Rosa Castrodad Melendez was born in Cidra, Puerto Rico, on 20 April 1912.

At some point, she married her cousin Pedro Luis Castrodad Meléndez (their fathers were brothers). Along with her husband, she ran a farm where they grew tobacco, beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains, celery, yams, and malangas. They also had animals such as chickens, pigs, turkeys, guineas, ducks, cows, and oxen. She also ran a little store for many years. They also had sharecroppers who worked and lived on the farm and divided their earnings equally with the family. Her husband died in 2009 at the age of 96.

According to her daughter, she chewed tobacco since she was eight years old because her grandmother taught her. She only stopped at the age of 105. She lost one of her breasts due to benign cancer that she got in her 50s or 60s. As a centenarian, she was blind in one eye, but didn’t require any medication.

Rosa Castrodad Meléndez passed away in Cidra, Puerto Rico, on 17 July 2023, at the age of 111.