BIOGRAPHY

María Guadalupe Sifuentes Hernández was born in the village of El Pedernal, near Matehuala, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Research by LAS and LongeviQuest revealed that she was actually born on 3 December 1907, though she had claimed her birthdate to be 13 October 1908. During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), she was hidden along with her brothers to avoid being found by Pancho Villa’s men, who were known to recruit children to fight. At some point, she married José Facundo, with whom she had five children. Widowed at 40, she moved to Monterrey at 45 at the request of her eldest daughter. Well into her centenarian years, she continued to sew quilts by hand, cutting squares from various fabrics and stitching them together meticulously.

Her granddaughter, Gabriela, described her as a healthy woman who rarely needed medical attention. Throughout her life, she only visited a doctor for minor respiratory issues related to her bronchi and had never been hospitalized, except once when she fell and needed five stitches for a cut on her forehead in her later years. By May 2019, at the age of 111, she had three surviving children, along with a large extended family: 20 grandchildren, 51 great-grandchildren, 15 great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great-grandchild. She lived with her youngest daughter, who was then 70 years old. Although she had remained remarkably healthy, by that February she spent most of her days resting in bed due to weakening bones and increasing fatigue. She was affectionately called “Doña Chula” by family and neighbors, a nickname she earned for always calling the family’s children “chulos.”

María Guadalupe Sifuentes Hernández passed away in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, Mexico, on 27 June 2019, at the age of 111 years, 206 days.

RECOGNITION

Her age was initially listed as pending validation by the Latin American Supercentenarians (LAS) as of 12 January 2020. The validation process was ultimately completed through the research efforts of Jeffrey Xu, Stefan Maglov, Fabrizio Villatoro, and James Roberts, with her age officially validated by LongeviQuest on 24 October 2024.

ATTRIBUTION

* “Mujer celebra 110 años de vida” – Multimedios, 13 October 2018

* “Doña Chula: 110 años sin enfermarse” – Noticias de Nayarit (Miguel Ángel Luna), 10 May 2019

GALLERY