Mateo Balbuena Iglesias, Spain’s oldest living man, dies at 110

The Gerontology Research Group is saddened to report news that Mr. Mateo Balbuena Iglesias, the oldest living man in Spain, sadly died in in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain on 16 July 2024 at the age of 110 years, 299 days.

Mateo Balbuena Iglesias was born in Villamartin de Don Sancho, Castile and Leon, Spain on 21 September 1913 as the eldest of ten siblings.

In 1932, he joined the Communist Youth Union of Spain and was appointed Secretary of Agitation and Propaganda. He participated in the Revolution of 1934 and moved to Barakaldo around that time. There, he was involved in the merger of the Unified Socialist Youth (JSU) of Euskadi and served as the local secretary. On 17 July 1936, he called an urgent meeting of the JSU to requisition weapons, and on 22 July 1936 a dozen militiamen left for San Sebastian to subdue the rebels at the Hotel Maria Cristina. On 24 July 1936, he took part in the siege of the Loiola barracks. His experiences from the war period and the early post-war years were later documented in the books he wrote.

In April 1944, he married Consuelo Lopetegui. They were married for 78 years, until his wife’s death in September 2022 at the age of 102. From his 60s until he was over 100 years old, he continued writing books.

On 14 January 2024, following the death of 111-year-old Luis Torras Martinez, he became the oldest living man in Spain.

Following his death, the new oldest living man in Spain is 110-year-old Luis Carrasco-Munoz Perez de la Isla (born 13 February 1914) of Santander, Cantabria, Spain.

Agur a Mateo Balbuena, último combatiente del Ejército vasco, un comunista indomable