At the age of 110, Cuban native Luis Sebastián Ortiz Marín continues to astonish everyone with his remarkable vitality and sharp memory. Ortiz Marín attributes his longevity to a diet consisting primarily of flour, hutias (a type of rodent), and fish heads. Speaking with the state-run newspaper Escambray, the elderly man from San Pedro, Sancti Spíritus, shared that his life has been shaped by hard work in the fields and a diet of humble foods.
"Because of the amount of flour, hutias, and fish heads I've eaten throughout my life," Ortiz Marín said with a chuckle, suggesting that this simple combination of foods might be the secret formula to reaching 110 years. His claim harks back to a time of poverty before the Cuban Revolution, marked by endless days of labor in tobacco seedbeds and sugarcane fields. According to the newspaper, local residents have greeted his remarks "with amazement," especially given that today, they lack access to flour, hutias, and fish.
Life in the Fields
Known as "the chief of San Pedro," Ortiz Marín fondly recalls his days working in the sugarcane fields, where "You either worked or starved to death," he asserted. In his youth, he devoted himself to growing tobacco, planting sugarcane, and later making charcoal in the júcaro and llana forests, always remaining true to his profession as an agricultural laborer.
Cuba's Current Reality
Today, most Cuban families live in extreme poverty, and the island is experiencing a mass exodus of its young and economically active population. The government acknowledges that the only demographic group seeing growth is the elderly. Last year, another centenarian from Sancti Spíritus, Cira Delia Vegas Pérez, claimed that "luck" was her sole secret to reaching such an advanced age.