World's Oldest Man'123-Year-Old' Bolivian Herder Challenges Gusiness Book Of Records
If Bolivia's public records are to be believed, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented, at 123 years old. T...
http://www.africaeagle.com/2013/08/worlds-oldest-man123-year-old-bolivian.html
If Bolivia's public records are to be believed, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented, at 123 years old.
The native Aymara lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet, is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth.
He walks without a cane and does not wear glasses. "I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he told an Associated Press journalists who visited after a local TV report touted him as the world's oldest person.
Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock. His gums bulge with coca leaf, a mild stimulant that staves off hunger. Like most Bolivian highlands peasants, he has been chewing it all his life.
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.
Guinness spokeswoman Jamie Panas said it was not aware of a claim being filed for the Bolivian.
"I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores says. But his memory is dim.
Flores' 27-year-old grandson Edwin said Flores fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay but he only faintly remembers.
The director of Bolivia's civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, showed The Associated Press the registry that lists Flores' birth date as July 16, 1890.
Condori said birth certificates did not exist in Bolivia until 1940. Births previously were registered with baptism certificates provided by Roman Catholic priests.
"For the state, the baptism certificate is valid," Condori said. He said he could not show Flores' baptism certificate to the AP because it is a private document.
He walks without a cane and does not wear glasses. "I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he told an Associated Press journalists who visited after a local TV report touted him as the world's oldest person.
Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock. His gums bulge with coca leaf, a mild stimulant that staves off hunger. Like most Bolivian highlands peasants, he has been chewing it all his life.
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.
Guinness spokeswoman Jamie Panas said it was not aware of a claim being filed for the Bolivian.
"I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores says. But his memory is dim.
Flores' 27-year-old grandson Edwin said Flores fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay but he only faintly remembers.
The director of Bolivia's civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, showed The Associated Press the registry that lists Flores' birth date as July 16, 1890.
Condori said birth certificates did not exist in Bolivia until 1940. Births previously were registered with baptism certificates provided by Roman Catholic priests.
"For the state, the baptism certificate is valid," Condori said. He said he could not show Flores' baptism certificate to the AP because it is a private document.
