subject: The Rise Of Mexican Cults [print this page] The harsh realities of a country torn apart by warring drug cartels and law enforcement, has created an unexpected increase of cults and unholy saints, who now compete alongside traditional religious icons.
With the public display of skeletal images on the Day of the Dead, when departed love ones allegedly rise from the dead to share a few hours of remembrance and feasting with the living, Mexicans have long been familiar with the sight of skeletons. There has however, risen a new and grisly cult in the midst of the drug cartels war, which have claimed thousands of lives.
Otherwise known as the Holy Death, Santa Muerte is seen as the protector of the most defenseless and worst sinners. Worshippers claim that as long as vows are upheld she accepts you without judgement, no matter what your crimes are. However prayers are only granted in exchange for a payment that is equal to the size of the miracle being asked for. The punishment for not meeting one's debt to her is said to be appalling. It is rumoured that rituals for this saint involve human blood and even human sacrifice.
The grisly saint is not just found in public places. Surrounded by devotional candles and dressed in bridal clothes, a bigger-than-life statue of La Santa Muerte, lovingly called la flaquita, the Little Skinny One, stands in the corner of a Mexico City living room.
At the beginning of each month devotees pour into a shrine in Tepito, a Mexico City barrio, to lay a kiss on the forbidding skeletal icon, even though the Roman Catholic clergy and Interior Ministry have denounced the cult. Outside the shrine, teenagers congregate together to inhale solvents, surrounded by iconic images.
In a nation ravaged by the depletion of oil reserves, drought, swine flu, the collapse of tourism and total economic meltdown, alongside the horrendous drug trade and its gruesome violence, La Santa Muerte is just one of the increasing number of otherworldly figures, Mexicans are turning to.
Among the 'new saints' are outlaws and Afro-Cuban deities who have been converted into miracle workers, such as a mythical north Mexican success-bandit, known as Jesus Malverde. All are worshipped alongside the Roman Catholic St. Jude Thaddeus.
With the rattle of machine-gun fire bursts nightly, the local inhabitants are filled with the fear of being cut down by a stray bullet. The drug traffickers use violence as a particularly effective method of communication, having horribly disfigured their victims and leaving the corpses for all to see, so that everyone will know how much power the drug lords have. Looking to patron saints of desperate causes for protection and survival seems quite natural.
"The emotional pressures, the tensions of living in a time of crisis lead people to look for symbolic figures that can help them face danger," Jose Luis Gonzalez, a professor of Mexicos National School of Anthropolgy and History says.
