Havana, Feb 3 (EFE).- The most long-lived person in Cuba, Juana Bautista de la Candelaria Rodriguez, said she is feeling "well" and "happy" to celebrate her 127th birthday, local media said.
"Candulia," as she is known to her family and neighbors, said she was "happy, proud of her descendants and thankful" for the loving attention she received Thursday in Santa Rosa, a country village in the eastern province of Granma where she lives, according to the state news agency AIN.
The old islander said that lately she has been visited by Mexicans, Spaniards, French, Japanese and Dominicans, something she never imagined happening.
Juana Bautista was born Feb. 2, 1885, according to Volume I, page 35 of the civil registry in the Campechuela municipality some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Havana, where she has lived all her life.
One of a family of 13 siblings, Candulia survived her husband, with whom she had three children, and today her descendants include six grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
She and her family attribute her extraordinary longevity to working, a diet mostly of food like cassava and sweet potatoes, and to the fact that she never drank rum or smoked, though she does like her cup of coffee.
Nowadays she complains that getting to her feet is next to impossible, and that her deteriorating vision keeps her from watching television.
