Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
World's shortest man is one cool little dude
WILLIAM FERNANDO MARTINEZ / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge Image
Edward Nino Hernandez waits for a ride that will take him to a store where he works as a performer.
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Edward Nino Hernandez is in many ways a typical 24-year-old Colombian male. He loves to dance reggaeton, dreams of owning a car -- preferably a Mercedes-- and wants to see the world.
Top on his list of people he would like to meet are Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone and former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.
Nepal’s Khagendra Thapa Magar will likely become world’s shortest man when he turns 18 on Oct. 14. (BINOD JOSHI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES)
What sets Nino apart is his size. He is slightly taller than a piece of carry-on luggage and weighs just 10 kilograms. Nino has just been officially certified as the world's shortest living man by Guinness World Records, measuring 70 centimetres.
"He hasn't grown since he was two years old," his mother, Noemi Hernandez, said of the oldest of her five living children.
The previous titleholder was He Pingping of China, who was four centimetres taller and died March 13. Guinness discovered Nino afterward.
They say Nino's reign is not likely to last long, however. Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal is expected to take over after he turns 18 on Oct. 14. He measures about 56 centimetres and is currently recognized by Guinness as the shortest living teen.
Doctors never could explain why Nino is so small, his parents say. "They never gave us a diagnosis," his mother, Noemi Hernandez, said during an interview in the family's sparely furnished apartment in Bosa, a mostly poor district of southern Bogota.
Hernandez, 43, said Nino weighed just 1.5 kilograms at birth and was 38 centimetres long.
She said doctors at the National University studied him until he was 3, then lost interest. She and her husband, a security guard, lost a daughter who was similarly small in 1992 when she was about to complete a year of life. The couple's youngest child, 11-year-old Miguel Angel, stands 93 centimetres tall and has facial features similar to Nino. The other three boys are of normal height and appearance.
"I feel happy because I'm unique," Nino said.
He does, however, have his problems: cataracts in both of his eyes that blur his vision. During an interview, Nino's eyes water and he fidgets with the laces on his toddler-sized black dress shoes.
He's mentally sharp and laughs easily though it's tough to understand his high-pitched speech.
Nino had to repeat several years of school before dropping out in the eighth grade. But he's sociable, loves to travel -- though he hasn't been outside Colombia -- and likes to play dominoes and checkers.
"He only gets depressed when he's shut in at home," his mother said.
Nino earns cash dancing at department stores and is now acting in a film in which he plays -- What else? This is Colombia -- a pint-sized drug thug.
Nino smiles broadly at the idea of more acting jobs and more life in the spotlight. And he says he's gotten used to all the picture-taking but "it bothers me that people are... picking me up," he said.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 7, 2010 A2
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