La Santa Muerte in Mexico City

The Cult and its Ambiguities

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4018201
AutoresRegnar Kristensen (0000-0002-2178-265X, University of Cross River State, autor correspondente), Regnar Albæk Kristensen
Ano2015
Volume47
Fascículo3
Páginas543-566
Data de publicação2015-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022216x15000024
OpenAlexW2135065920
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências 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