When he died, he weighed 300 lbs."

The last two and a half years of his life, Ferrera lived in a tiny room he rented from Ana Velazquez, (pictured above in Ferrera's old room), with whom TVNotas also spoke. Ferrera told her his accident in the States left him in a coma. When he awoke, he said, his wife was already seeing another man.

Velasquez says that Ferrera paid rent on his room for the first year and a half, but was unable to pay after that. She and her husband didn't have the heart to evict him from the room where he kept photos of his kids sent to him by a sister-in-law. He never spoke ill of his family, according to Velasquez, and he would not ask them for money because of his pride.

"America has a totally negative reputation in La Esperanza," Bueso says. "No one wants to know anything about that girl."