Tolentino was recognized as the oldest man in Peru, but he was never officially acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest person due to a lack of necessary documentation. Two years ago, the Peruvian government began the process of registering him with Guinness World Records, though it remains unclear what specific birth documentation was missing to verify his age. The current formal record holder for oldest person is Ethel Caterham, from Lightwater, Surrey, born in 1909, who is 116 years and 222 days old. Caterham is the oldest British person in recorded history and the last known surviving person born in the 1900s decade. The oldest man who ever lived was Juan Vicente Perez Mora from Venezuela, who died in April 2024 at age 114 and 311 days, while the oldest man alive today is 113-year-old Brazilian Joao Marinho Neto.
Tolentino lived an isolated and impoverished life in rural Peru, raised as an orphan and spending his whole life in his hometown. He existed in extreme poverty, cultivating land by hand and trading agricultural goods with other villagers, and never had a family, living alone without electricity or running water, using only a small oil lamp for light. He remained unknown to authorities until the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was discovered after beginning to receive support from Peru's Pension 65 programme, designed for those over 65 in poverty with no pension. The Pension 65 scheme provided him with his first ID card and a state pension, which paid for him to move into a care home. Shortly after this move, he suffered a serious hip injury in an accident, leaving him wheelchair-bound, though the exact nature of the accident has not been disclosed. It is also unknown how Peruvian authorities confirmed his birth year as 1900 without formal documentation, and the specific cause of his death beyond dying in his sleep has not been reported.
In the realm of verified longevity, Joao Marinho Neto sent Ethel Caterham a congratulatory message on her 116th birthday in August last year. This exchange was reportedly the first documented interaction between the world's oldest verified woman and oldest verified man. The current status of Ethel Caterham's health and verification as the world's oldest person remains unclear.