Assignment: Master Thesis Name: Laura Hurkxkens Date: 19-12-2016 Wordcount: 28.239 (excluding footnotes and bibliography) Supervisor: Prof. dr. Gerard Wiegers Second reader: Dr. Ulrike Popp-Baier

2

Content

Introduction ...... 4 The of ...... 5 Academic context and research question ...... 8 1. Popular and public ...... 11 1.1 Popular religion ...... 11 1.2 Public religion ...... 15 2. The cult of Santa Muerte ...... 20 2.1 and its centrality in Mexican culture ...... 20 2.2 La Santa Muerte ...... 21 2.3 History and origins ...... 23 2.4 Santa Muerte today ...... 26 2.5 Beliefs and practices ...... 29 2.6 Key figures ...... 33 3. Struggles and Conflict surrounding Santa Muerte ...... 36 3.1 Santa Muerte and the Mexican Roman ...... 36 3.2 Santa Muerte and the government of Felipe Calderón ...... 40 4. Santa Muerte in Mexican newspapers ...... 47 4.1 El Universal ...... 49 4.2 Reforma ...... 52 4.3 La Jornada ...... 56 5. Analysis and discussion ...... 60 5.1 Public in public debate ...... 60 5.2 Symbolical resistance: But to what? ...... 65 5.3 The status of Santa Muerte and her cult ...... 74 Conclusion ...... 77 Bibliography ...... 81

3

Introduction

In 2007, the Mexican Roman Catholic Church published a special edition of its magazine “Desde la Fe” (“From the Faith”), devoted to a rather extraordinary Mexican saint: La Santa Muerte. The edition of the magazine was titled Santa Muerte: Ignorancía, Confusión e Idolatría (Santa Muerte: Ignorance, Confusion, and ), and one of the articles described the veneration of Santa Muerte as “the cancer that has infected most of the neighborhoods.”1 The main article of the edition was dedicated to convincing believers that they had to renounce Santa Muerte and “return to Christ,” by going to Church, kneeling at ’ feet and, claiming to “renounce ” and “all amulets and paranormal objects that lead me to stray.”2 Santa Muerte (which can best be translated as “Saint Death”) is a popular saint with Mexican roots, who functions as the protectora of the outcast and marginalized. Her presence is strongest in , but she is gaining an ever-increasing following in the as well.3 Santa Muerte is the personification of death, and is usually embodied by a wearing either a bridal gown or a habit, combined with colourful jewellery. Her followers are mainly people from the brims of society – such as the extremely poor, prostitutes, transgender people, homosexuals and criminals – who do not feel that the Roman Catholic Church can offer them all that they need, or who feel that their lifestyle is being condemned by the Roman Catholic Church.4 Also, in contrast to traditional Roman Catholicism, the veneration of Santa Muerte is highly egalitarian: everybody is welcome and treated equally, regardless of race, sexual orientation, or additional religious affiliation, and there are no official hierarchies, theology or teachings.5 In addition, Santa Muerte is perceived as a saint that is ‘like’ her followers, and one that does not judge them, and does not expect them to be perfect all the time. Most of Santa Muerte’s followers do, however, identify themselves as both as Roman Catholics and followers of Santa Muerte.6

1 Translation from Pamela Bastante and Brenton Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora de las Sombras: The Enigmatic Identity of Santa Muerte,” 55:4 (2013), 452. Original online accessible at: http://www.churchforum.org/santa-muerte-ignorancia-confusion-eidolatria.htm 2 Ibid. 3 Carmen Sesin, “Growing Devotion to Santa Muerte in U.S. and Abroad,” NBC News, December 29, 2014, accessed Februari 18, 2016, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/growing-devotion-santa-muerte-u-s- abroad-n275856. 4 Ibid. 5 Laura Roush, “Santa Muerte, Protection, and Desamparo: A View from a Altar,” Latin American Research Review 49 (2014), 137. 6 R. Andrew Chesnut, Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint (New York: , 2012), 115.

