RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – A Brazilian rest home for the elderly believes it may be home to the world’s oldest person, a former agricultural labourer born in a runaway slave community, who is identified in documents stating he was born 126 years ago at a time when Brazil still had an emperor.
A birth certificate and identity documents issued by a judge in 2001 show that Jose Aguinelo dos Santos, a resident of the Vila Vicentina shelter for the elderly in Bauru, Brazil, was born on July 7, 1888, less than two months after the end of slavery in the country, said Cesar Siqueira, the rest home’s vice president.
While Dos Santos has none of the original documents proving his age, interest in his life has increased since the death on June 8 of Alexander Imich in New York, Siqueira said.
Imich lived to age 111, according to CNN, which reported that he was certified as the world’s oldest man in April by the Gerontology Research Group of Torrance, California.
Siqueira said Dos Santos’ documents were granted by a judge based on interviews with the presumed centenarian.
“We are only saying this is his presumed age,” said Siqueira, who has worked at the rest home for 31 years. “But he is lucid, can speak well and does just about everything by himself every day except bathe himself.”
