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La Santa Muerte in Mexico City: The Cult and its Ambiguities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2015

REGNAR ALBÆK KRISTENSEN
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Abstract

This article explores the worship of La Santa Muerte through a geo-mapping of street altars in Mexico City followed by an ethnographic analysis of the devotees' relationships with the saint. I find that this saint has gained momentum among the fast-growing prison population over the last two decades. In contrast to studies that emphasise the desertification of mass incarceration elsewhere, this study finds that La Santa Muerte connects families across the social abyss of imprisonment. I suggest that the family-like relationships that devotees maintain with this saint are crucial to understanding her success. Rather than a one-dimensional sacred defender of criminals and police she is adopted by prisoners, prison officers, police and their families as a capricious ‘family member’, embracing the same ambivalence as the forces she helps to navigate.

Spanish abstract

Este artículo explora el culto a la Santa Muerte a través de un geo-mapeo de los altares callejeros en la Ciudad de México seguido por un análisis etnográfico de las relaciones de los devotos con la santa. Yo encuentro que dicha santa ha ganado momento en las dos últimas décadas dentro de la rápidamente creciente población encarcelada. Al contrario de los estudios que enfatizan la desertificación del encarcelamiento masivo en varias partes, este estudio señala que La Santa Muerte conecta a las familias a través del abismo social de la prisión. Sugiero que las relaciones de tipo familiar que los devotos mantienen con la santa son cruciales para entender su éxito. En vez de ser una defensora sagrada unidimensional de criminales y policías ésta es adoptada por prisioneros, funcionarios carcelarios, la policía y sus familias como un “miembro familiar” caprichoso, estableciendo la misma ambivalencia de las fuerzas que ella ayuda a enfrentar.

Portuguese abstract

Este artigo explora a adoração à La Santa Muerte através de um mapeamento geográfico dos altares de rua da Cidade do México seguido de uma análise etnográfica das relações dos devotos com a santa. Constato que, nas últimas duas décadas, a santa ganhou espaço entre a cada vez maior população carcerária. Ao contrário de estudos que enfatizam a desertificação do aprisionamento em massa em outros lugares, esta pesquisa indica que La Santa Muerte conecta famílias que vivem no abismo social do encarceramento. Eu sugiro que as relações do tipo familiar que os devotos mantêm com a santa são cruciais para a compreensão de seu sucesso. Ao invés de ser uma defensora sagrada e unidimensional de criminosos e policiais, a santa é adorada por presos, funcionários dos presídios, policiais e suas famílias como um “membro familiar” inconstante, ganhando a mesma ambivalência que as forças que ela ajuda a nortear.

Keywords

La Santa Muertedeathpenal statefolk religiongeo-mappingLa Santa MuertemuerteEstado penalreligión populargeo-mapeoLa Santa Muertemorteestado penalreligião popularmapeamento
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 543 - 566
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

1 Working for the UN in Mexico City, my wife and I stumbled upon an altar to Saint Death in November 2002. Astonished by the skeleton saint, my wife made a photo-documentary of the cult in 2003. From 2003–2007, we followed the progress of the cult in the streets of Mexico City and befriended the family behind the main street altar, erected by the colourful señora Doña Queta. Taking advantage of this friendship, I returned to academia and carried out a full-year's ethnographic fieldwork on the growing cult in 2008. For a full year, I followed the family of Doña Queta and two other families in Mexico City. In 2013 I was back in Mexico City to conduct a postdoctoral family study on one of the latter two families.

2 Débora Sánchez Guajardo, ‘La devoción de la Santa Muerte: un culto a lo católico’, unpubl. Master's thesis, Universidad Iberoamericana, México DF, 2012. Perla Fragoso, ‘La muerte santificada: la fe desde la vulnerabilidad: devoción y culto a la Santa Muerte en la Ciudad de México’, unpubl. Master's thesis, Centro de Investigación en Antropología Social, CIESAS, México DF, 2007. Erica R. Álverez, Luis A. Gutiérrez, Taihana B. Nuevo, Lizethe A. Rodríguez, Alejandrina R. Ruiz and Oscar B. Ventura, ‘Culto a la Santa Muerte: vida a través de la muerte’, unpubl. Master's thesis, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Xochimilco, México DF, 2007.

