When it comes to age, it has to be proven and if the records of
Bolivia are right, Bolivia has the oldest living person ever documented.
Carmelo Flores Laura turned 123 years old a month ago. He is a native Aymara and lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth. Laura walks without a cane and doesn’t wear glasses.
“I
see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming,” he
tells AP journalists who visit after a local TV report touts him as the
world’s oldest person. Guinness World Records says the oldest living
person verified by original proof of birth is Misao Okawa, a
115-year-old Japanese woman. The oldest verified age was 122 years and
164 days: Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997.
“I should be about 100 years old or more,” Flores says. Flores’ 27-year-old grandson Edwin says Flores fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay but he only faintly remembers. According to Bolivia’s civil registrar, Flores’ birthdate as July 16, 1890. However, the country had not got birth certificates until 1940 but would be proved by baptism certificates provided by Roman Catholic priests.
Talking
about what would have kept him long, Flores said, “I walk a lot, that’s
all. I go out with the animals,” says Flores, who long herded cattle
and sheep. “I don’t eat noodles or rice, only barley. I used to grow
potatoes, beans, oca (an Andean tuber).” He says he doesn’t drink
alcohol.
His wife died more than a decade ago and had three children of whom only one is still alive, 67 year old Cecilio. He has 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren but most have left Frasquia.
Carmelo Flores Laura turned 123 years old a month ago. He is a native Aymara and lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth. Laura walks without a cane and doesn’t wear glasses.
“I
see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming,” he
tells AP journalists who visit after a local TV report touts him as the
world’s oldest person. Guinness World Records says the oldest living
person verified by original proof of birth is Misao Okawa, a
115-year-old Japanese woman. The oldest verified age was 122 years and
164 days: Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997.“I should be about 100 years old or more,” Flores says. Flores’ 27-year-old grandson Edwin says Flores fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay but he only faintly remembers. According to Bolivia’s civil registrar, Flores’ birthdate as July 16, 1890. However, the country had not got birth certificates until 1940 but would be proved by baptism certificates provided by Roman Catholic priests.
Talking
about what would have kept him long, Flores said, “I walk a lot, that’s
all. I go out with the animals,” says Flores, who long herded cattle
and sheep. “I don’t eat noodles or rice, only barley. I used to grow
potatoes, beans, oca (an Andean tuber).” He says he doesn’t drink
alcohol.His wife died more than a decade ago and had three children of whom only one is still alive, 67 year old Cecilio. He has 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren but most have left Frasquia.
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