Cuban Man Dubbed ‘Twenty-Four’ Proud of His Four Extra Digits
- Posted on August 26, 2011 at 6:20pm by
Tiffany Gabbay
- Print »
- Email »
BARACOA, Cuba (The Blaze/AP) — They call him “Twenty-Four.” Yoandri Hernandez Garrido’s nickname comes from the six perfectly formed fingers on each of his hands and the six impeccable toes on each foot.
Hernandez is proud of his extra digits and calls them a blessing, saying they set him apart and enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs in this eastern Cuban city popular with tourists. One traveler paid $10 for a picture with him, Hernandez said, a bonanza in a country with an average salary of just $20 a month.
“It‘s thanks to my 24 digits that I’m able to make a living, because I have no fixed job,” Hernandez said.
Known as polydactyly, Hernandez’s condition is relatively common, but it’s rare for the extra digits to be so perfect. Anyone who glanced quickly at his hands would be hard-pressed to notice anything different unless they paused and started counting.
Hernandez said that as a boy he was visited by a prominent Cuban orthopedist who is also one of Fidel Castro’s doctors, and he declared that in all his years of travel he had never seen such a case of well-formed polydactyly.
“He was very impressed when he saw my fingers,” said Hernandez, who is the only one in his family to be born with extra digits.
In a part of the world where people’s physical traits are often the basis for nicknames – even unflattering ones like “fatty” or “shorty” – “veinticuatro” (”twenty-four” in English) is not an insult but rather a term of endearment, and Hernandez, now 37, said his uniqueness has made him a popular guy. He has a 10-year-old son with a woman who now lives in Havana, and his current girlfriend is expecting his second child.
“Since I was young, I understood that it was a privilege to have 24 digits. Nobody has ever discriminated against me for that,” he said. “On the contrary, people admire me and I am very proud. I have a million friends, I live well.”
Nevertheless, it occasionally caused confusion growing up.
“One day when I was in primary school, a teacher asked me how much was five plus five?” Hernandez recalled. “I was very young, kind of shy, and I didn’t say anything. She told me to count how many fingers I had, so I answered, “12!”
“The teacher was a little upset, but it was the truth,” he said.
Hernandez said he hopes he can be an example to children with polydactyly that there’s nothing wrong with them.
“I think it’s what God commanded,” he said. “They shouldn’t feel bad about anything, because I think it‘s one of the greatest blessings and they’ll be happy in life.”
Popular Stories
Does Misstated Marathon Claim Prove Paul Ryan Is Dishonest? (POLL) 678 Comments
‘Jumah at the DNC’ Speaker: ‘Muslims Visited America Prior to Columbus’ & ‘It Was a Muslim’ Who Guided Him to the ‘New World’ 530 Comments
Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved 420 Comments
Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’ 373 Comments
Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts 329 Comments
Faith
This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 272 Comments- Pakistani Muslim Cleric Accused of Framing Disabled Christian Girl in Koran-Burning Case Read More
- ‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 280 Comments
Meet the Controversial German Imam Accused of Brutally Beating His Wife & Pushing Sharia Law Read More
‘Self-Proclaimed Messiah’ & Unification Church Leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon Has Died — Here’s His Life Story Read More
Business
President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 161 Comments- Germany’s Upcoming Court Ruling Will be Huge for the EU Read More
Ford Looks to Beat Toyota for Best-Selling Car in 2012 With This Model 147 Comments
Bernanke & QE3: Here’s What You Need to Know Read More- ‘Extortion’: Why Did the Labor Department ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Oregon Farmers? 300 Comments
Technology
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 272 Comments
‘TaserDrone’: Hackers Weaponize Quadcopter With Actual ‘Shocking’ Technology Read More
Ever Heard of the Wild ‘Burning Man’ Festival in the Middle of the Nev. Desert? Here’s Your Primer Read More
Stanford Develops Technology ‘Better Than Steroids’ for Athlete Recovery Read More
Have You Pretended to Know What ‘the Cloud’ Is? You’re Not Alone Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (48)
ShyMan
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 11:13amTourists in cuba? Why would you ever go to cuba? Don’t people escape from there?
Poor guy with the 24 digits. Can’t make more than a few dollars a day.
He should escape cuba and come to America and join a freak show/circus.
He could make a lot of money.
I bet this “mutation” is not passed on to his children, even though it makes him climb trees better.
buuuhahahahaha
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 10:13amMicro evolution. LOL
Report Post »Carlinpa
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 2:59pmWell is this malformation pro-generates into his offspring, the maybe perhaps evo would have it’s first biological evidence for the possibility. IF it doesn’t , as I suspect, then evo remains without a leg to stand on or a finger to point with lol
Report Post »ProudInfidel
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 11:50pmUmmm If I cut him off on the highway, how does he know which finger to flip at me?
