Thread: Mexico Mainlines Malevolence—And Immigration Policy Brings

By Brenda Walker

Mexicans' cultural fondness for the dark side is well known. But many Americans will be surprised to learn that there is a widely practiced religion of sorts which worships a robe-wearing skeletal figure, Santa Muerte (aka Saint Death), which looks like a female Grim Reaper and is incidentally a big favorite of the narco-crowd.

Santa Muerte is characterized as being less, ahem. Judgmental than the traditional saints found in mainstream churches. The cult therefore attracts a definite criminal element. In fact, several cartel torture rooms discovered after the fact contained altars to the death saint. You have to wonder whether the votive candles were lit before, during or after.

There was bit of upset a few weeks back when Mexican authorities took a backhoe to more than 30 Saint Death shrines constructed around the border towns of Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana. The police, government and Catholic Church may look askance at the counter-culture religion, but dozens of worshippers in Mexico City protested the destruction and demanded dignity.

"We just want people to respect our faith like we respect other religions", said Pablo, a 28-year-old, at the protest who says he once avoided a jail sentence by praying to Saint Death. [Mexico's 'Saint Death' cult says is drug war victim, Reuters, April 10, 2009]

The authorities were understandably cautious about religious statues springing up being associated with the drug cartels and organized crime. A spokesman for the Catholic Church said that it was "no secret that this religious organization is ... not only superstitious, but diabolical".

And perhaps the death saint figure is indeed something of a syncretistic throwback to Mexicans' much missed Aztec days of yore where thousands of enemies might be sacrificed in a brief period, and the obsession with death was a central aspect of the religion.

Today, no Mexican amnesty demonstration in America is complete without a phalanx of Aztec dancers, announcing their hostile intent through cultural symbolism.

A self-identified archbishop of Santa Muerte at the recent Mexico rally, David Romo, reportedly claimed the death saint had up to five million followers. That number sounds high at first hearing, but Mexico has a lot of people who dabble at least part time in the religious dark side. Some may hedge their spiritual bets by lighting a nice candle and other expressions of devotion for Jesus Malverde, a crime figure from the mists of Mexican folklore, now a famous narco-saint. Similarly, the Day of the Dead is a festive occasion in Mexico, populated with well dressed skeletons not unlike the Death Saint.

These days, Jesus Malverde has gone mainstream and was even written up in the New York Times:

“Malverde is widely considered the patron saint of drug dealers, say law enforcement officials and experts on Mexican culture. A shrine has been erected atop his grave in the remote city of Culiacán in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which has long been associated with opium and marijuana trafficking.

“ ‘The drug guys go to the shrine and ask for assistance and come back in big cars and with stacks of money to give thanks,’ said James H. Creechan, a Canadian sociologist and adjunct professor at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in Culiacán.â€

Good article!