Everyone calls her Toni. Mothers take selfies of her with their children, and street hawkers push bracelets into her hand as presents.
Artists sketch her portrait and post them to social media. TV networks vie for interviews and run profiles asking, “Who is Maria Antonieta Alva?" The answer: She’s the 35-year-old finance minister of Peru steering an ambitious recovery package during a devastating pandemic, and she is winning praise for its generosity to small businesses and ordinary citizens. “From a Latin perspective, Peru is a clear leader in terms of macro response," said Ricardo Hausmann, a Harvard economist who was Alva’s professor and is leading a team of experts advising Peru and 10 other countries on mitigating the effects of