Dominga Velasco, born on May 12, 1901, and passed away October 11, 2015.
Dominga was a Mexican-born American supercentenarian.
She is the oldest verified person ever born in Mexico.
Dominga was the world’s seventh-oldest living person, the second-oldest person living in the United States (behind Susannah Mushatt Jones) and the oldest living resident of California at the time of her death.
Dominga was born in Jalisco, Mexico, but she grew up in Coahuila. She and her family moved to the USA in the 1920s.
They had fled civil unrest at the end of the Mexican Revolution, witnessing the last battle between followers of Pancho Villa and the government Federales in Ciudad Juárez as they crossed the border.
They spent three years in El Paso and they later moved to California and settled in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland where a statue has been erected in her honor.
In 1928, Dominga married Salvador Velasco Ruiz and they had two children, Josephine and Rosemarie.
When asked about her key to aging well, she said, “Be happy”. Velasco’s residence as of 2014 was Posada de Colores in Oakland.
She was the subject of a 2004 news profile in the Oakland Tribune.
Dominga is survived by her daughter Rosemarie Sanchez, granddaughter Josephine Lopez, grandson Michael Sanchez, three great-grandchildren (Carlos Lopez, Erika Marie Lopez LaTour, & Adrian Joseph Lopez), and three great great grandchildren.
Dominga passed away on the morning of Sunday, October 11, 2015 at her home in Las Posada de Colores, Fruitvale district of Oakland, California.