Could Costa Rican Farmer Be the Oldest Person Alive?

José Flores Flores, a Guanacaste farmer whose reported birth date is supported by Costa Rican civil and church records, celebrated his 119th birthday Saturday as his family works to have him recognized as the oldest living person in the world. Flores was born on July 11, 1907, in Las Lajas de Cañas, Guanacaste.

He is recognized nationally as Costa Rica’s oldest living citizen, but his age has not been independently validated by Guinness World Records or an international organization specializing in extreme longevity. His family is gathering the historical documents needed to submit his case for international review.

Although Costa Rican records list his 1907 birth date and a baptismal record reportedly places his baptism five months later, record organizations require enough documentation to establish that records from different stages of a person’s life belong to the same individual.

Guinness World Records currently recognizes British woman Ethel Caterham as the world’s oldest living person. Caterham was born on August 21, 1909, and was 116 years and 223 days old when the record was verified on April 1, 2026. She is now 116 years and nearly 11 months old. If Flores’ reported age is accepted, he would be more than two years older.

Flores’ family says he continues to walk, speak and eat without assistance. He spends time with relatives and neighbors, watches boxing and movies, and regularly plays dominoes, a game his family says he frequently wins. He takes one daily medication to control his blood pressure.

His routine has remained simple. Rice and beans have long been staples of his diet, along with cheese, tortillas, milk and vegetables. He eats little meat and has previously said that he smoked and drank alcohol when he was younger but eventually stopped. He normally goes to bed around 7 p.m.

Flores spent much of his life working in agriculture. As a young man, he traveled to different parts of Costa Rica looking for farm and plantation work before settling in Santa Rosa de Pocosol, San Carlos, in 1968. He lived in the community for more than five decades before moving to the Sardinal area of Carrillo, where he now lives with family members.

He married Ofelia Arias Badilla and the couple had 16 children, eight of whom are still living. Family accounts also identify him as a participant in Costa Rica’s 1948 civil war.

His age has placed him at the center of several unusual moments in recent Costa Rican history. In 2021, he became our country’s oldest known person to recover from COVID-19. His relatives said he experienced no serious symptoms and initially was not told about the diagnosis because they feared the news would upset him. He later recovered from another infection in 2022.

During severe flooding in Guanacaste in 2023, Flores was evacuated by helicopter after conditions threatened his safety. Relatives said he boarded the aircraft calmly despite having little experience with air travel. He also became the oldest voter in Costa Rica’s 2026 presidential election. Flores was 118 when he participated in the February 1 vote from Sardinal. Before the election, his family said it would be the 25th time he had voted during his lifetime.

Flores has held the distinction of being Costa Rica’s oldest living citizen since June 23, 2022, following the death of Berta Cantillano at age 115. Before Cantillano, José Uriel Delgado, popularly known as “Chepito,” was widely reported to have lived to 121, although his age was never internationally validated.

Despite the attention surrounding his longevity, Flores lives on a monthly pension of approximately ₡82,000. His relatives say the amount is not enough to cover all his needs and have shared the telephone number 8775-8590 for people interested in offering assistance.

Whether Flores receives international recognition will depend on the strength and continuity of the records his family can produce. Until that process is completed, he remains a claimant rather than the verified world record holder. His 119th birthday nevertheless places him among the most remarkable documented longevity cases ever reported in Costa Rica.

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