3 Lomnitz, Claudio, Death and the Idea of Mexico (New York: Zone Book, 2005)Google Scholar. Flores, Juan Antonio, ‘La Santísima Muerte en Veracruz, México: vidas descarnadas y prácticas encarnadas’, in Flores, Juan Antonio and González, Luisa Abad (eds.), Etnografias de la muerte y culturas en America Latina (Castilla-La Mancha: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2007)Google Scholar. Perdigón, Katia, La Santa Muerte (México DF: Ediciones del Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia, INAH, 2008)Google Scholar. Malvido, Elsa, ‘Crónicas de la buena muerte a la Santa Muerte en México’, Arqueología, 13: 76 (2008), pp. 20–7Google Scholar. Fragoso, Perla, ‘De la calavera domada a la subversión santificada. La Santa Muerte, un nuevo imaginario religioso en México’, Cotidiano, 26: 169 (2011), pp. 5–16 Google Scholar. Hernández, Alfonso, ‘Devoción a la Santa Muerte y San Judas Tadeo en Tepito y anexas’, Cotidiano, 26: 169 (2011), pp. 39–50 Google Scholar. Uriarte, Raúl R. and Cisneros, José Luis, ‘De la niña blanca y la flaquita, a la Santa Muerte: hacía la inversión del mundo religioso’, Cotidiano, 26: 169 (2011), pp. 29–38 Google Scholar. Andrew Chesnut, R., Devoted to Death (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)Google Scholar.

4 Alma Guillemoprieto, ‘The Murderers of Mexico’, article, 28 October 2010, New York Review of Books. González, Sergio R., Huesos en el Desierto (México DF: Anagrama, 2006), pp. 68–9Google Scholar. Martín Barrón, Researcher at the National Institute for Penal Research (INACIPE). Quoted in El Reforma, 8 January 2011 in an article by Antonio Nieto, ‘Piden los criminales apoyo a la Santa Muerte’.

5 Arijdis, Homero, La Santa Muerte (México DF: Editores Alfaguara, 2001)Google Scholar.

6 Bunker, Pamela L., Campbell, Lisa J. and Bunker, Robert J., ‘Torture, Beheadings and Narcocultos’, in Bunker, Robert J. (ed.), Small Wars and Insurgencies, 21: 1, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010) pp. 145–78Google Scholar, available at www.tandfonline.com/toc/fswi20/21/1#.VE5ILSLF9ik

7 Fragoso, ‘De la calavera domada a la subversión santificada’, p. 13, author's translation.

8 Chesnut, Devoted to Death, p. 188.

9 Lehmann, David ‘Book review’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 45: 1 (2013), pp. 195–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Cf. Velázques, Oriana, ‘La Santa Muerte: milagros, ofrendas, oraciones y otros temas’ (México DF: Colección Luna Roja, 2006)Google Scholar. Cruz, Abel, ‘La ayuda de la Santa Muerte’ (México DF: Planeta, 2006)Google Scholar.

11 For a historical discussion see Claudio Lomnitz (2005) and Katia Perdigón (2008). Due to a general lack of historical knowledge among devotees (the grand majority of the devotees I have spoken to do not trace their devotion back more than ten years) and since the focus of this article is on the recent formation of the cult, I will not proceed further in a discussion of how Saint Death might be related to the general culture of death in Mexico.

12 This is how Oscar Lewis (the oldest record of La Santa Muerte) presented her more than 50 years ago. Lewis, Oscar, The Children of Sánchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family (New York: Vintage Books, 1963)Google Scholar, p. 290.