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 5:14pmHe can touch-type 115 WPM, which is useful, since Cuban IT still uses mechanical typewriters as the pinnacle of office technology.
Report Post »robert
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 7:07pmWith that many nimble fingers, if he gets a job ringing up a cash register his employer would be wise to make him wear boxing gloves.
Report Post »Bernard
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 4:39pmSecond comment:
Report Post »our fingernails should get stronger as they are invaluable in various uses. Body hair should eventually disappear since it has been lessening from the **** Erectus to the **** Sapian.. We should get more eyelashes as they are very important in protecting the eye from particles.
But to throw a monkey wrench in all these theories is that man’s brain has allowed man to alter his genetic codes to suite our purposes and trick nature. This singular organ has allowed the human species as the only species to develop the technology to leave this planet and the environment in which we were born. Following this logic man can determine whether blond hair will stay or go and the same about fair skin or eye brows. Now that we have mapped the entire Human Genome, our destiny and evolution is actually in our hands.
propel7
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 3:36amReading some ancient stories of the Indians in N. America, there are various accounts of giants 9+ feet tall having 6 fingers and red hair. The mound builders are supposedly connected to them. One account was about how these guys could run down a buffalo, sling it under one arm and rip a leg off while still running and begin eating it. The Indians supposedly held up their hands in the familiar “HOW” gesture to see if their guests had 6 fingers. They were mortal enemies of the Indians. Anyhow, the origin of the story begins in the book of Enoch found also with the dead sea scrolls. The genetics of mankind was supposedly corrupted by inter-dimensional spirit beings called FALLEN ANGELS that decided they wanted their own offspring with the beautiful daughters of man that they lusted after. This is the main reason all flesh was destroyed by God in the flood. They were also supposedly manipulating animal and human genes to produce all sorts of half man and half animal creatures. It appears that you may be behind the curve of knowledge of just what has taken place with genetics on this earth. You may want to dig a little deeper. It appears that MYTH may actually be reality. Maybe the Egyptians and gGeks just pulled the idea of half man and half animals out of their behinds like it seemed cool to do. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Neither were all these scientists that got it all figured out. Much MORE to the picture than what we are allowed to see.
Report Post »Bernard
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 4:27pmAmazing story. I have always thought that man’s evolution will eventually do away with the little finger as is the case of our appendix which too will eventually disappear. But this story throws my theory upside down, for his extra fingers have actually benefited him and if so man might develop more fingers than less. Other aspects like blond hair, eye brows. our little toe, would, according to my opinion disappear. The gene for Blond hair is a recessive gene easily proved when a blond mates with a brunette which invariably creates a child with black hair rather than blond hair. Our eye brows, outside of cosmetic reasons have no purpose, just as our little toe which gives very little in balancing a human.
Report Post »On the other hand, I thought, our thumbs will get stronger and the remaining fingers will get longer. Our eye sight should develop to be stronger, including our Larynx for we use words and song a lot, our hearing should develop to be sharper and we as a race should be shorter, since the number of people who are six feet are greatly outnumbered by people much shorter. Light skin should give way to darker complexion since lighter the skin the less melatonin it has thus increasing the possibility of skin cancer and like blond hair, light or very fair skin is just as recessive as blond hair. But all that is now in question with this man’s extra fingers which has benefited him and not hindered him.
thegreatcarnac
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 1:03pmSeems the Russians left a lot of nuclear pollution behind when they pulled out.
Report Post »PatriotGames57
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 12:45pmFreaky! And I say that without reservation b/c how could he flip me off if he read this anyway. ;-)
Report Post »karabodjian
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 11:43amFor God’s sake, somebody hand that man a guitar…
Report Post »karabodjian
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 11:22amFor God’s sake, somebody get this man a guitar. The next Steve Vai in the making.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 12:29pm… I think his sister must also be his mother …
Report Post »mr.goodvibe
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 10:37amMust be hell to find gloves that fit.
Report Post »bikerr
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 10:40amHigh five on that one! oh wait. never mind.
Report Post »TANK3584
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 10:07amWell…he will never get tired of picking his nose…
Report Post »DanWesson455
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 8:44amI don’t know what to say……God when he was a kid he really had a fist full?
Report Post »Secret Squirrel
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 8:23am.
Report Post »The X-Files did a show on this syndrome.
hudent
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 4:29amthis guy can really could play a six string guitar
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 12:58amI was thinking how well he could play a BANJO!
