On May 8, white smoke billowed out of St. Peter’s Basilica and church bells rang to announce Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new pope, who took the name Leo XIV.
The 2025 papal election connected with people, created new precedents and the 2024 movie ‘Conclave’ made a huge pop culture comeback in the wake of the election.
While media outlets focused widely on the pope being American and a Chicago native, members of the Peruvian community in the city felt excited for a completely different reason.
After being elected, Pope Leo XIV’s first address explicitly mentioned Chiclayo, the city where he was appointed Bishop by Pope Francis in Perú. Google searches for both Perú and Chiclayo jumped after that day.
Verónika Bustamante, the Consul General of the Peruvian Consulate in Chicago, said she was “very surprised” to learn that the new pope was a naturalized citizen from Perú.
As she watched the news on television, her friends started messaging her about the developments.
“Many friends sent me messages saying that they already were looking on the map [asking] where Chiclayo is,” she said.
Like Bustamante, many Chicago Peruvians found out while watching television news, scrolling through social media, and closely following live updates on news websites.
Ana Arias, an internal audit manager at SoFi, a financial services company, was one of them. She was following the developments from the conclave online. Arias said she was “pretty excited” to hear that the new pope is from Chicago and also a naturalized Peruvian citizen because this brings Perú to “the world stage.”
“I think most people just know of the country from hearing about Machu Picchu,” said Arias, who migrated from Perú to Chicago in the early 2000s.The pope’s selection “makes the people a little bit more aware” of Perú’s other features, Arias said.
“From its food, beaches, everything, it has so much to offer,” she added.
Arias grew up going to Catholic school in Perú and continues to be a practicing Catholic. And, actually, just last year she got married in a Chicago church. “You just never think you’ll be connected to something that’s so in the world stage,” she said.
However, according to Bustamante, the celebrations are not just limited to Peruvians who follow the Catholic religion.
“All Peruvians celebrated like we won the World Cup,” she said.
Bustamante said that even though much of the country is Catholic, the pope’s dedication to helping those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged could renew many people’s faith.
“We saw many pictures of him during his mission to Perú. He’s been very close to many families, to children. We saw him serving food himself for children. We saw him in rubber boots in the middle of a river,” Bustamante said. “That’s, I think, what people value in him.”
Pope Leo XIV’s dedication to people in poverty is also what makes Arias excited to see his journey in the Vatican.
“I hope he continues to make it his mission to really advocate for people that may live in poverty in third-world countries around the world, not just in Perú,” Arias said.
Sandra Robles, a physicist based in Chicago said she related to the pope because of his multicultural experiences and dual citizenship. Robles said she has lived in the United States, Spain and Perú.
“It’s a modern thing that we have a pope that has dual citizenship, and having been in the same situation, I can relate, totally,” Robles said.
While Robles is not Catholic, she said she was happy that the pope was not solely an American citizen. The fact that the pope is also Peruvian made her more interested in the papal election results.
“I have my personal views about the church and the Vatican,” Robles said. “But I think he has lived in the [Global] South quite a long time to understand the problems from the developing world. So I think that balances a lot.”
Robles said she heard many people back home are excited about the possibility of the pope visiting Perú.
“Starting from the President to the most humble citizen. Everybody was cheering for the new pope,” Robles said.
Pope Leo’s quick integration into the cultural and social traditions of the country has made the Peruvian community in Chicago look forward to his visit to the American city.
“Peruvians in Chicago are, as I said, very excited,” Bustamante said. “They already expressed their desire to have an activity when the Pope comes to visit Chicago sometime.”
