Oldest man in the world is 112-year-old Spaniard living in Leon

THE oldest man in the world is 112-year-old Saturnino de la Fuente, a Spaniard living in Leon

Saturnino de la Fuente, is a man living in the municipality of Leon, in the Spanish autonomous community of Castile y Leon, and last February he turned 112 years old, which makes him the oldest man in the world, according to the Guinness Book Of Records, since the previously oldest man, a Puerto Rican called Emilio Flores, passed away on August 12, at the exact same age.

Emilio Flores and Saturnino de la Fuente disputed the title of the oldest man in the world for a few months, since despite the fact that the Puerto Rican claimed to have been born a few months earlier, he did not have official documentation of his birth, as explained by Saturnino’s son-in-law, Bernardo Marcos.

It is because at that time babies were sometimes not registered or there were errors in their certification, because even in the DNI of the Leonese it states that he was born on February 12, 1909, when his actual birthday is on the 8th, as explained by his son-in-law.

They registered him four days after his birth, something that was common practice in those days, at a time when many newborns did not survive, to avoid extra paperwork if the baby died, but now, with the death of Emilio Flores on the 12th, Saturnino de la Fuente is officially the oldest man in the world, although there are women older than him, such as Kane Tanaka, in Japan, who was born on January 2, 1903, making her six years older.

Emilio’s family has welcomed the news with the same joy with which they received the title of the oldest man in Europe, which they have already held for some years.

Saturnino de la Fuente was born during the reign of Alfonso XIII, lived through the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, knew the Second Republic, and suffered the Civil War, which he did not fight in because he did not measure up, but, he is a cobbler by trade, starting work at 13, and his shoe factory that was used to manufacture boots for the national army was taken over by the military.

Later the company closed, which motivated Saturnino de la Fuente to settle on his own in his hometown, Puente Castro, where he lived for many years. In that neighborhood, he founded a football team, CD Puente Castro, which is still active, and of which he is an honorary member.

He fathered eight children, three of whom have already died, the last in 2020 during the second pandemic that Saturnino de la Fuente has experienced, having survived the Spanish flu of 1918, and being the first man in the province of Leon to get the coronavirus vaccine, as reported by 20minutos.es.

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