Report Post »riseandshine
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 2:46amThere was a pitcher in the Major League years ago that had 24 digits also….heck of a pitcher…I can’t remember his name.
Report Post »jedidiah
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 3:16amAntonio Alfonseca is the pitcher you mention. He last pitched for the Phillies and I recently read he is still pitching in the minors somewhere.
Perhaps more amazing is Mordecai Brown who pitched with three fingers (farming accident) and is in the Hall of Fame. He is a hero to the oldsters among Chicago Cubs fans as he pitched the pennant clinching game in 1908 — the last time the Cubs won the World Series.
Report Post »riseandshine
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 11:03amThat’s awesome,Jed
Report Post »squeaker
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 1:43amaaahhhhh crappp…. now the TSA will want a new finger print database…lol
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 1:34amHis hands do look quite regular and I too would have overlooked the number of digits if the story wasn’t about this. Cool. Bet it was confusing when the teacher asked him to count the number of fingers and everyone said 10 but him. lol
:)
Report Post »Brents Torts
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 1:10amHannable Lectur had 6 digits.
Report Post »jedi.kep
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 12:01amIT’S THE SIX FINGERED MAN! I cannot stop thinking Princess Bride….
Report Post »TX_45_ACP
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 7:09pm“You killed my father, prepare to die.”
Report Post »jtm45
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:49pmhehehehehe, far out man! try your hands at rolling cigars, i bet you would be fast as L once you get going.
Report Post »Greenwood
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:19pm2 Samuel 21: 20…………………………there happened to be a man of extraordinary size, with six fingers on each of his hands and six toes on each of his feet, twenty-four in number; and he too had been born to the Reph’aim. [Philistines]
Report Post »Rephaim were a race of giants one of whom was Goliath the man of Gath. They [four] were killed by David and his servants.
So we do have a long record of this.
voxoffreedom
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 6:26pmGreenwood said…
“Posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:19pm
2 Samuel 21: 20…………………………there happened to be a man of extraordinary size, with six fingers on each of his hands and six toes on each of his feet, twenty-four in number; and he too had been born to the Reph’aim. [Philistines]
Rephaim were a race of giants one of whom was Goliath the man of Gath. They [four] were killed by David and his servants.
So we do have a long record of this.”
Let’s not forget the Bible refers to this race of giants as “Nephilim” or offspring of satanic angels with human females. So it makes one wonder about his fellow. Makes one wonder how tall obummer is, ever seen his head shape……? Jus saying.
Report Post »Greenwood
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 8:58pmThe Nephilim were killed in the flood
Report Post »propel7
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 4:00amThere were ALSO others that became giants AFTER the flood if you know the Bible, that is exactly what it states. Hercules is said to be the offspring of the god Zeus. Goliath was another and all his relations were connected to this genetics. Og of the King of Bashan had a bed 18 1/2 ft. tall made of iron to support him. He would have been somewhere around 18 ft. tall. Daniel states something about the intermingling with the seed of man. I think it highly plausible that there is much more to our universe than just this tiny little planet. So discount or disbelieve according to your own narrow mind. Histories have been written, and not by new york times journalists. The oldest written story from Sumeria is about Gilgamesh. He was the OFFSPRING of someone not from this earth or MORTAL. But this is all just myth. Maybe it was just cool to make it all up at the time. Maybe there aren’t a lot of ignorant fools on this earth.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 10:55pmDoes he play Classical guitar? The piano?
Report Post »Spyder
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 10:53pmSo does he use his two middle fingers to flip people off or does he just pick one?
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:05pmIf he gets married… where dose the ring go? I’m not making fun. I played classical guitar for many years and at times I wished I had an extra digit on each hand.
Report Post »ecurbyy
Posted on August 27, 2011 at 7:02amIf he has six fingers, then technically he has no middle finger.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 1:07amEach hand has 5 fingers and thumb….so He dose have a middle finger on each hand. If this were his toes he would have no middle toe!
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 1:08amEach hand has 5 fingers and thumb….so He dose have a middle finger on each hand. If this were his toes he would have no middle toe!
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 1:09amEach hand has 5 fingers and thumb….so He dose have a middle finger on each hand. It this were his toes he would have no middle toe
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on August 28, 2011 at 1:09amEach hand has 5 fingers and thumb….so He dose have a middle finger on each hand. It this were his toes he would have no middle toe
Report Post »FaithfulFriend
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 10:29pmIf it‘s real then it’s really cool and otherwise appears completely normal without any deformities. On the other hand…
Report Post »