100 and counting

YAKIMA – When Manuela Cortez rang in the new year, it was with a rare distinction: She rang in a new century at the same time. Cortez’s family gathered at her side Friday – New Year’s Day – in celebration of her 100th birthday.

Widowed for 33 years but blessed by a huge family, Cortez was born Jan. 1, 1910, in Ciudad Victoria, the capital city of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

As a teenager she immigrated to the United States with her family and lived in south Texas before settling in the Yakima Valley with her late husband, Francisco, in 1945.

For many years they made their home in Mabton, Wash., where she raised her children, eight of whom are still living. Today she is “abuelita” to 25 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

Since 1985 – the same year she became an American citizen – she’s lived by herself at the Sun Towers in Yakima. Her eldest son, Rudy Cortez, the 80-year-old former mayor of Mabton, said she prefers it that way.

“She’s always been independent. She never wanted to live with any of us,” he said.

The way her family figures it, her only vice is a fondness for Legends Casino. She doesn’t drink or smoke, and any insinuation that she does or ever did draws a quick set-the-record-straight retort.

“You’ve got a big mouth,” she laughingly rebuked her son Francisco, a retired Washington State Patrol trooper, moments after he joked about how much tequila she drinks.