4

The cult of Santa Muerte

In this thesis, the movement surrounding Santa Muerte will be labelled ‘the cult of Santa Muerte’. The Brill Dictionary of Religion defines “cult” as “a religious group or organization that has beliefs differing from conventional religious organizations and is considered deviant.”7 In addition, the dictionary notes that “the term ‘sect’ is sometimes used in relation to ‘cult.’ The difference is the novelty of the systems of , as compared to sects, who are best characterized as deviant organizations within traditional beliefs.”8 Finally, the dictionary also notes that the term ‘cult’ may “be used to denote a set of beliefs and rituals surrounding a certain object of worship […] like the cult of Virgin Mary”9 (or like the cult of Santa Muerte). The American sociologists Rodney Stark and William Bainbridge define the three primary terms used to ‘label’ a religious movement – church, sect, and cult – in a similar fashion:

A church is a conventional religious organization. A sect movement is a deviant religious organization with traditional beliefs and practices. A cult movement is a deviant religious organization with novel beliefs and practices.10

‘Deviance’, then, is defined by Stark and Bainbridge as “departure from the norms of a culture in such a way as to incur the imposition of extraordinary costs from those who maintain the culture.”11 These costs, then, fall into two categories: Either exchanges with other parties may become more costly, or the ‘deviant’ may be punished in one way or another. Firstly, exchanges with other parties (aligning more with the dominant culture), may become more costly because the ‘deviant’ and the other party no longer fully adhere to the same norms, and thus their interaction will generally be characterised by more uncertainty and mistrust than interaction between two people who adhere to roughly the same norms will be, according to Stark and Bainbridge. Secondly, the ‘deviant’ may be punished for his/her deviance in one way or another: This will not always mean the ‘deviant’ is punished through law or by the state, but it may also refer to ‘smaller’ punishments such as other

7 Titus Hjelm, “Cult” in The Brill Dictionary of Religion, ed. Kocku von Stuckrad (published online in 2006), accessed December 4, 2016, http://dx.doi.org.proxy.uba.uva.nl:2048/10.1163/1872-5287_bdr_SIM_00015. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, A Theory of Religion (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987), 124. 11 Ibid., 124.

5 parties who do not adhere to the deviant organisation choosing not to interact with the ‘deviant’ anymore.12 Thus, as stated in the Brill Dictionary of Religions, Stark and Bainbridge “designate those groups as ‘sects’ that have split off from existing religious communities: groups that ‘import’ concepts, or that adhere to new images, are ‘cults’.”13 Both these types are seen as ‘deviant’ forms of religion. The movement surrounding Santa Muerte can indeed be seen as deviant: Even though most Santa Muertistas do consider themselves to be Roman Catholics as well as Santa Muertistas, there is an obvious deviance when one chooses to worship a Saint that is not recognised by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, within the cult of Santa Muerte certain practices are adopted that stand in stark contrast to what the Mexican Roman Catholic Church will allow: for example the officiating of same-sex weddings. In addition, some Santa Muertistas have openly spoken out against the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and the Mexican government. (This will be discussed more elaborately in chapter 3.) In broader Mexican society, as well, the veneration of Santa Muerte is perceived to be an element of the criminal underworld, and as deviating from Mexico’s societal norms and values – specifically those concerning legal and moral boundaries. Though the worship of Santa Muerte shows obvious parallels to Roman Catholicism (which will be discussed in chapter 2), it does not seem to have originated from a schism within this conventional religion, but rather as a grass-roots alternative to Mexico’s traditionally dominant religion, Roman Catholicism – this will be discussed more elaborately in chapter 2 as well. In addition, the movement’s members generally see the cult of Santa Muerte as a celebration of an old faith that has been suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church but has now gained momentum again.14 For these reasons, the broader movement of Santa Muerte veneration will in this thesis be labeled ‘the cult of Santa Muerte.’ Of course, this does not mean that the term ‘cult’ is the only fitting description of this faith, but in this thesis it will be used as an appropriate tool for distinguishing the movement around Santa Muerte from other (religious and non-religious) groups, such as the Mexican Roman Catholic Church.

