Saint Death offers Mexicans solace
May. 17th, 2004 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingStolen from Warren Ellis
In Mexico, the world's second-biggest Catholic country, an unofficial cult of death is winning followers, from influential politicians and police officers to drug pushers and violent criminals.
On a sidewalk in Mexico City's lawless Tepito district, gangsters and ordinary housewives rub shoulders as they pay homage before a shrine to Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, leaving offerings of colored candles, cigarettes and alcohol.
A statue of the unorthodox saint cuts a ghoulish figure as a life-size skeleton in a glittering robe, a tiara atop her long-haired wig and bony fingers laden with gold rings and money offerings in many currencies.
"I ask her to look after me in my businesses and to rid me of my envious thoughts," said Roberto Gutierrez, a tough-looking street hawker in sunshades. Gutierrez stops by the shrine every day and carries a prayer to Santa Muerte in his wallet.
Like many Santa Muerte wor-shippers, Gutierrez asks God's permission to pray to Death, unconcerned by the contradiction between practicing Christianity and a growing pagan cult, which is experiencing a revival after lying dormant until the 1960s.
"First for me comes God and then Santa Muerte," he said.
Before her glass casing, followers deposit apples and eggplants to symbolize abundance, flowers, glasses of tequila and half-smoked cigarettes. Some blow cigar smoke over her image in a cleansing rite.
"She likes it when we do that. She likes the smell of tobacco," said Enriqueta Romero, who tends the shrine
In Mexico, the world's second-biggest Catholic country, an unofficial cult of death is winning followers, from influential politicians and police officers to drug pushers and violent criminals.
On a sidewalk in Mexico City's lawless Tepito district, gangsters and ordinary housewives rub shoulders as they pay homage before a shrine to Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, leaving offerings of colored candles, cigarettes and alcohol.
A statue of the unorthodox saint cuts a ghoulish figure as a life-size skeleton in a glittering robe, a tiara atop her long-haired wig and bony fingers laden with gold rings and money offerings in many currencies.
"I ask her to look after me in my businesses and to rid me of my envious thoughts," said Roberto Gutierrez, a tough-looking street hawker in sunshades. Gutierrez stops by the shrine every day and carries a prayer to Santa Muerte in his wallet.
Like many Santa Muerte wor-shippers, Gutierrez asks God's permission to pray to Death, unconcerned by the contradiction between practicing Christianity and a growing pagan cult, which is experiencing a revival after lying dormant until the 1960s.
"First for me comes God and then Santa Muerte," he said.
Before her glass casing, followers deposit apples and eggplants to symbolize abundance, flowers, glasses of tequila and half-smoked cigarettes. Some blow cigar smoke over her image in a cleansing rite.
"She likes it when we do that. She likes the smell of tobacco," said Enriqueta Romero, who tends the shrine
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Date: 2004-05-17 10:13 am (UTC)