Santa Muerte, Protection, and Desamparo

A View from a Mexico City Altar

Bibliographic Data

ID19001064
AuthorsLaura Roush (corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume49
IssueS
Pages129-148
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Research Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8791 • E-ISSN: 1542-4278
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/lar.2014.0064
OpenAlexW2164316541
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited11

From the mid-1990s, devotion to Santa Muerte (Saint Death) became highly visible, not only in Mexico but also in the United States. Its evolution has coincided with the expansion of organized crime, creating the impression that the icon belongs to a coherent "narco-culture." This article contextualizes ritual practices at a single altar in Tepito, a Mexico City neighborhood historically specialized in informal and illegal commerce. Its monthly prayer service, which dates to September 2001, now balances the needs of its congregation with a kind of response to accusations against devotees in the mass media. Ironically, the range of gestures that share Santa Muerte iconography encompasses laments and high-minded indignation over blanket attribution of violent intentions to a population, but also a language for making threats. The average devotee is always affected by the likelihood that new acts of violence will be styled as religious

Altar · Ancient history · Art · Art history · Criminology · Ethnology · Icon · Iconography · Indignation · Political science · Politics · Population · SAINT · Sociology · Visual arts · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Demography · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law

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