12 Stark and Bainbridge, Theory, 124-5. 13 Babett Remus, “Sect” in The Brill Dictionary of Religion, ed. Kocku von Stuckrad (published online in 2006), accessed December 4, 2016, http://dx.doi.org.proxy.uba.uva.nl:2048/10.1163/1872-5287_bdr_COM_00410. 14 Chesnut, Devoted, 27-28; Michael Deibert, In the Shadow of Saint Death: The and the Price of America's Drug War in Mexico (Guilford: Lyons Press, 2014), 6-7; Regnar Albæk Kristensen, “How did Death become a Saint in Mexico?” Ethnos (2014), 6.

6

Over the past decade and a half, the cult of Santa Muerte has been growing stronger and stronger: It is said to be the fastest growing faith in Mexico,15 and some scholars even state that it is the fastest growing religious movement in the world.16 Andrew Chesnut17 estimates that there are now about ten to twelve million Santa Muerte devotees in Mexico and the United States.18 In the U.S. as well, then, Santa Muerte is swiftly gaining popularity;19 Santa Muerte candles, statues and clothes are already being sold at Walmart, Amazon, and Sears, and for many smaller shops of religious items Santa Muerte objects are a large source of income.20 The increasing strength of Santa Muerte devotion can readily be linked to economic and political instability in Mexico – and also to the insecure life circumstances of many Mexican immigrants in the United States. Today, more than half of the Mexican population live in extreme poverty: Whereas in 2006, 42,9% of Mexicans lived below the poverty line, in 2014 (the most recent polls), that number had increased to 53,2%. (In 2012, the

15 David E. Campbell, “A Saint For Lost Souls,” Foreign Policy, April 26, 2010, accessed Februari 28, 2016, http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/04/26/a-saint-for-lost-souls/. 16 Rick Paulas, “Our Lady of the Holy Death Is the World’s Fastest Growing Religious Movement,” Vice News, November 13, 2014, accessed Februari 28, 2016, http://www.vice.com/read/our-lady-of-the-holy-death-is- the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-movement-456. 17 Andrew Chesnut is a professor of at the Virginia Commonwealth University, and has written the most comprehensive English work Santa Muerte veneration: Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, The Skeleton Saint. 18 Cited in Sesin, “Growing Devotion.” 19 Sesin, “Growing Devotion.” 20 Ana Factio-Krajcer, “Santa Muerte’s Promise of Prosperity,” The Washington Post, November 8, 2014, accessed February 18, 2016, http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/santa-muertes-promise-of- prosperity/2014/11/07/3f533dae-6464-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html.

7 poverty number was already at 52,3%.)21 Moreover, in 2009, the Mexican economy shrank 7,3%, the most it has shrunk since 1932.22 Combine this with the fact that in the six years between 2006 and 2012 almost 50,000 people have died in President Felipe Calderón’s infamous war on the drug cartels,23 and it might make sense that more and more are putting their faith in a Saint that rules over life and death. Unfortunately, the combining of religious practices (Santa Muerte veneration and Roman Catholicism) by Santa Muerte followers has not always been appreciated by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. As illustrated by the previously mentioned edition of Desde la Fe, the Mexican Roman Catholic Church has often attempted to discredit and demonize Santa Muerte veneration. And especially under the conservative pro-church Calderón administration from 2006 to 2012, the Mexican government has done so as well. It has for example demolished Santa Muerte shrines24 and arrested its most outspoken leader, padre David Romo Guillén, on claims of kidnap and blackmail – a false accusation, according to himself and his followers, who subsequent to his arrest took to the streets of Mexico City to protest the perceived persecution of their faith.25

