Latest news with #Aurelio
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chicago's south side celebrates as hometown cardinal becomes Pope Leo XIV
HOMEWOOD — From a Southside Chicago parish to a suburban pizza parlor, people are remembering when and where they crossed paths with Robert Francis Prevost. Prevost grew up in Dolton. He returned to the south suburbs just nine months ago gathering with friends and family at his favorite pizza place. 'I didn't know the day he came because he didn't announce, 'Hey I'm the cardinal,'' Joe Aurelio of Aurelio's Pizza said. Back in August, family and old friends took photos with then Cardinal Robert Prevost at Aurelio's Pizza in Homewood. Fast forward to yesterday, he was selected to lead the Catholic Church as the 267th pope. 'All the employees went crazy. They started texting and calling me, 'Can you believe it? He was just here a few months ago,'' Aurelio said. The now famous photo with the unassuming future pope, like divine intervention, is inspiring a new creation — Aurelio's newly trademarked 'Pope-A-Roni Pizza.' The restaurant is even featuring what they're calling the 'Pope Chair.' Customers who want to sit in it can make that request. In Chicago's Canaryville neighborhood, the kids of St. Gabriel's Parish at 45th and Lowe are still buzzing over Chicago's Southside pope. 'It just erupted. We were screaming, clapping, and we were so excited,' a child at St. Gabriel's Parish said. In 2015, Prevost, then a bishop, presided over a Confirmation that almost didn't happen if not for John Prevost, his brother and the school's principal. 'The bishop that was set to come here had to attend a funeral downtown so the principal just called his brother and said would you be able to step in?' current principal Julie Jurisic said. The children of St. Gabe's are sending a message of love to the new pope, yelling 'St. Gabriel loves Pope Leo.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago loudly and proudly claims homegrown Pope Leo XIV — and the ‘Pope's Pizza' at Aurelio's
Almost immediately after the Tribune published an article Thursday mentioning that the newly-elected Pope Leo XIV had dined with old friends at Aurelio's Pizza in Homewood months prior, Joe Aurelio said his friends, family — and what eventually felt like the whole country — started chiming in. 'The world's calling right now,' Aurelio, the pizza chain's president and CEO, said Friday in between interviews with local TV stations and Australian reporters. 'It's just amazing that this little town of Homewood is on the world's map right now for something that the pope is directly connected with,' Aurelio continued. 'He blessed us all just by being here. I'm Catholic too so it's really a blessing and an honor to have this connection.' The Chicago roots of missionary Robert Prevost weren't lost on the popular restaurant. Between a cross-town baseball rivalry for papal support, billboards and many memes, frankly, his upbringing hasn't been lost on much of the city. Chicagoans have predictably reacted in grandiose fashion with humor and genuine affection for the South Sider as he begins heading the Catholic Church. Prevost was born in 1955 at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neighborhood, and grew up in south suburban Dolton with his parents and two brothers. He attended school and served as an altar boy at the St. Mary of the Assumption parish on the Far South Side, where one classmate remembered him as a good singer who 'cared about people' and 'looked for the good in things.' Aurelio doesn't know for sure but he said there's a good chance Prevost grew up on his family's pizza. The Homewood restaurant has been open since 1959, and was one of the few pizzerias around in those days, he said. Prevost reportedly ate at the restaurant in August to catch up with old friends after visiting the area to speak to parishioners at St. Jude Catholic Church in south suburban New Lenox. In what also felt like a 'full circle moment,' Aurelio said his father used to host the priests from the former Tolentine Monastery in Olympia Fields — where young men trained to enter the Augustinian Order, which Prevost belongs to — for dinner and beer once a month. '(Prevost) is just a true Chicagoan, so I'm sure he's eaten at a lot of places around the city and the suburbs,' Aurelio said. 'I'm just glad I'm one of those, and proud to be the Pope's pizza. I look forward to trying to ship some pizzas out to the Vatican' Aurelio said he plans to sell 'pope-erroni' pizza soon, and has already named the 'Pope Leo XIV table.' As a fellow Catholic, he said he hopes Prevost is able to bring about peace and help 'everybody like each other again,' adding that his selection shows that 'anything could happen.' It wasn't Prevost's pizza loyalties that stirred up the most debate across the city, however. Seemingly false reports popped up that Prevost was a Cubs fan, prompting Wrigley Field to change its marquee to 'Hey Chicago, He's a Cubs fan!' Prevost's brother cleared up the misconception later though, telling the Tribune that the new pope has 'always' been a White Sox fan. 