La Santa Muerte in Mexico City

The Cult and its Ambiguities

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4018201
AutoresRegnar Kristensen (0000-0002-2178-265X, University of Cross River State, autor de correspondencia), Regnar Albæk Kristensen
Año2015
Volumen47
Número3
Páginas543-566
Fecha de publicación2015-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022216x15000024
OpenAlexW2135065920
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas14

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

Ambivalence · Art · Art history · Criminology · Ethnography · Ethnology · Geography · Humanities · Imprisonment · Political science · Population · Prison · SAINT · Sociology · Worship · Anthropology · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Demography · Gender Studies · History · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology