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.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"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.
A funeral cortege of gangsters sporting shades and gold chains passed by in gleaming cars, music blaring, saluting the shrine as they went.
"People ask her: `Protect me tonight because I am going to kidnap or assault somebody,'" said Mexican writer and poet Homero Aridjis, who documented this thriving cult in a book of fictional stories called "Santa Muerte."
The title story is based on a debauched birthday party Aridjis attended of a powerful politician with links to drug traffickers.
At the host's lavish ranch, where former beauty queens plied guests with alcohol and cocaine, Aridjis says he witnessed members of Mexico's political and business elite worship at a secret altar to Santa Muerte -- his first encounter with the phenomenon.
PAGAN DEVOTION
Mexicans have long had a complex relationship with death. Ancient indigenous cultures worshipped a god of death called Mictlantecuhtli, and the Aztecs believed mass human sacrifice was vital to feed the gods and keep the life cycle going.
Even after the Spanish conquest brought Catholicism to the region, Mexicans retained a strong pagan devotion to death, as seen by their celebration every November of the Day of the Dead when they erect altars to the dead in their homes and prepare elaborate meals for the departed souls. It is akin to Roman Catholics' observation on Nov. 2 of All Souls' Day, when they pray for the souls of the faithful departed.
"The cult to Santa Muerte is a syncretism between the Catholic Church and pre-Colombian worship of death," Aridjis said.
Halloween, originally a Celtic pagan feast of the dead to mark the end of the harvest and start of winter, is celebrated in the US and parts of Europe, mainly as a commercial holiday.
The cult of Santa Muerte has seen a revival in the past decade, a revival which Aridjis attributes to disillusionment with "the system."
"There is a complete disappointment with the government, people can't expect anything from the politicians, the parties or the established Church," he said.
A shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's beloved dark-skinned version of Mary, stands on the next street corner from the macabre Tepito shrine.
"Santa Muerte is a saint like any other. She performs many miracles," said shaven-headed taxi driver Eduardo Ruben Villegas, 35, who sports multiple tattoos and has an altar in his home to Santa Muerte.
He has been a devotee since she cured his sister of cancer, he said.
Villegas has an image of Santa Muerte hanging from the rear view mirror of his taxi, on his car keys and on three pendants he wears around his neck.
"She protects me a lot in my car. I haven't ever been assaulted," he said.
PAYING RESPECTS
On the first day of every month, hundreds of devotees line up around the block to pay their respects to the skeletal saint, who with her scythe resembles the Grim Reaper.
Romero changes Santa Muerte's dress before each monthly ceremony, at which mariachis serenade her in a celebration of death and life.
The offerings multiply and followers light different colored candles -- red for love, white for protection and black to do harm to an enemy.
Romero also leaves out food daily for the grinning figurine -- tamales, or corn dumplings, "for breakfast" and quesadillas and other treats later in the day.
Police presence is rare in Tepito, where drugs, firearms and smuggled goods are peddled freely.
But there is an unspoken rule that at Santa Muerte's shrine, worshippers pray in safety by day and by night and Romero asks no questions of them.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese