BIOGRAPHY

Dolores Vélez Bravo was born in Llacao, Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador on 21 November 1907. Her parents were Daniel Vélez and Mercedes Bravo.

In 1931, she married Alipio Siavichay. The couple had at least three children in the 1930s, one of whom died as an infant.

In 1942, she remarried Jose Benedicto Culcay. The couple had at least three children. She was passionate about creole eggs with malt and honey, and she sold “Fritada” (Ecuadorian dish) in a pork merchant town. Her diet was products of her very same land, but she was a big fan of rompope, eggs, and malta. Her life was hard because her father didn’t want her. After all, she did what they told her not to do: her parents didn’t want her to marry a Native American man.

Around 1990, when she burned the idols and images in the village, they almost burned her alive as she converted Evangelical. The people of the town came to burn her with sticks and stones, at that moment religious images were being burned, the priest spoke with authority from God and those of the town backed down, she was the first Evangelical Christian in Llacao, Cuenca.

Velez Bravo died in Ecuador, on 12 October 2021, at the age of 113 years, 325 days.

RECOGNITION

She is the second-oldest validated person ever from Ecuador, behind Maria Capovilla.

ATTRIBUTION

GALLERY