Select All would like to formally wish Roberto Martinez the happiest of 100th birthdays. We would also like to congratulate the family friend who gifted Martinez with the perfect present to celebrate his century on Earth: a shirt covered in “100” emoji. (That’s this one: 💯.)
Karmina Camara, a 20-yeard-old student from Miami and one of Martinez’s great-granddaughters, told Select All a little bit more about him. “My great grandpa was born in Cuba and came when he was 85,” she told me via Twitter DM. “He plays dominoes everyday.” (This is also my plan if I make it to 100.) Her cousin tweeted pictures of Martinez wearing the shirt, which have been liked and retweeted to the tune of 100,000 times since June 19.
Camara also told me they have filled Martinez in on his newfound viral status and “he’s really happy about it.” “He understands that it [the 100 emoji] means he’s 100. And it’s actually very fitting. He’s a really healthy guy. He doesn’t need glasses, has better memory than me, and is a very happy guy,” she said.
So while her great-grandfather gets the emoji in the literal I am 100-years-old sense, he doesn’t seem to quite grasp the finer nuances of the emoji as anything more than a substitute for typing a 1 followed by two zeros. (The 💯 is often a stand-in for happiness, excitement, or how much back rent you owe your roommates.) But we’ll give Martinez a break. He is 💯 after all.