Academic context and research question

The academic interest in (the cult of) Santa Muerte is relatively new. The first rather extensive work concerning Santa Muerte was written by the Mexican anthropologist Judith Katia Perdigón Castañeda,26 whose short book titled Santa Muerte: Protectora de los Hombres was published in 2008. This book features a mostly descriptive account of the cult of Santa Muerte: her origins, beliefs and practices of the cult, and Santa Muerte’s functions for believers. Four years later, in 2012, Andrew Chesnut’s book Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, The Skeleton Saint appeared. As noted above, Andrew R. Chesnut has so far written most extensively on the cult of Santa Muerte: he has published one book and several articles on La Santa Muerte. His research is based on observations of and interviews with Santa Muertistas, overwhelmingly Santa Muertistas living in Mexico City. In his research, Chesnut mainly focuses on sketching how the cult operates and why Santa Muerte’s followers are attracted to her, discussing her manifold roles as “physician, employment broker, love

21 The World Bank, “Poverty numbers Mexico,” accessed March 1, 2016, http://data.worldbank.org/country/mexico. 22 Campbell, “Saint.” 23 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 436. 24 Chesnut, Devoted, 4; R. Andrew Chesnut, “Death to Santa Muerte: The Vatican vs. the Skeleton Saint,” Huffington Post, May 18, 2013, accessed May 31, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/r-andrew- chesnut/death-to-santa-muerte-the-vatican-vs-the-skeleton-saint_b_3291499.html. 25 Tracy Wilkinson, “Mexico has arrested a leader of Santa Muerte 'church',” LA Times, January 5, 2011, accessed June 11, 2015, http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/05/world/la-fg-mexico-death-saint-20110106. 26 Judith Katia Perdigón Castañeda works at the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of anthropology and history).

8 doctor, avenging angel, and of justice.”27 Besides these two authors, the few other academics that have researched Santa Muerte have done so in a more limited fashion, restricting themselves for example to specific aspects of the cult or specific regions of Mexico. Also, Santa Muerte is once included in a broader analysis of folk saints in Mexico (Desirée A. Martín’s Borderland Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture, 2014), which discusses not only the cult itself, but also shortly discusses its sociocultural context. Overall, however, the analyses of Santa Muerte veneration have focused on (predominantly descriptive) observations of the cult of Santa Muerte as a movement standing on its own, and have not delved that explicitly into the sociocultural context in which the cult operates. Both Chesnut and Perdigón do discuss how the cult operates, but tend to be quite limited in discussing why this cult has the position that it does in Mexican society. Both seem to take its socially marginalized position as a given, but neglect to extensively assess why the cult of Santa Muerte takes in this position and what this may tell us about (the status of religion in) Mexican society in general. Though limited in scope, this thesis hopes to take a first step in examining the position of the cult of Santa Muerte in Mexican society. In order to shed further light on the status of Santa Muerte veneration in Mexican society, and the role of religion in Mexican society in general, this thesis will be dedicated to analysing the ways in which Santa Muerte veneration is discussed in public debate – more specifically, in newspaper articles. By means of analysing public debate surrounding (the cult of) Santa Muerte, which has not been done before, I hope to shed some more light upon the context of the cult. This thesis will attempt to answer the question: What does the way in which (the cult of) Santa Muerte is discussed in public debate tell us about the position of religion in Mexican society? I will analyse sixty articles from three relatively large Mexican newspapers, which are aligned with different positions on the political spectrum: Firstly the relatively right-wing newspaper El Universal, secondly a newspaper aligned with the centre of the political spectrum, Reforma, en finally the relatively left- wing newspaper La Jornada. I have chosen to focus on articles from the period between 2006 and 2012, because at this time (under the Calderón administration) the friction between Santa Muerte veneration and the dominant elite was at its most intense. The first chapter of this thesis will discuss the theoretical framework. It focuses on Cristián Parker’s theory of popular religion in Latin America, and José Casanova’s work on public religions in the modern world. The second chapter will concern the ‘content’ of Santa Muerte veneration: What is this faith’s history? What are the demographics of her followers? And what exactly do they believe and practice? The third chapter will concern the friction between Santa Muertistas (followers of Santa Muerte) and Mexico’s socio-politcal elite – which is primarily represented by the Mexican

27 Chesnut, Devoted, 25.

9

Catholic church and the federal government. The fourth chapter will focus on Santa Muerte in public debate. It will elaborate on the themes that are prominent in public speech concerning Santa Muerte, on the use of discourse, on the use of sources and on the representation of various actors in the debate. The fifth and final chapter will be dedicated to discussing what the status of and speech surrounding Santa Muerte veneration tells us about the status of religion(s) in Mexican society.

