Summary A birth certificate shows that Jose Aguinelo dos Santos was born on July 7, 1888.
(Reuters) - If his documents are proven accurate, Brazilian Jose Aguinelo dos Santos could be the oldest living man ever on record at the age of 126.
Santos, or Ze as he is known at the Vila Vincentina rest home where has resided since 1973, has identification and a birth certificate that states he was born on July 7, 1888.
Vila Vincentina is located in the town of Bauru, a smaller city surrounded by sugarcane and coffee fields in the interior of Sao Paulo state.
According to what Ze has told those who live and work at Vila Vincentina, both his father and mother were slaves and he himself was born and initially raised on a "quilombo" in the northeastern state of Ceara before he eventually migrated to Sao Paulo.
Quilombos were settlements formed by escaped African slaves brought to Brazil.
Vila Vincentina s Vice President Ceasar Benedito Siqueira said that when Ze first came to live at the rest home he had nothing but the clothes on his back and only after many years did it become necessary for him to procure documents.
According to Siqueira, the documents that state Ze is 126 years old were based on a judicial ruling made in 2001.
"When Mr. Aguinelo came here he didn t have any documents and then people started trying to find and locate his documents. Through a judicial order they were able to finally get documents for him. By an estimate of the judge s it was determined that this was his age. We already knew that he was at an advanced age but the home here never divulged his age because it isn t a precise date, it s not scientifically proven that this is really his age," Siqueira said.
Ze shares a room with fellow Vila Vincentina resident Odilon Camargo who is age 73. Caretakers at the rest home say the two share a close bond and spend a lot of time joking with one another.
Carmargo still gets excited at the prospect he is roommates with the world s oldest living man.
"One hundred twenty-six years here, you got it? One hundred twenty-six!" Camargo said.
Siqueira said that if one day it is scientifically proven that Ze is 126 years old they will not let the significance and potential interest change his routine.
"I do believe that that is his age because I have been here as a volunteer for 31 years. I remember him in the time when I got here. He got here in 1973 and we believe that this is his age, however, if there was a test that did prove that this really is his age his routine will remain the same. We will not let his routine change. He is a person very much regulated and has his certain routine. If his routine changed a lot it could lead to serious problem for him. It s been a long time he has had his routine. He wakes up on his own, has breakfast on his own, so we don t want to change his routine drastically. Maybe things could change a little but it would be done with great care," Siqueira said.
Despite reports that the rest home was hoping to raise money for one, Siqueira said that although the idea of conducting a carbon test to prove Ze s age has been suggested, he has not succeeded in verifying that such a test actually exists.
According to the Guinness Book of Records the oldest ever living person ever on record was Japan s Jiroemon Kimura who passed away in 2013 at the age of 116.
Resident psychologist Mariana Canassa said that Ze still exhibits a playful personality.
"He always likes to talk with people. He ll leave his room and go and sit on the veranda and make chit-chat. He can be a bit quieter than some but other times he is a joker. Sometimes things happen and he ll crack a joke. Sometimes it is difficult to understand his speech because the immobility of his tongue, making it hard to know what his says, but if you are close enough to him you can understand easily," Canassa said.
Other than doing everything he can to avoid bath time, it seems Ze s only bad habit appears to be his love of smoking. He goes through a pack a day and has been a smoking, according to him, since he was an adolescent.
However, even with all the smoking, the rest home s health professionals say that Ze has no real health problems. The only medication Ze takes is one pill in the morning to help with his appetite.
When asked about early life and if he was ever once a slave Ze responded that it was his father that knew firsthand what it was like to be a slave not him.
"My father was the slave, my father knew about being a slave…" Ze said.
Although his birthday was officially on July 7th, Ze will formally celebrate his birthday this Friday (July 25) with other Vila Vincentina residents whose birthdays fall in July.
