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A `Saint Death of last resort |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 18 April 2004 |
By Reed Johnson
Los Angeles Times
Posted April 7 2004
MEXICO CITY · In the tough Tepito neighborhood, where poverty, corruption and violence are daily realities, there is a beloved "saint" who understands and forgives the frailties of all human flesh. From her perch behind a glass-encased altar adorned with candles, decayed flowers and shot glasses of tequila, she watches scruffy curs pick through garbage while a constant stream of pilgrims lay offerings at her feet.
To Roman Catholic Church officials, the skeletal woman in the long, flowing robes is an evil figure, a grisly embodiment of satanic purposes. But to the desperately poor and overlooked residents of Tepito, she is a pop-folk idol and often a last, best hope for answering unanswered prayers.
She is La Santa Muerte, "Saint Death," or as others call her, La Santisima Muerte, "Sacred Death." Her petitioners are prostitutes, drug dealers and murderers, as well as multitudes of housewives, taxi drivers and street vendors hoping to cure a sick child or pay the rent or simply make it through another day without getting robbed or kidnapped or shot. Over the past 20 years, her following has grown so large and so rapidly that in some parts of Mexico she is becoming a rival in popular affection to the Virgen de Guadalupe, the manifestation of the Virgin Mary that for nearly half a millennium has been the reigning symbol of Mexican national identity. La Santa Muerte, the queen of secret desires and furtive causes, is the Virgin's grinning, post-NAFTA counterpart.
"She is a Virgen de Guadalupe in negative: That which one can't ask of the Virgen, one can ask of her," says Homero Aridjis, a poet, novelist and former diplomat who recently published a short story collection about La Santa Muerte's mysterious and increasingly firm grip on the Mexican soul.
On a recent morning the scene was lively at No. 12 Alfareros Street in the heart of Tepito. While La Santa Muerte commands a national following, and images of her can be found throughout Mexico and other parts of Latin America, the Tepito shrine has drawn particular attention as the media have caught on to the growing phenomenon. .
One by one, the faithful came trickling in to pay tribute to La Santa Muerte. Cars pulled up and men hopped out bearing candles, cash, chocolates, apples, bottles of liquor and armloads of fresh-cut flowers. Mothers bring their children for blessings, and old women and macho young men murmur fervent requests.
Although La Santa Muerte is disdained and barely recognized by the Catholic Church, she's one of a number of unofficial folk "saints" who've been taken to heart by the Mexican people in the centuries since the Spanish conquest. Death cults and death worship have deep roots in Mexico's pre-Columbian past, and in Mexican culture death doesn't carry the morbid taint that it does in other societies.
"I worship her a lot. I love her a lot," said José Luis, a regular supplicant at the saint's shrine who lifted his shirt and showed off a Santa Muerte tattoo, which he had engraved on his back eight years ago as thanks for favors received.
"In my poor house, I have an altar to her," he said. "More than anything she has given me tranquility, health. She's muy milagrosa, very miraculous.
Inside a small storefront to the rear of the altar, Enriqueta Romero, 58, who built the shrine about three years ago and now acts as its principal caretaker, tried to explain the source of La Santa Muerte's soaring popularity. Doña Queta, as she is known, said that her aunt had taught her to admire and worship the folk saint. Today she sells a variety of Santa Muerte-related products, including incense, candles and statues, along with hamburgers and other snacks, and regales visitors with endless anecdotes of the saint's preternatural powers.
"The only thing that matters is the faith," Doña Queta insisted, dismissing a suggestion that the saint is particularly revered by people living on the wrong side of the law. "It doesn't matter if the worshipers are good or bad, or where they live."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-hmexsaint07apr07,0,4985667.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean |
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