World's shortest man
He is 27 inches tall and weighs only 10 kilograms
He acts in a movie, playing a drug thug
He's got a girlfriend who is just under 5 feet tall (1.5 meters)
Edward Nino Hernandez is in many ways a typical 24-year-old Colombian male. He loves to dance reggaeton, dreams of owning a luxury car 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.
What sets Nino (pronounced NEE-nyoh) apart is his size.
He is slightly taller than a piece of carry-on luggage and weighs just 22 pounds (10 kilograms).
Nino has just been officially certified as the world's shortest living man by Guinness World Records, measuring 27 inches (70 centimeters).
"He hasn't grown since he was 2 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 1.5 inches (4 centimeters) taller and died on March 13.
The Guinness people 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 October 14. He measures about 22 inches (56 centimeters) 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 apartment in Bosa, a mostly poor district of southern Bogota.
Hernandez, 43, said Nino weighed just 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) at birth and was 15 inches (38 centimeters) 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 37 inches (93 centimeters) 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 in an interview.
He does, however, have his problems: cataracts in both of his eyes that blur his vision and, says his mother, require urgent surgery that the family can't afford. "He doesn't see well. He isn't able to read,” she said.
Other than his eyes, he has no medical complaints.
He's mentally sharp and laughs easily, though it's sometimes hard to understand his high-pitched speech and his stubby fingers make writing difficult.
Nino had to repeat several years of school before dropping out in the 8th grade.
But he's very sociable, and likes to play dominoes and checkers. "He only gets depressed when he's shut in at home," his mother said.
Leafing through an advance copy of the Guinness World Records 2011 edition, which launches September 15 in the United States and the next day internationally, Hernandez shows Nino a picture of the world's smallest woman, who is from India.
He's not interested in the least.
Nino says he already has a girlfriend. She's 18, is named Fanny and measures just under 5 feet (1.5 meters), he says.
Nino has earned some 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.
In his big scene, Nino gets into a shoot-out.
He acts out the scene, mimicking a pistol with the index fingers of his entwined hands, then slumps over onto the chair's arm. His character doesn't survive the gun battle.
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 being the world's smallest man does have its drawbacks.
"It bothers me that people are (always) touching me and picking me up," he said.
Blackbutterfly
Now that is short - if he pays me R13000 I will sleep with him fo sho! ; )Report Abuse
It will be like sleeping with a Cellphone Gal, what if u shake him and he die...he only weight 10kg.
I can't sleep with him - my concious will tell me that it's abuse.
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CheeseBoy
sounds like you got pedophilia tendencies can't you see kgore he looks like a toddler :0Report Abuse
finky
LOLMENTATION.....he can fit in my handbag!!!!!!!!!!!!!@Blackbutterfly no comment but kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa
JOKE OF THE DAY....THERE IS NO SUCH
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BraIzzy
@Blackbutterfly_don't andaestimate us (de short guys), unles u don't lyk ur kuku dat much gal, we'v got pipes babe!oh, b4 i 4gt, jus relocate to London, where u wil easily find Rooney, coz rona hare je kuku dat expensive! R20 nje, got kuku!
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Tom
Okay right! Do you think every part of his body is short? You know what i meanReport Abuse
Bobo1985
Bralzzy hahahahahaha R20...?? fela!!! mmmmm i gues udla into engcolile!!Report Abuse