Officially, a 112-year-old Spaniard residing in New York currently holds the title of being the world’s oldest living person. However, with the coming out of a Bolivian peasant whose government papers say he was born on July 16, 1890, that record is about to change.

Bolivia’s Electoral Tribunal has confirmed the identity and claimed age of Camelo Flores Luna, a very old peasant living in Frasquia, a town high in the Bolivian mountains. The office further added that Flores Luna has been a farmer all his life.

Frugal Living

The native Bolivian farmer has lived in quiet Frasquia herding cattle and goats since he came there as a young man. The town is situated near the world’s highest navigable lake, Lake Titiaca, and is at the foot of the snow-tipped Illampu Mountain. It is quite quaint with a school, a clinic and electricity but the nearest grocery store is three hours away on foot, at the next town called Arista. Locals grow their food which usually consists of broad beans, potatoes and onions watered by the melted snow Mount Illampu. Flores Luna originally came from another village but settled in the town after meeting his wife, a local widow, there. They had three children, only one remained living. Even the old man’s wife is dead and, according to one grandson, she died at the ripe age of 107 years old.

The old man attributed his long life to the traditional Andean diet of quinoa grains, mushrooms found by the town’s brooks and streams paired with frequent chewing of coca leaves. He also drinks water that streams directly from the snow melts coming from the nearby mountain. Standing at only five foot three inches tall, the old man can still walk without a cane albeit with a little difficulty and does not wear a pair of glasses. He admitted, however, that his vision is getting dim.

History-Rich Life

If the document detailing the year of his birth is correct, Camelo Flores Luna was born the same year as Charles de Gaulle and Ho Chi Mihn; even thirteen years earlier from when the Wright Brothers flew their contraption at Kitty Hawk which came to be known as the world’s first airplane.

And even at his old age and with some of his memories fading, Flores Luna was able to recall how he was drafted and became a compatriot soldier in the Bolivia-Uruguay Chaco War in 1932 to 1935. He also remembered events in which he participated in the country’s many coups and uprisings in the 20th century, though, the leaders and the causes he fought for were lost to him.

“We’d go to fight with clubs and slings,” he said.

Proud Bolivia

Bolivian government officials have expressed interest in their compatriot’s age and have given the assurance that they will approach Guinness in regards to the matter. Meanwhile, local officials of Frasquia hold the old man in honor even celebrating his long age by bestowing him an award, “Living Heritage of Humanity”.