(Salvadoran Cruz Hern?ez Rivas (seated) celebrates her 128th birthday with her 80-year-old daughter Patrona Hern?ez in the village of San Agustin, in the province of Usultan, 98 km (61 miles) south east of San Salvador, May 3, 2006. Cruz was born on this date in 1878 and worked as a midwife. Cruz had 13 children, of which 5 are still alive, 60 grandchildren. REUTERS/ Luis Galdamez)

SAN AGUSTIN, El Salvador (Reuters) - Friends and relatives of Cruz Hernandez gathered on Wednesday to celebrate her 128th birthday, a milestone that might make her the world's oldest person.

Hernandez, who relatives say spends most of her time dozing and no longer speaks, was surrounded by some 200 people at her party, some bearing a cake and others dressed as Salvadoran mythological heroes.

According to national records, Hernandez was born on May 3, 1878, in one of the country's central provinces, where she gave birth to 13 children. She now has 60 grandchildren, 80 great-grandchildren and 25 great-great grandchildren.

National birth registry officials sent Hernandez's documents to the Guinness World Records organisation last year but have yet to hear whether the case was accepted.

Guinness claims Ecuadorean Maria Esther de Capovilla is the world's oldest living woman at age 116.

According to the organisation, the longest any woman has ever lived is 122 years. The oldest man was 120 when he died in 1986.