I am confused now. Do you think Shakespeare might have travelled to Perú in the early 1590s, before he wrote Romeo and Juliet?
D.C., EuroLit
Because how else do we explain a mayoral election in a remote corner of the Peruvian Andes, where one of the candidates appeared on the ballot with a name that sounds as though it had been assembled by someone with a particularly grim sense of humour?
His name was Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores.
No, this is not a lost Shakespearean character. Nor is there any suggestion that the Bard ever made the journey to South America. Forty-five-year-old Simeón Flores was born in Huánuco and went on to become a centre-left political candidate in his own right.
Surely, no parents in 1981 had looked down at their newborn infant in the department of Huánuco, felt a swell of tender paternal affection and declared, ‘Oh, yes, this boy shall be named Hitler Mussolini!’
Yet there he was, standing for election in Queropalca, a town of around 700 residents, under the banner of Ahora Nación, campaigning on a remarkably ordinary platform: social democracy, local development and an efficient municipal administration.
His political opponents, including a conservative candidate from Renovación Popular, never quite figured out how to counter his campaign. In an era when voters routinely complain about bland politicians who fade into the background, Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores possessed an undeniable, if deeply surreal, brand recognition.
When international journalists reached out to ask about his extraordinary name, the response from his camp remained steadfast: it was simply the name his parents gave him at birth. He runs an investment group, his platform leans centre-left, and he has no affinity with 20th-century European fascism.
Perú also has a history of surprising political names. In the 2018 mayoral race in Yúngar, a candidate named Hitler Alba Sanchez famously faced a rival named Lenin Vladimir Rodríguez Valverde. Alba Sanchez reportedly reassured reporters at the time: ‘I am the good Hitler.’
For Hitler Mussolini Simeón, the next test will not be his name. In Queropalca, voters seemed largely unfazed by the global headlines. For them, the more pressing question was whether their new mayor could actually deliver the promised paved road.
In local politics, history may provide the headline. The voters still decide the ending.
