#3417: 119-YEAR-OLD HAITIAN-CUBAN WALKS BRISKLY INTO THE ... (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

Havana, Apr 16, 2000 (EFE) --  Benito Martinez, who will turn 120 in
September and is almost certainly the oldest person in Cuba, still farms a
plot and walks three kilometers (2 miles) into town several times a week,
Cuba's Radio Reloj said Sunday.
   Because of his habitual fast pace over the decades in working the
fields, his neighbors call him "airplane."
   Martinez, who lives just outside the eastern town of Vicente near Ciego
de Avila, was born Sept. 19, 1880 in a mountain village in Haiti. He
arrived in Cuba as a young man shortly after the turn of the past century,
with the surname Abogan.
   Radio Reloj said he was given the more Cuban name by local authorities.
   He worked cutting sugar cane, and during the 1920s helped build the
island's cross-country Central Highway.
   At present, a healthy Martinez - whose memory and vision remain sharp -
busies himself cultivating a few crops and raising fowl, as well as walking
several times a week into Vicente to buy goods at a grocery.
   Martinez says he eats lots of vegetables and chicken soup, and gets
little sleep.