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Few people can say that they were alive when Costa Rica celebrated the centennial of the annexation of Nicoya in 1924. However, 21 Nicoyans can proudly say that they were not only alive at the time, but also witnessed the bicentennial of the annexation of Nicoya. The annexation was celebrated on Thursday, July 25.
This is reported by the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), which has identified more than 20 centenarians in the state of Guanacaste, one of the five areas in the world known as “blue zones”, where conditions have allowed large populations to survive for more than a century.
This is the case of Eusebio Muñoz Zúñiga, 100, Don Chevo, and María Felicitas Zúñiga and María Villagra Vega, 101, both from Nicoya, who receive care at the Social Work Service of the Nicoya Health District de la Caja.
Don Chevo, a resident of Kilimandnikya, is a country boy who remembers that as a child he would start working at 3 a.m., when his mother-in-law was already grinding corn. As a farmer, he supported 21 children, 13 of whom are still alive.
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“I feel more or less well, at least old age has left me. From early on, all the chores were in the fields (where he worked): hacking, cutting rice, picking beans; “Where it was needed, it was there,” said Don Chievo, who admitted that he behaved well, “the only problem was that he drank guaro.”
María Felicitas Zúñiga and María Villagra Vega are over 100 years old. According to the CCSS, at the end of June, they received a visit from social workers to learn about their daily care, diet, health and living habits.
The data collected by fund officials will be part of a study that will be presented at the third Blue Zones Conference in October during Seniors Month.
In addition to Nicoya, the Italian island of Sardinia has also been recognized as a Blue Zone; Okinawa, Japan; the community of Loma Linda in the United States and the Greek island of Ikaria.
According to the CCSS, centenarians were registered in the states of Nicoya, Santa Cruz, Hoyancha, Carrillo and South Dayol.
“There is no answer, it is believed that there are some complex factors, such as the very clean environment of the five states that make up the Nicoya Peninsula, social and family networks, people live in their own homes, they are taken care of there, they receive a lot of love, a lot of affection, respect, and family and social networks, where usually families get together for afternoon coffee time,” commented Jorge Vindas of the Nicoya Peninsula Blue Zone Association.
“Another factor is diet; it is not what they eat that counts, but everything they eat, food without chemicals, as one centenarian from Coralillo said: ‘from the pot land’, because they consume the products they grow, rice, beans, corn, pumpkin, eggs and many products, produced by almost everyone who eats them,” Vidas added. In addition, another key factor is constant physical activity, always moving, not by choice but by necessity, the ladies have to go to the river to bathe, have to get up at 2 a.m. to grind corn, ride bicycles and horses, work in the fields.
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