Guinness World Records has confirmed Puerto Rican Emilio Flores Márquez to be the oldest man alive. He is 112.
As of today, Puerto Rican man Emilio Flores Márquez is 112 years, 10 months and 12 days old. He is just over a month shy of his 113 birthday.
Márquez was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, on August 8 1908, the second of the eleven children of Alberto Flores Melendez and Margarita Márquez-Garcia.
Since an early age, Márquez supported his family by helping on their sugarcane farm. As the eldest son of the family, he was tasked with watering and loading the sugarcane onto wagons to be transported and sold.
Márquez continued farming throughout his life, and it eventually provided him with income to support his own children.
In 1935, Márquez married Andrea Perez. They were married for 75 years until her death in 2010, and had four children together. He has five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
He told Guinness World Records that the key to living happily is “to have an abundance of love and to live life without anger.”
@guinnessworldrecordsOldest person living (male): 112 years and 326 days – Emilio Flores Marquez 🇵🇷♬ original sound – Guinness World Records
He currently lives with his two children Tirsa and Millito, who care for him in their home in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.
Márquez has lost most of his hearing, and underwent surgery to have a pacemaker implanted in 2010. However, he continues to love and enjoy his life.
Márquez has lived through the Spanish flu pandemic, the Hindenburg disaster, World War I, World War II, the Moon Landing and now the COVID-19 pandemic.
with a name like world’s oldest living person it’s no wonder he made it to 112 pic.twitter.com/LGscyvwg58
— i am carbs (@I_am_carbs) July 2, 2021
He has beaten the previous record for oldest living man, which belonged to Dumitru Comănescu of Romania.
Comănescu was aged 111 at the time of his record, however passed away less than a month afterwards.
The oldest living woman in the world, Kane Tanaka, is also the oldest living person. She is 118 years old. Tanaka was born in Japan, where she continues to reside in the city of Fukoka.
Despite her incredibly long life, Tanaka had multiple major illnesses, including paratyphoid fever, pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer.
She has stated that her long life is the result of eating well, sleep, family, hope and mathematics.
