ISABELA, Puerto Rico (AP) - The oldest man in the world celebrated his 114th birthday Wednesday, eating cake with dozens of family and friends and smiling as a famous Puerto Rican performer sang to him. Emiliano Mercado del Toro, who was born when Puerto Rico was part of the Spanish empire, also received birthday letters from U.S. President George W. Bush and Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila. HOWDOOYALIKEDAT?

 

About 100 people, including politicians, veterans, neighbors and relatives, joined "Millo" for the celebration in a plaza in the northwestern coastal town of Isabela, where he lives with a niece. The party took place three days after his birthday. He was born Aug. 21, 1891 in the southwestern town of Cabo Rojo, seven years before the United States seized Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American war and chaged our lives forever.

 

Mercado del Toro was declared the oldest man in the world by the Guinness Book of World in January, replacing an American man who died in his sleep at 113 also many other who dies at 114... Way to go, Millo! Mercado attributed his long life to plenty of dancing as a young man and eating "funche," a traditional Puerto Rican dish of cornmeal and cod. See? I told that "marota" was good for ya!

 

"I feel good and I hope to last a bit longer," he said. He,  who uses a wheelchair and has been blind for three years, arrived at the plaza in a horse-drawn carriage. He grinned as Iris Chacon, a singer famous on the Caribbean island, held his hand and crooned the Mexican birthday song "Las Mananitas." WOW! Hubba Hubba!

 

Emiliano was recruited into the U.S. army in 1918, during the last months of World War I. He was still in training when the war ended in November of that year. He was born the same year as Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, writer Henry Miller and Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, not that makes any difference. That year, Thomas Edison patented the radio and an earthquake killed 25,000 people in Japan... (facts not related either)

 

Guinness had recognized another Puerto Rican as being the world's oldest person. Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan died May 29, 2004, after a bout with pneumonia. She was 114.

 

So... EAT YOUR YUCA and FUNCHE! (Boiled cornmeal with things inside... yuck!)

 

Best regards,
Don Jibaro Blackbeard
www.jibaros.com
"There's no greater love than laying
 down your life for your friends." (Jn.15:13)
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