10

1. Popular and public religion

In order to assess the role Santa Muerte veneration plays in Mexican society, and what this may tell us about religion’s status in a broader sense in Mexico, it is important to assess what type of religion the cult of Santa Muerte may represent. Two theoretical bases are, in my view, useful in laying the groundwork for this analysis. The first theoretical frame that will be discussed in this chapter is Cristián Parkers characterisation of popular religion, and the second theoretical frame that will be discussed is José Casanova’s characterisation of public religion. This chapter will focus on presenting and summarizing both Parker’s and Casanova’s theories, which will then be employed to analyse the cult of Santa Muerte and its role in Mexican society in chapter 5.

1.1 Popular religion

Santa Muerte veneration is widely recognised by scholars as a popular expression of religiosity by the Mexican marginalized masses. The term popular, in this context, can be variously defined. As British professor of theology John R. Hinnells states:

There is no single definition of what constitutes ‘Popular Religion’. Some scholars have defined it as rural in contrast to urban forms of religion, the religion of the peasant in contrast to that of the ruling classes; or, in a variation of this definition, the religion of the masses as contrasted with that of the intellectual or sophisticated classes. If, however, popular religion is seen in contrast to ‘official’ religion, the latter defined as religion founded on authoritative documents and propagated and maintained by religious specialists, priests or hierarchy, then the term ‘popular’ can apply to any layperson, whether peasant or ruling-class, who adopts beliefs and practices which may be at odds with the religious specialist's views.28

In the context of Santa Muerte veneration, ‘popular’ refers to a combination of the definitions proposed by Hinnells: It can be seen as both a “religion of the masses” opposed to “that of the intellectual or sophisticated classes” and as a religious group that “adopts beliefs and practices which may be at odds with the religious specialist’s views,” as will be discussed more elaborately in chapters 2 and 3. The Chilean sociologist Cristián Parker has written extensively on popular religion in Latin America, most comprehensively in his 1995-book “Popular Religion and Modernization in

28 John R. Hinnells (ed.), A New Dictionary of Religions (Oxford: Blackwell Reference, 1995), 386-87.

11

Latin America: A Different Logic.” For Parker, the term ‘popular religion’ refers to “the religion of the popular classes,”29 which he then distinguishes as the “subordinate groups of a society marked by a clear class differentiation.”30 According to Parker, modernization in Latin America has not led to the far-reaching secularization that has so often been predicted. Quite to the contrary, it has started a “revitalization” of religion: Latin American religious expressions have been transformed, and people’s religious loyalties have shifted – notably so when it comes to the popular masses.31 Thus, Parker states that “in Latin America, technological development cannot be assimilated to secularization [...] The impact of advanced technologies has worked no detriment on the hegemony of religion in society.”32 However, the religious field has changed: people are moving away from traditional, institutionalised religion (primarily Roman Catholicism) in large numbers, and what Parker terms “popular religion” is increasingly gaining strength. Popular religion, then, refers to religious expressions that are more concerned with the corporeal and the festive, than with strict, formal theology and hierarchy:33 “Unlike the religion of reason characteristic of the intellectual elites and clergy, popular religion is a religion of rites and myth, of dreams and emotion, of body and the quest for this-worldly wellbeing.”34 Parker blames the shift towards popular religion on what he calls “peripheral modernization:” A social and economic change which has left the gap between rich and poor larger than ever, while simultaneously endowing enormous groups of people – the ‘subordinate’ masses – with few options for satisfying their basic human needs.35 Of course, popular religious practices have always (more or less visibly) existed alongside ‘official’ religion in Latin America. Lately, however, these popular religious expressions have become more publicly visibly according to Parker – an occurrence which he primarily ascribes to the Catholic Church’s loss of her civil and religious monopoly in most Latin American countries. Popular religiosity which, for a long time, has existed “on the fringes” of official, state-approved churches, has found a way into the public sphere now that social and political conditions have changed.36 The most important reason for this change in conditions, Parker claims, is the “breach in the symbolical

