As global headlines celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV—Robert Francis Prevost—as the first American pope, another nation three thousand miles south of the United States loudly claims him as one of its own. Though born in Chicago, Pope Leo XIV spent over two decades living and working in Peru and became a dual US and Peruvian citizen in 2015, forging a personal and spiritual bond with the Andean country that remains little known to the wider world. His identity as a dual citizen could be a defining characteristic of his papacy and, if channeled in his work, could shape US–Latin American relations.
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