- MEXICO CITY -- Deep
in the heart of the no-go Mexico City barrio of Tepito, a long queue of
men, women and children wait patiently to get closer to a 6ft image of
Saint Death and seek a favour.
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- Small-time drug traffickers wanted a guarantee against
violent death or arrest, children asked for their fathers' release from
jail, sick people sought a cure, shopkeepers prayed for higher sales, prostitutes
looked for protection from disease and grannies begged for grandchildren
to stay out of trouble.
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- These motley devotees of La Santa Muerte bore gifts of
chocolates, tequila and cigarettes. One held a single red rose and candles
for the fine 'lady skeleton' in flowing robes which clutches a scythe in
one bony, bejewelled hand and the world in the other. When they reached
the front of the queue they paused to kneel and kiss the saint's glass
case.
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- 'I have always prayed to the Virgin, but recently we
began going to the SantÌssima first,' said Ernesto LÛpez,
a burly salesman of pirate DVDs who proudly raised his shirt to reveal
a chest tattoo of the new object of his devotion. 'She understands us the
best.'
-
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- The cult of the Santa Muerte is booming in Mexico's jails
and tough barrios, with their reputation for drug trafficking and violent
crime.
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- There are no rules about how to worship her. At this
Tepito shrine outside a run-down block of flats, a 'mass' and collective
blessing is held on the first night of every month. It drew just a few
dozen people a few years ago, but now there is no room to move.
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- The Catholic authorities are dismayed, but fear they
will lose their congregations if they threaten expulsions. 'It is turning
into a plague,' said Father Sergio Rom·n, whose parish is in Tepito.
He acknowledged he is powerless to stop the cult spreading: 'The church
learnt a lot in the Inquisition. We know we have to respect other beliefs.
They adore the Santa Muerte because of ignorance, not malice, and it is
our fault for not preaching better.'
-
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- Anthropologists date the origins of the cult to the Spanish
conquest that brought Christianity in contact with Aztec death worship.
Church repression kept the tradition dormant for centuries until it resurfaced
in poor urban areas.
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- Father Rom·n said it returned to Tepito seven
years ago as violent crime soared. This 'pushes people into the arms of
the lady of death because they feel they need help staying alive'.
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- Miracles claimed by the Tepito devotees back this. Ricardo
Romas was there, he said, to thank the Santa Muerte for jamming the trigger
on a gun pointed at him. Claudia, a prostitute, wanted to keep her clients
docile and Aids at bay. Guillermina DÌaz's told how St Death multiplied
the pieces of chicken she had to feed a hungry family.
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- Others insisted they were most attracted by the Santa
Muerte's tolerance. Living on the edge of the law, they saw no reason to
respect the religious authorities.
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- 'When you go to church you get told off,' said LÛpez,
the DVD salesman. 'But she does not discriminate. Here nobody cares who
you are or what you do.'
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1253543,00.html
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