'Hey Chicago, He's a Sox Fan!' then appeared on the marquee at Rate Field. A pinstripe jersey with his name on it and a hat are on its way to Rome, the Sox said in a statement. Some commenters remarked that Prevost's support of the team is fitting, adding that he's 'a true advocate for the downtrodden.' The Sox finished last season with the record for the most losses in Major League Baseball's modern era, after all. 'Chicagoans love Chicago, and so they're going to fix right on that,' said Michael Murphy, director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University. '(Prevost) is a bridge builder, since his mom was a Cubs fan, his dad was a Cardinals fan, but as a true South Sider he's a Sox fan.' When Prevost was announced as pope, Murphy said he almost fell out of his chair in shock, and then shed a couple of tears. Murphy also had dinner with Prevost last August at the Ivy Restaurant in Wheaton to talk about the school's Building Bridges Initiative. He found the now-pope to be a 'true gentleman,' humble, intelligent and warm. Murphy emphasized, however, that Prevost is very much a 'global citizen' who also has deep ties to Peru, where he spent a significant part of his career. Murphy said Prevost isn't known for 'amplified patriotism' rather as a 'connector,' which likely made him an attractive pick for the cardinals. He's the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the church. 'America is in a new situation, and I think that this election is a masterstroke to temper the excesses of the current administration,' Murphy said. 'It'll assert a moral voice from very nearby that will be hard to ignore.' Prevost's dual nationalities haven't stopped Chicagoans from having fun on social media. One person posted a picture of Prevost with the words 'god bless everyone in the world, except Green Bay.' Someone else posted 'anyone wanna join me for a toast to our new Chicago pope?' with a photo of Malört. T-shirts calling him 'Da Pope' are already for sale. Portillo's introduced an Italian beef sandwich called 'The Leo' to its menu, and the Wieners Circle, the famed hot dog stand in Lincoln Park known for its viral insults and profanities, also debuted a new sign — one that required a working knowledge of Latin to understand. 'Canes nostros ipse comedit,' it said. Translation — 'He has eaten our dogs.'
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Aurelio obituary
Aurelio Martínez, who has died aged 55 in a plane crash off Roatán island in Honduras, was a musician and politician who became the leading cultural ambassador for the Garifuna people. Known simply as Aurelio, the name he used for his recordings with Peter Gabriel's Real World label, he kept alive, and updated, the music and stories of the Garifuna, descendants of African enslaved people who trace their history back to a 17th-century shipwreck on the Caribbean island of St Vincent. There they lived with local Arawaks, forming a distinctive community until they were forced out by the British in the late 18th century, settling along the Caribbean coastlands of Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras – where Aurelio was born. Their music, a mixture of African and Caribbean styles known as Paranda, was popularised in Europe by Andy Palacio, the first international Garifuna star. Aurelio shared his love of the songs of their heritage, and came to the attention of Palacio, who lived up the coast in Belize. He invited Aurelio to take part in a Garifuna music festival and introduced him to Ivan Duran, a Belize-based producer who runs the Stonetree record label. Duran, who had been 'struggling to find young Paranda musicians, because no one was playing that kind of music', brought the two singers together for his 1995 compilation set, Paranda. In 2004 he also produced and released Aurelio's solo album, Garifuna Soul, in which he sang and played acoustic guitar on a set that included traditional and self-composed songs – with Palacio singing on one track and Duran adding electric guitar. It was the first time a Paranda album had been released by a young, up-and-coming Garifuna artist, and, an instant classic in Belize, it launched Aurelio's musical career. Soon afterwards Aurelio began to move into politics. He had already been a councillor in La Ceiba, a port city in northern Honduras, and in 2005 became one of the first people of African descent to be elected to the Honduras national congress – though even as a politician he kept playing music, saying, 'I don't make music to make money, I play to support my culture.' In 2007 he played on Palacio's classic album Wátina. The death of Palacio in 2008, at the age of 48, made Aurelio rethink his career. He left a congress session to travel to Belize for Palacio's funeral, then began giving concerts in his honour. After discussions with Duran, he decided to record a new album, continuing Palacio's legacy but exploring new approaches to Garifuna styles. Music, rather