BIOGRAPHY

Maria Branyas Morera was born in San Francisco, California, USA on 4 March 1907 to parents Josep Branyas Julià (born 1877) and Teresa Morera Laqué (born 1880). Her parents married on 14 January 1901. Her siblings were Josep (born 1902), Teresa (born 1905) and William (born 1913). In 1903, her father Josep, travels to Mexico, via Veracruz state, to continue an uncle’s business.

On 19 May 1904, her father comes back to Veracruz (Mexico) to wait for the arrival of the ship “SS Montserrat” and pick up his wife Teresa Morera and his little son Josep Branyas. Her family emigrated to San Francisco, USA, on 5 October 1906. They later traveled to New Orleans, and from there they departed to Olot, Catalonia, Spain in May 1915. While emigrating to Spain aboard the Catalania, Branyas Morera injured her eardrum in a fall, resulting in her permanently losing hearing in one ear. Towards the end of the voyage, Branyas Morera’s father, Joseph Branyas Julià, died from pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 37, leaving Branyas Morera’s mother to raise the family of five on her own. She married Joan Moret Roura on 16 July 1931 and had three children; August (1932), Teresa (1933) and Rosa (1944).

On 18 July 1936, when the Spanish Civil War breaks out, her husband Joan Moret Roura flees to France and re-enters Spain through San Sebastian, where he had some friends who helped him. He is assigned as a military doctor to Trujillo, Extremadura. After a while, Maria Branyas Morera and their two children, August and Teresa, moved there. In 1939, at the end of the Civil War, the entire family returned to Catalonia and settled on Minali Street, 12, in Girona.

In November 2000, when she was 93, Branyas Morera moved into a care home in Olot. At the age of 110, she reportedly still read the newspaper every day. As of August 2019, she had 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Branyas Morera is deaf in one ear, and partially deaf in the other, with precautions taken at her nursing home. This made communication difficult, but using a voice-to-text device, her relatives are able to communicate fluently.

In April 2020, at the age of 113, Branyas Morera tested positive for COVID-19, but successfully recovered. She was the oldest recorded survivor of the disease until Lucile Randon of France, then 116, recovered in 2021. In a subsequent interview with the Observer, Branyas Morera called for a revolution in treatment of the elderly, saying “This pandemic has revealed that older people are the forgotten ones of our society. They fought their whole lives, sacrificed time and their dreams for today’s quality of life. They didn’t deserve to leave the world in this way.”

RECOGNITION

On 22 December 2019, Branyas Morera became the oldest known living person in Spain following the death of Josefa Santos Gonzalez. She became the last living person in Spain born in 1907, following the death of Virtudes Tomas Navarro on 20 April 2020.

She became the last (known) living person in Europe born in 1907, following the death of Marie-Louise Berthelot on 16 January 2021.

Aside from being the oldest validated person ever in Spain, Branyas Morera is also the oldest person ever born in the U.S. state of California, as well as the oldest validated emigrant ever.

She became the last person living in Spain born in the 1900s decade, following the death of Saturnino de la Fuente García on 18 January 2022.

ATTRIBUTION

Recognized by Guinness World Records

GALLERY