San Francisco Frontiers - From Chicago to Chiclayo: Peruvian town hails adoptive son and pope

Pope Leo spent eight years as a bishop close to the shores of the Pacific, becoming a Peruvian citizen in the process.

For Chiclayo locals, he is as much theirs as he is a Chicagoan.

"It's a magical day," said Lula Botey, a realtor and one of a crowd chanting, praying, and applauding his selection around St Mary's Cathedral.

Some of Leo's first words as pontiff uttered from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square, were to acknowledge this dusty town on the other side of the world.

"Greetings to everyone and especially to my dear diocese of Chiclayo," he said in fluent and modestly accented Spanish.

For Botey it was an emotional and unexpected moment.

"It was very moving," she told AFP. "We haven't stopped crying."

The 45-year-old remembers then Bishop Robert Prevost's "wonderful homilies," during which he "invoked charity and urged politicians to think of the common good."

Others in this city of 600,000 inhabitants, remember a "kind," "humble" man who was "close to the people."

"He is a person of great kindness," said 57-year-old Luis Cherco, remembering someone who would "greet you in the street."

"I really feel very, very excited. You can feel the emotion I have," he added.

"The hands of God are here, they are in the Vatican, and they are in Chiclayo now, aren't they?"

- 'The pope ate here' -

On the cathedral's steps, Father Juan Mechan Sanchez leads an impromptu prayer, the Lord's Prayer.

A quickly produced poster bearing the image of the new pontiff is brandished nearby, with the inscription: "The pope has a Chiclayo heart!"

People rush to pose in front of it.

It was around Chiclayo that the now pope once posed for photos riding a horse, and donned boots to face the region's sudden downpours.

Bernardo Victor Heredia David, an 81-year-old former theater teacher, still struggles to believe his former bishop is now pope.

"We didn't expect it, truly," he said incredulously, recalling a one-on-one conversation with his pastor after his wife passed away in 2022.

He is a "very simple" man whose "familiarity made you feel good, and who allowed many people to get closer to God."

The new pope has already made Chiclayo known to the world, it is now famous in Peru for more than its food.

A few steps from the cathedral, the Las Americas restaurant already displays a sign reading: "The pope ate here."

Manager Rodrigo Couto Vasquez enthusiastically recalls the pontiff's taste for good food, notably the local chicharron -- in this case fried chicken.

He was also known to enjoy goat, duck with rice and Peru's national obsession ceviche, a dish of citrus-marinated seafood served cured and cold.

Leo "will put Chiclayo in the world's spotlight!" 23-year-old entrepreneur Victor Becerra exclaimed.

Z.Sanchez--SFF