BIOGRAPHY

Delio Venturotti was born in Calto in the province of Rovigo, Veneto, Italy, on 25 October 1909. His parents were Luiz Venturotti and Joana Arrivabeni-Venturotti. His family left Italy after his father, who was a reservist, heard from a lieutenant of the Italian Armed Forces that there would soon be a big war in Europe.

At the age of three, with his parents and two sisters, Venturotti boarded a ship to Brazil, where they arrived after 18 days at sea. His father lived in Brazil for ten years as a teenager, but returned to Italy. Upon arrival to Rio de Janeiro, they took another ship to Espírito Santo, where he worked on plantations.

There was no school in that area, so the family moved to Colatina, Espírito Santo. Venturotti and his sisters attended school for one year, but their father said that, as they already knew how to read and write, it was enough for them to be farmers. Venturotti’s mother died when he was 15 years old. He said that his mother mistook arsenic for wheat when making a cake, and she got poisoned.

After the death of his mother, his father remarried with a woman named Francisca and had three daughters (two of whom died in infancy and Zilda (aged 94 in May 2022). After Francisca’s death, his father married Josefina Ribeiro, but they had no children.

Later, Venturotti started working as a driver. From the 1940s until his retirement, he worked at a fabric store in Espirito Santo. On 15 March 1946, he married Dulcina Gama Venturotti (born 8 November 1921)‬, who was still alive in June 2022 at the age of 100. They had four children, including Maria Dulce Venturotti Collaress (aged 68 in 2017) and Delio Venturotti Filho. After 53 years in Espírito Santo, the Venturottis moved to São Paulo. Delio and Dulcina lived for 29 years in Sao Paulo, until they moved to Florianópolis in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

At the age of 112, he was still able to walk. In May 2022, he was hospitalized for heart oxygenation problems.

RECOGNITION

On 21 March 2020, following the death of 110-year-old Giovanni Quarisa of Veneto, Italy, he became the oldest living Italian-born man.

On 26 April 2021, his age was validated by the Latin American Supercentenarians (LAS).

On 16 January 2022, following the death of 112-year-old Ida Zoccarato of Veneto, Italy, he became the oldest living Italian-born person.

On 18 January 2022, following the death of 112-year-old Saturnino de la Fuente García of Spain, he became the oldest known living European-born man, the last European-born man born in the 1900s decade and the second-oldest (known) living man in the world (behind Juan Vicente Pérez Mora of Venezuela).

ATTRIBUTION

GALLERY