29 Cristián Parker, Popular Religion and Modernization in Latin America: A Different Logic, transl. Robert R. Barr, (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996), 19. 30 Ibid., 36. 31 Ibid., 39. 32 Ibid., 67. 33 Cristián Parker, “Modern Popular Religion: A Complex Object of Study for Sociology,” International Sociology 13:2 (1998), 205. 34 Ibid., 205. 35 Parker, Popular Religion, 53. 36 Cristián Parker, “’Magico-popular Religion’ in Contemporary Society: Towards a Post-Western Sociology of Religion,” in Theorising Religion: Classical and Contemporary Debates, ed. James A. Beckford and John Wallis (Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate, 2006), 65.

12 monopoly of Catholicism over the popular classes”37 that took place at the beginning of the twentieth century – mainly as a result of the increasing popularity of Pentecostal churches and secular ideologies such as communism and socialism. Because this breach has never healed, there is more space for alternative religious practices nowadays, Parker argues.38 Also, there is not only an increasing variation within the religious field, there is also an increasing tendency towards religious bricolage: the combining of elements from different religions and traditions.39 This tendency is strongest in large cities and among the poorest, most marginalized classes, which employ popular religious practices as so-called “symbolical survival strategies:”40 For example, one might not have the actual means to cure a sick relative or feed a starving child, but by venerating a saint one can at least make sure that the saint will work on healing the sick relative and finding a new job for the devotee which will provide money to feed his children. The tendency towards religious pluralisation and syncretism is also very much present in the cult of Santa Muerte (which is mostly made up of people from the poorest, most endangered segments of society) – often to the dismay of Mexican Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authorities. Parker describes all popular religious expressions in Latin America as “modalities of dissidence” from the Catholic Church, which often hold a view of the world “in implicit opposition to official conceptions.”41 The Roman Catholic hierarchy, then, has often sought to control popular religiosity, for example by characterising certain popular religious expressions as “paganism” or “” or even “magic,” opposed to the ‘pure’ or ‘authentic’ religion of the Church.42

Popular religion as counterculture Following the Italian scholar of religion Vittorio Laternari, Parker states that when a society has a ‘dominant’ religion which has strong ties with that society’s economic and political elite, popular religious practices and expressions will naturally arise in response.43 To this, Parker adds that even though this popular religiosity is mostly to be found in the expressions of the lower classes of a society, it will often partly consist of (appropriated) elements of that society’s dominant culture44 – we will later be able to discern this tendency in Santa Muerte veneration, which borrows abundantly from Roman Catholic tradition and liturgy. Three types of fusion between Roman Catholic expressions and popular religious expressions can be distinguished: Either “the Christian rite is

37 Parker, Popular Religion, 141. 38 Parker, “Magico-popular Religion,” 70. 39 Ibid., 60. 40 Parker, Popular Religion,, 43, 53, 154. 41 Ibid., 154, 186. 42 Ibid., 32-33, 132, 212. 43 Ibid., 35. 44 Ibid., 35-36.

