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Colombian is world's shortest man at 27 inches

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-09-07 09:05

Edward Nino Hernandez (L) walks with his eleven-year-old brother outside their home in Bogota September 6, 2010. [Agencies]

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 Friday with The Associated Press.

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.

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"He doesn't see well. He isn't able to read," she said.

During an interview, Nino's eyes water and he fidgets with the laces on his toddler-sized black dress shoes.

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 eighth grade. But he's very 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.

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 shootout.

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 gunbattle.

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.

Edward Nino Hernandez (R) eats lunch with his eleven-year-old brother in their home in Bogota September 6, 2010. [Agencies]