Juan Vicente Pérez Mora

In March 2022, at the age of 112.

**Juan Vicente Pérez Mora** (born 27 May 1909) is a Venezuelan supercentenarian who, at the age of 114 years, 240 days, is the oldest living man whose age is fully validated. His age is validated by the Latin American Supercentenarians (LAS), the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), and his record was confirmed by the Guinness World Records (GWR) in May 2022.

## Biography

### Early life

Juan Vicente Pérez Mora was born in El Cobre, Tachira, Venezuela, on 27 May 1909. His parents were Euquitio Pérez Mora (born 16 April 1869) and Edelmira Mora Sanchez (born 27 November 1869). His mother was an enthusiastic devotee to the Virgin of Carmel (Virgen del Carmen). His parents got married in the city of La Grita, on 14 September 1891. They had their first child in 1892, and the last one in June 1912.

In 1913, his family moved to Los Paujiles, San Jose de Bolivar, where they bought a farm. At the age of 4, he had 8 older brothers (7 living) and one younger sister. While growing up, he worked on the farm with his father and brothers. However, he was always barefoot. While his father Eutiquio and his brothers worked in the paddocks, Juan Vicente and his 3-years-older brother Salomon had to bring food to the workers. In 1917, his father Eutiquio built a farm in La Palma, a place near Laguna de García and Pregonero, where the family later moved. The place had a school run by the locally famous teacher named Carmen. The family enrolled Juan Vicente and his younger sister Betzabeth to study with this teacher. Since there were no notebooks, he would buy sheets of paper in stores – worth a copper. However, both the stay in La Palma and the school were short-lived. The local climate did not sit well with his sister who fell into bed with fever. This was the reason their father decided to return to the site of La Hoyada near El Cobre where Juan Vicente was born. Juan Vicente barely learned to write his name. Because of this, he understood that his future was not in the books but in the field like all his ancestors. Hence, Juan Vicente continued his work on the farm, he used to carry the bagasse from the mill, help clean the cane cuts, shell the corn for the arepas, weed the celery in the conuco, and pick coffee. His father had a herd of oxen with which he moved to other villages and hamlets. At the same time he was searching for a land where his children can live in the future, since he wanted them to have their own land to cultivate and follow in his footsteps.

In 1921, the Spanish Flu reached their village. His mother tried to keep the family safe, but Juan Vicente and some of his brothers fell ill despite all the precautions. He quickly recovered thanks to his mother’s care, and after opening his eyes he said: “*Mom, I'm fine, I feel better now. You will see that I am going to live a hundred years!*”

### Marriage

When Juan Vicente turned 25, his father told him that the company of a woman was necessary for him to be a complete man, but at the time he still didn’t have a woman whom he liked. Around that time his brother Miguel lived in the nearby village of Los Paujiles, and Juan Vicente started working for him. One day, assigned by his brother Miguel to visit the house of Bartolome Garcia to carry a load of panela (an unrefined whole cane sugar), he saw a girl with whom he fell in love. He learned her name was Ediofina, the daughter of Bartolome Garcia and Victoria Carrero. He remembered her from when she was a child, saying: “*Oh, how time flies! Like she was just a little cart yesterday*”. A week later, he visited them again with his father, but this time he came to ask for Ediofina’s hand. Her father had two more daughters, Andrea and Eradia, but Juan Vicente chose Ediofina. After talking with Juan Vicente’s father, Bartolome told Juan Vicente how they have to talk with Ediofina’s mother too. Her mother, Victoria, told him Ediofina is old enough for the wedding, but the young couple should get to know each other a little better first. The couple dated for three years before getting married. Weeks before getting married, they visited the city of La Grita alongside Ediofina’s mother. They went to look for the fabrics for the wedding clothes; for Ediofina’s dress and Juan Vicente’s liqui liqui (the Venezuelan national costume for men).

On 28 January 1938, the couple got married in the church of Queniquea by Father Jose Ignacio Moncada. After the marriage, the couple settled for a while in La Hoyada while Juan Vicente was finishing their new house on the Caricuena site. Their first child was born in Los Paujiles - a son whom he named Jose Juan (the name Jose was based on Saint Joseph to whom Juan Vicente became devoted, while Juan was the name of his ancestor from the 18th century).

### Life as an adult

His children grew up in Caricuena. When he was 39 years old, his daughter, Alix Teresa, died at the age of 22 months; she was the first of his 11 children to die. At the beginning of the 1950s, he was hired as a worker for the construction of the road from Queniquea to San Jose de Bolivar, where he would work by cutting down hills and trees, moving stones, flattening land, etc. He earned 2 bolivares per day, but in the case he did not manage to do everything requested in one day, he was not paid until the next day. In his 50s, he would attend parties at his sister’s house in Queniquea, alongside his brothers.

At the age of 54, he got his first ID Card in La Grita. In Caricuena, with his brother Tobias, he spent his days cultivating the land and cleaning cane. Another of his jobs was to go from mill to mill where several compadres would meet for several days in order to make the panela. In 1962, he moved to San Jose de Bolivar, where he has lived ever since.

### Later life

Around 1997, his wife died at the age of 81. Not long after, his son Jose Guillermo also died. At the age of 98, he started using a wheelchair. At the age of 104, he sold his last plot to remodel the main house. His first son, Jose Juan, also died around this time.

On 27 May 2019, he celebrated his 110th birthday. On 18 June 2020, he was interviewed by Agencia EFE as the oldest living person in Venezuela.

In May 2021, on his 112th birthday, it was reported he does not see clearly, he suffers from cataracts in both of his eyes and only distinguishes lumps, but not people clearly. It is also difficult for him to speak because he has no teeth, and even though he hears, the person talking to him has to speak loudly and very close to his ear. However, he was still able to eat without the help of another person. According to one of his daughters, on a daily basis he wakes up at 5:00 AM, but stays in bed until around 8:00 or 9:00 AM, because “it is very cold”. He has dinner at 5:30 PM and goes to sleep at 6:00 PM.

## Longevity records

On 3 January 2021, his age was validated by the LAS, becoming the first validated supercentenarian from Venezuela, as well as the national longevity recordholder.

On 18 January 2022, following the death of 112-year-old Saturnino de la Fuente Garcia of Spain, he became the oldest living man in the world, at the age of 112 years, 236 days. On 17 May 2022, he was recognized as the world's oldest living man by the Guinness World Records.

## References

* "El Hombre mas longevo del pueblo" [download link] Facebook, 23 December 2020
* World’s oldest man living confirmed as Juan Vicente Pérez aged 112 Guinness World Records, 17 May 2022