than politics, now took up most of his time – obviously to the annoyance of his constituents, for in the 2009 poll he failed to get re-elected. By that time Aurelio had begun recording a new album in a Garifuna community on the Honduran coast, with the aim of mixing traditional styles with influences from across the Caribbean. He then added in African influences, after travelling to Senegal, (with Duran), as one of the three finalists in a Rolex mentoring scheme. The winner would work with the Senegalese star Youssou N'Dour – and N'Dour chose Aurelio. He was mentored by N'Dour for a year, travelling several times to meet him in Senegal and elsewhere. N'Dour and members of his band contributed to the album, Laru Beya, as did other Senegalese stars, including members of Orchestra Baobab, and it was hailed as one of the best world music recordings of 2011, with songs that ranged from lilting, languid pieces to a lament on the horrors of slavery. It even included a song by Aurelio's mother, Maria, who also made a brief appearance on the album. Now recognised as a worthy successor to Palacio, Aurelio followed up with concert tours and two further albums, Lándini (2014) and Darandi (2017). The latter was a rousing set recorded live at the Real World studios in Wiltshire, soon after he had played at Womad in the UK. Thereafter Aurelio continued performing for the Garifuna community in Belize, Honduras and the US, to where his mother had relocated. 'We took it easy,' said Duran. 'We had done such great work and were at a loss as to what to do next without repeating what we had done – which was an evolution of Paranda from raw styles to something more sophisticated.' Aurelio was born in Plaplaya, a village of farmers and fishermen on the Honduras coast. His father, Sinforiano, was known locally as a fine Paranda singer, while his mother, Maria (nee Suazo), was an accomplished musician and composer. The first songs Aurelio learned were from his parents, and as a child he learned to play Garifuna drums, also making himself a guitar. He began performing at Garifuna ceremonies, and when he left home at the age of 14 to attend secondary school in La Ceiba he expanded his musical range. He worked with pop groups, playing punta rock (Garifuna-influenced songs with electric guitars), and founded a Garifuna ensemble, Lita Ariran, with whom he recorded Songs of the Garifuna (1994) before meeting Palacio and Duran, and taking the music he had loved since childhood to an international audience. Aurelio is survived by 10 children, his mother, three sisters and four brothers. Aurelio Martínez Suazo, musician amd politician, born 26 September 1969; died 17 March 2025
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Musician Aurelio Martinez, 11 Others Dead in Plane Crash Near Honduras
Originally appeared on E! Online Aurelio Martinez and 11 others have died after a plane crashed near Honduras. Late in the evening of March 17, a Lanhsa Airlines plane that had departed from Roatan, a Honduran island, crashed into the Caribbean sea, killing at least 12 people, authorities said. 'Twelve people dead and five alive after plane crash in Roatan,' Honduras National Police wrote in a statement to X, translated from Spanish. 'At this time, only one body remains to be recovered, and rescue teams continue their work." Civil Aviation Official Carlos Padilla told CBS News that the aircraft had 'made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water. The aforementioned outlet, as well as local outlets in Honduras, further reported that among the passengers was 56-year-old Martinez, a popular member of the Garifuna music scene known by the moniker Aurelio, who was also representative in the Honduran National Congress. More from E! Online Tracy Morgan Breaks Silence After Medical Emergency at Knicks Game Family of Teen Twin Brothers Speaks Out After They're Found Dead From Apparent Murder-Suicide RHOC Star Gina Kirschenheiter's Ex-Husband Matt Suffers Heart Attack at 40 Following news of his death, the country of Belize issued a statement eulogizing the musician. 'Aurelio was a great friend of Belize and a true champion of Garifuna culture and music,' the country wrote in a statement to their official Ministry of Foreign Affairs X account. 'As a renowned Garifuna musician, Aurelio was a powerful voice in preserving and promoting the rich cultural heritage of the Garinagu people." The statement added that the musician's death 'leaves a void in the world of music and culture, but his legacy will live on in the hearts of all who loved his art and his people.' In her own statement to X, president of Honduras Xiomara Castro noted that the Honduras rescue teams are 'tirelessly' working to save survivors from the crash and transport them to local hospitals. She concluded in her statement, 'May God protect people's lives.' E! News has reached out to local Honduran authorities as well as to reps for Aurelio Martinez, but has not yet heard back. For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
