Russell Contreras at the AP
explores the world of La Sante Muerte:
Popular in Mexico, and sometimes linked to the
illicit drug trade, the skeleton saint known as La Santa Muerte in
recent years has found a robust and diverse following north of the
border: immigrant small business owners, artists, gay activists and
the poor, among others—many of them non-Latinos and not all
involved with organized religion.
Clad in a black nun's robe and holding a scythe in one hand, Santa
Muerte appeals to people seeking all manner of otherworldly help:
from fending off wrongdoing and carrying out vengeance to stopping
lovers from cheating and landing better jobs. And others seek her
protection for their drug shipments and to ward off law
enforcement.
You should read
the whole article, which is pretty interesting: It describes
how La Santa Muerte evolved from "an underground figure in isolated
regions of Mexico" who "served largely as an unofficial Catholic
saint that women called upon to help with cheating spouses" into a
large, multifaceted, cross-border phenomenon. Contreras ;also
details the offerings left on the saint's shrines ("votive candles,
fruits, tequila, cigarettes—even lines of cocaine") and a backlash
that has led some of the saint's sworn foes to destroy her roadside
altars.
And there's a civil liberties angle. The article reports that
"the vast majority of devotees aren't crooks," yet it also includes
this passage:
U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte in West Texas said he has
testified about La Santa Muerte in at least five drug trafficking
cases where her image aided prosecutors with convictions. Last
year, Almonte testified that a Santa Muerte statue prayer card,
found with a kilogram of methamphetamine in a couple's car in New
Mexico, were "tools of the trade" for drug traffickers to protect
them from law enforcement. The testimony was used to help convict
the couple of drug trafficking.
Almonte goes on to acknowledge that "there are good people who
pray to her who aren't involved in any criminal activity." Then why
is her paraphernalia admissible evidence at all?
Bonus links: Last
month the FBI released a
fearful report on La Santa Muerte and ritual killings. Some of
the document's claims should set off alarm bells for skeptical
readers. A
list of crimes allegedly linked to the fath, for example,
begins with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me claim that a car thief
who died behind bars "killed virgins and babies once a year and
offered them as sacrifices to Santa Muerte"; this story, a footnote
informs us, was "provided to a researcher by a local Santa Muerte
follower." (Coming up next: The FBI investigates tales of a
vanishing hitchhiker.) Another item involves some decapitated
bodies found around Ciudad Júarez in 2008; we are informed that
"Links were inferred to Santa Muerte worshippers." I don't doubt
that there are violent people involved with this religion, but many
of these crimes just sound like standard drug-cartel violence to
me, with some odd details that allow the authorities to project a
spooky "cult" narrative onto the deaths.
For a more skeptical take, read Joseph Laylock's
essay comparing the fear of Santa Muerte's devotees to the
Satanic panic of
the 1980s. The FBI's analyst, I should note, calls for a
"balanced perspective" that "avoid[s] a repeat of the Satanism
scare." But I'm not sure he achieved that goal. … Read More
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