• Submitted by: admin
• Caribbean
• culture an traditions
• Destinations
• Granma
• history
• national
• 01 / 02 / 2009

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In statements to the Cuban News Agency, Candelaria, who was born February 2, 1885, wished all the people of the world happiness and good health in 2009. She was registered in official birth documents on February 27, in the Cuban Santa Rosa Farm, in the Campechuela municipality, eastern Granma province.

Speaking slowly but in a very clear voice, Candelaria regretted her lack of vision and her physical weakness of the age that does not allow her to stand on her feet. “If it were for another kind of government, nobody would have put his eyes on me,” she jocularly expressed.

She said she likes to be informed and that she prefers watching TV news, though she first saw a TV set after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

Candelaria recalled that before 1959 there were no doctors, school or electricity in her locality, and that she learned some basic lessons with a teacher in the nearby locality of Palmarito.

She was the second in a family of 13 siblings; her mother Cecilia Rodriguez died older than 100 and her father at 96. One of her brothers is still alive.

Candelaria is being assisted by a geriatrician, a medical doctor and a nurse. She said her long life is due to the pure air of the country field, a diet based on root vegetables and meats, and her good love for other persons.

(Mathaba.net)