LongeviQuest is happy to announce that, as of 19 May, we have officially recognized and validated the age of Guillermina Acosta Bilbao as the oldest documented Central American in history.
Acosta Bilbao passed away on 13 February 2017, in David, Chiriquí Province, Panama, at the age of 115 years, 78 days. At the time, she held several longevity-related titles and remains one of the oldest individuals ever documented in Latin America. Researchers Santiago García Medina, Fabrizio Villatoro, and James Roberts began verifying her age in 2021, and their collaborative efforts led to its official validation.
Biography
Guillermina Acosta Bilbao was born in David, Chiriqui Province, Colombia (now Panama), on 27 November 1901. She was the last known surviving person born in the territory of present-day Panama before its secession from Colombia on 3 November 1903.
She grew up with her four sisters and her father, Atanasio, as her mother, Demetria, passed away at a young age—just 34.
Although she never married but had two partners: Dionisio Atencio, whom she met in 1919, and Brígido Roux. She had a total of nine children with them. Her son Cecilio, born in July 1920, is still alive as of May 2025 at the age of 104.
In 2003, at the age of 102. (Courtesy of the family).
Longevity Records
On 4 August 2015, following the passing of 114-year-old Serafina Herrera de Sugasti, she became the oldest known living person in Panama, at the age of 113 years, 250 days. On 11 February 2016, at the age of 114 years, 76 days, she surpassed Herrera’s final age, becoming the oldest person ever recorded in Panama. At the same time, she became the oldest known person ever born in Central America.
On 7 March 2016, following the passing of 114-year-old Eleonora Camargo Veiga of Brazil, she became the oldest documented living person in Latin America. On 12 May, following the passing of Susannah Mushatt Jones (USA), she became the oldest known living person in continental North America, at the age of 114 years, 167 days.
At the time of her passing, she was the sixth-oldest known living person in the world and the third-oldest fully validated individual in Latin American history.
We sincerely thank and congratulate her family for their generous support during the validation process, including the sharing of photographs and her life story.
