Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan

Infobox Person


image_size=
name=Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan
birth_date=birth date|1889|8|31|mf=y
birth_place= Utuado, Puerto Rico
death_date = death date|2004|5|29 aged age in years and days|1889|8|31|2004|5|29
death_place= Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
death_cause= Pneumonia
relatives= Alfonso Soler (married 1912)

Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan de Soler (August 31, 1889 – May 29, 2004) was a Puerto Rican supercentenarian, and, according to documents compiled in March 2004, the oldest documented person in the world after the death of Japanese woman Mitoyo Kawate, although German American woman Charlotte Benkner, who was about 3½ months younger, had been given recognition in the meantime.

She was born and grew up in Utuado, the child of Eduardo Iglesias-Ortiz and Luisa Jordan-Correa (some spelling variants are found in records). In 1948, her birth certificate was signed at Utuado, certifying that she was born at 7:00 AM on September 1, 1889. However, a baptismal certificate of April 1890, found in 1992, revealed that she was actually born the day before, on August 31, 1889. The 1910 census records for Utuado record her as age 20. Her marriage to Alfonso Soler on December 26, 1912, at age 23 is recorded by a certificate on December 28, 1912. They were found together in the January 1920 census when she was 30 and they lived in Arecibo. The couple later moved to the San Juan area known as "Santurce". They never had any children of their own, but they adopted one son, Roberto Torres, her nephew.

She attended a school without American teachers in Puerto Rico (it later became common practice to bring American teachers to teach English in Puerto Rican schools). Despite this and the fact that she was able to reach only elementary school, she was fluent in English as well as her native Spanish.

Her husband died during the late 1970s, and Trinidad Iglesias then spent about 25 years living by herself, until she moved to a new home.

The Guinness Book of World Records accepted her claim, documentation meeting their standards having been supplied, and on March 29, 2004, she received a document from them, declaring her the world's oldest living woman. She joined José Miguel Agrelot, Wilfred Benítez, the Menudo group and a handful of others as the only Puerto Ricans to enter that book.

After 114 years and 272 days of living, Iglesias-Jordan died of pneumonia after a brief hospitalization in Río Piedras.

ee also

* List of Puerto Ricans
* List of the verified oldest people
* Oldest people
* Supercentenarian

External links

* [http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/2004/vol8n23/RamonTrinidad.html Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan, 114; Oldest Person In The World, Puerto Rico Herald]
* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/sfl-61ojordan,1,551371.photo Article in Chicago Tribune about death of Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan at 114]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3765125.stm BBC News: 'World's oldest person' dies, 114]