13 accepted and given an indigenous meaning;” or “the indigenous rite is preserved and given a Christian meaning;” or “the Christian rite is accepted, but new meaning is added to its original meaning.”45 This last type of fusion is most prominently present in Santa Muerte veneration, as will be demonstrated later. Also, this type of fusion is more regularly ‘employed’ in Mexico than just in the case of Santa Muerte; think for example of the Virgen de Guadalupe, an inherently Mexican adaption of the Roman Catholic Virgin Mary. Parker views popular religious practices and expressions as manifestations of collective hopes, needs and anxieties that receive no adequate response from traditional, dominant religion. Popular religions, then, offer devotees that which they cannot or can hardly secure through traditional religious and secular institutions, such as attention to health, prosperity, (symbolical) protection and (symbolical) means of survival.46 The subjects of popular devotion (mostly saints), then, “compensate for, and symbolically replace, what the dominant society in effect refuses to supply.”47 Moreover, Parker argues that popular religion is focused more on this-worldly well-being than traditional Roman Catholicism, with its focus on well-being in the .48 In short, Parker characterises popular religion as a “symbolical survival strategy” in the face of deprivation.49 To this he adds that popular religions are most attractive to women, who have even fewer means than marginalised men to fulfil their needs,50 and who find themselves consistently occupying a marginalised position in traditional religion, as Roman Catholicism “still functions as an institutional, juridical and normative expression of masculinity.”51 When it comes to Santa Muerte veneration, it is true that her devotees are traditionally women, even though over the past few decades more and more men have joined her cortege. Now, it would be useful to list the three ‘functions’ of popular religion that Parker distinguishes: First, popular religion can serve as “symbolical compensation” for lacking necessary fulfilment of human needs.52 Second, it can add more meaning to a life lived on the margins of society: by means of popular religion, “the poor and indigent recover their dignity.” 53 Third and final, popular religion can function as a form of “symbolical resistance;” by adhering to a popular religion as opposed to or in addition to an official religion, people show that they are willing or even striving

45 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 206. 46 Parker, Popular Religion, 74, 111. 47 Ibid., 74. 48 Ibid., 35, 201. 49 Ibid., 110. 50 Ibid., 200. 51 Parker, “Magico-popular Religion,” 70. 52 Parker, Popular Religion, 202. 53 Ibid., 204.

14 to reject certain aspects and values of dominant culture.54 All three of these characteristics can be discerned in Santa Muerte veneration, as will be discussed more elaborately in chapter 5. As the third characteristic implies, Parker emphasizes the potential for expressing dissent (concerned with various areas of society) that lies within popular religion, since it is not under the control of “official” ecclesiastical authorities, nor under the control of the state.55 Parker does, however, pose that this symbolical resistance is usually only covertly manifested and does not often lead to overt conflict or open hostilities.56 Still, popular religion remains a viable medium through which to protest subordination and marginalization, and does seem to function so in the case of Santa Muerte veneration, even if it is only covert. This function will be more elaborately discussed in chapter 5, as well. In an elaboration of this, Parker distinguishes six characteristics of popular religions that qualify them to be seen as countercultures which can successfully rebel against a society’s dominant norms and values: Firstly, popular religion affirms life, in a wider environment that consistently threatens the survival of the poor and marginalized classes. Secondly, it often affirms the female and femininity in a society and ecclesiastical structure that are still predominantly patriarchal. Thirdly, as noted before, popular religion affirms the corporeal and tangible, as opposed to the moral and intellectual, with which traditional religious denominations and secular society are often more concerned. Fourthly, popular religion affirms the festive over the formal. Fifthly, it affirms the “vitalistic”57 in the face of a culture focused on with the rational and intellectual. And sixthly, in connection with the former point, popular religion affirms the transcendent as opposed to the scientific.58 A number of these characteristics can be distinguished in the veneration of Santa Muerte, as will be discussed in chapter 5.

1.2 Public religion

In order to analyse the ways in which the cult of Santa Muerte is being discussed in Mexican public debate, it is also useful to discern the roles which the cult of Santa Muerte and one of its fiercest opponents, the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, assume in the Mexican public sphere. As the term implies, the public sphere of a society is made up of various publics. American scholar of religion Martin E. Marty59 defines the word “public” as that which is being applied “as an adjective to

54 Parker, Popular Religion, 202-4. 55 Ibid., 27, 209. 56 Ibid., 187, 209. 57 “Vitalism” holds that human life cannot merely be reduced to chemical or physiological processes, but finds its source in something beyond that, something immaterial. 58 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 202-4. 59 Martin E. Marty is Fairfax M. Cone Professor Emeritus of Modern Christianity at the University of and Director of the Public Religion Project.

