When Leandra Becerra Lumbreras was born, the dust had still not settled on the Civil War, Teddy Roosevelt was a little-known cowboy in the Dakotas, and no one had ever heard of radio, basketball or the airplane.
Dwight Eisenhower, Amelia Earhart, Babe Ruth and Adolph Hitler were not even alive when Lumbreras arrived on Aug. 31, 1887, in a small Mexican village.
Yet through World War I, World War II, the Mexican Revolution, the Cold War and the Internet Age, Lumbreras has survived — reaching the ripe old age of 127 to become unofficially the oldest person who has ever lived, her family says.
Though her birth certificate was destroyed about 40 years ago, Lumbreras’ kin say her birth date has been documented and certified by judges following a probe conducted by the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
They says she can vividly recite tales of her adventures in the days as leader of the “Adelitas,” a group of female soldiers who fought with the rebels in the Mexican Revolution — a bloody 10-year struggle that began in 1910, when she was 23.
She can recall episodes, such as hiding with her children in caves to dodge solders who were trying to force people into the government army.
She even has an old rifle that was given to her by a dashing revolutionary leader named Margarito Maldonado, who was one of the great loves of her life.
“She is entirely lucid. She blows your mind with her stories from the revolution,” 43-year-old granddaughter Miriam Alvear told the Mexican El Horizonte newspaper.
“She was always a woman who fought.”
Today the retired seamstress lives in the city of Zapopan. She had five children, all of whom have already passed away. The last died in 2013 at the age of 90.
Lumbreras also has 20 grandchildren, 73 great-grandchildren and 55 great-great-grandchildren.
She enjoys eating foods such as chocolate, beans, tortillas and milk. Despite her age, and her tendency to sleep for three days at a time, she has surprisingly good health.
“She has always had good teeth,” said Celia Hernández, her granddaughter.
Despite the family’s claim, the Guinness Book of World Records has declined to recognize Lumbreras as the world’s oldest person because of the missing birth certificate, which she lost while moving.
With Post Wires