13 Kristensen, Regnar, ‘Når Døden er Sexet’, Jordens Folk, 42 (2007) pp. 46–53 Google Scholar.

14 Cf. Robert A.Orsi (1985) and also Morgan, David, Visual Piety (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

15 When all new tip-offs led back to existing street altars, the author and his research assistant started to visit the ‘white areas’ on the map of the Federal District to ensure accuracy. More than 250 of the 1,983 colonias in the Federal District were visited.

16 Chesnut, Devoted to Death, pp. 8–9.

17 Wacquant, Loïc, Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of the Social Insecurity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Fassin, Didier, Enforcing Order: An Ethnography of Urban Policing (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013)Google Scholar.

18 Clear, Todd R., Imprisoning Communities. How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods Worse (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bourgois, Philippe, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in the Barrio (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

19 Müller, Marcus-Michael ‘The Rise of the Penal State in Latin America’, Contemporary Justice Review: Issues in Criminal, Social, and Restorative Justice, 15: 1 (2012), pp. 57–76 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. John Gledhill, paper ‘The Production of Insecurity in Brazil and Mexico’ (Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies: Manchester, UK, April 12, 2013).

20 Azaola, Elena and Bergman, Marcelo, ‘El sistema penitenciario mexicano’, in Alvarado, Arturo (ed.) La reforma de la justicia en México (México DF: El Colegio de México, 2008)Google Scholar, p. 749.

21 http://www.reclusorios.df.gob.mx/reclusorios/estadisticas/index.html, accessed 28 April 2011.

22 Arroyo, Mario J., ‘Evaluación de la estrategia de cero tolerancia en la Ciudad de México’, in Alvarado, Arturo (ed.), La reforma de la justicia en México (México DF: El Colegio de México, 2008), pp. 389–422 Google Scholar. Berthier, Hector Castillo and Jones, Gareth A. ‘Mean Streets: Youth, Violence, and Daily Life in Mexico City’, in Jones, Gareth A. and Rodgers, Dennis (eds.), Youth Violence in Latin America: Gangs and Juvenile Justice in Perspective (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 183–202 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Ibid., p. 186.

24 The informal commerce in Tepito, La Merced and some of the questioned areas of Iztapalapa and Gustavo Madero began to include smuggled products from the United States in the 1970s (the so-called fayuca). After joining NAFTA, smuggling from China, pirating and illicit drugs were also introduced. This conflated informal with illicit trade and increased the already high levels of violence.

25 Müller, ‘The Rise of the Penal State in Latin America’, p. 58.

26 Payá, Víctor A., Vida y muerte en la cárcel: estudio sobre la situación institucional de los prisoneros (México DF: Plaza y Váldez S. A. de C. V., 2006)Google Scholar.

27 Fassin, Enforcing Order. Garland, David, The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001)Google Scholar. Clear, Imprisoning Communities. Bourgois, In Search of Respect.

28 Chevigny, Paul, ‘Mexico City, the Federal District’, in Edge of a Knife: Police Violence in the Americas. (New York: The New Press, 1995), pp. 227–48Google Scholar.

29 My translation of transcript interview from the unpublished Master's thesis of Álvares et al., pp. XIII–XV.

30 Parker, Christián, Popular Religion and Modernization in Latin America: A Different Logic. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996)Google Scholar. See also Stevens, Evelyn, ‘Marianísmo: The Other Face of Machismo in Latin America’, in Pescatello, Ann (ed.) Male and Female in Latin America (Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh University Press, 1973), pp. 89–101 Google Scholar.

31 For an extensive discussion on popular culture and gender values in Mexico see Lomnitz, Claudio, Exit from the Labyrinth (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press 1992)Google Scholar. For a discussion on the sinful and productive world at the intersection between perfection and imperfection in Catholic morality see Mayblin, Maya, Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil: Virtuous Husbands, Powerful Wives (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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