Long Live Freedom! Brazilian Woman Celebrates 125th Birthday And The Demise Of Slavery

On the grassy hills where she was born into slavery in the 19th century, Maria do Carmo Geronimo celebrated her 125th birthday on Tuesday.

The 4-foot woman claims to be the oldest person in the world. But because of doubts over her birth records, the Guinness Book of Records gives that honor to a 121-year-old French woman.

“Let freedom ring,” Geronimo said as she was welcomed by about 100 citizens in this backwoods town 250 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro.

“It feels good to be alive - and free,” she said as she completed the 60-mile ride from Itajuba, the small town where she has lived for 80 years. “I don’t wish slavery on anyone.”

The Rev. Francisco Alves da Cruz of the Roman Catholic Church gave Geronimo a special blessing for “showing the Lord’s work in her 125 years of humility and simplicity.”

After the blessing, Geronimo blew out candles on a huge cake with white icing. She gathered enough strength to blow out the three candles shaped in the numbers of her age.

“God is showing us his values through this woman,” da Cruz said. “The oldest person in the world is female, black and, during the first 17 years of her life, suffered the greatest ill man has known - slavery.”

Geronimo’s back still bears the scars of lashes inflicted by her master. Just hearing his name - Jose Garcia - sends chills up her curved spine.

Geronimo says she was born on March 5, 1871, 17 years before slavery was abolished in Brazil. At the time, birth certificates were not issued in that part of Brazil.

But church officials have found Geronimo’s baptismal paper - signed and dated March 15, 1871. The document has been sent to Guinness officials, who are investigating her claim.