15 collectives of people who, from other angles, including their own, merely go about the business of being people, perhaps citizens. These people become a public or become aware of being a public when, for example, debates of “public opinion” reveal them to exist as a public.”60 Moreover, he notes that a public that is observed by the social scientist is always a construct.61 One type of these publics is of course the religious public. Under the influence of the European Enlightenment critique of religion, religion and religious sentiment were for a long time seen as a generally declining and, most importantly, as becoming a private matter. ‘Banning’ religion from the public sphere would bring about a society based on logic, reason and secularism. This idea formed the basis for the formulation of the so-called secularisation thesis, which will be discussed more elaborately below. As Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann62 states: “As long as religion was defined as a private matter which did not touch the public sphere it was easy to tame religions in order to exclude them from the political realm.”63 The past few decades, however, scholars of religion have generally started agreeing that religious decline and the idea of religion as a purely private matter was more of a “practical political program” than an actual fact.64 The main theorist of religion in the modern public sphere is José Casanova,65 who has written extensively on the subject in his book Public religions in the modern world (1994). Casanova’s aim is “to rethink systematically the relationship of religion and modernity, and the possible roles religion may play in the public sphere of modern societies.”66 In his book, he examines the different public roles which religious movements and institutions play in the public spheres of contemporary (Western) societies.67

The continuing public role of religion Casanova proposes that, starting in the 1980s, religion has made its way (back) into the public sphere. Simultaneously, various publics started to pay more attention to religion again – think of publics such as the mass media, politicians and the “public at large.” Casanova attributes the renewed visibility of and interest in religion to four occurrences: firstly, the Islamic revolution in Iran; secondly, the rise of the Polish Solidarity Movement; thirdly, the important role that the Catholic

60 Martin E. Marty, “The the Public and the Public’s Public” in The Power of Religious Publics: Staking Claims in American Society, ed. William H. Swatos and James K. Wellman (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1999), 1. 61 Ibid., 2. 62 Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann is a professor of at the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany. 63 Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggeman, “How Religion re-entered the Public Political Sphere” in Religions in the Public Spheres, ed. Tadeusz Buksiński, (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2011), 20. 64 José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 214. 65 José Casanova is a Spanish-American sociologist of religion. He is currently a professor at the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University. 66 Casanova, Public Religions, 211. 67 Ibid., 61.

16

Church played in many political struggles in Latin America – most notably the Sardinista revolution; and finally, the increased political influence of Protestant fundamentalism in the United States.68 According to Casanova, it would be incorrect to ignore the continuing public dimension of religion.69 Within the original thesis of secularization, Casanova discerns three sub-theses: The overarching thesis of social differentiation in which religion is being separated from other societal spheres, and the two underlying theses of the decline of religion and the privatization of religion. In short, the ‘decline of religion’-thesis holds that religion and religious sentiment will swiftly subside and possibly even vanish, and the ‘privatization’-thesis holds that religions will become fully privatized from ‘public’ society.70 However, Casanova does not share so many other scholars’ view of secularisation as a myth. He states that part of the secularization-thesis, namely that the religious sphere would become differentiated in modern societies, is valid.71 But, despite this separation, religion has not lost strength in general, and has only been steadily on the rise again the past few decades. Casanova states that secularisation as decline has turned out to only remain a plausible thesis in the exceptional case of Western Europe.72 Also, the concerns of public religious actors have shifted: these actors no longer only enter the public sphere in order to “defend their traditional turf,” but also “to participate in the very struggles to define and set the modern boundaries between the private and public spheres, between system and life-world, between legality and morality, between individual and society, between family, civil society, and state, between nations, states, civilizations, and the world system.”73 Thus, religious actors are likely to continue playing important roles in the public debate, despite their loss of ‘real’ power in for example governments. Casanova thus partly refutes the theory of secularization, at least in as far as this theory implies that religion will soon become privatized and marginal, and might even disappear completely. Casanova’s main thesis is that during the past few decades, there has been an increasing “deprivatization” of religion: “religious traditions throughout the world are refusing to accept the marginal and privatized role which theories of modernity as well as theories of secularization had reserved for them.”74 Casanova hereby defines deprivatization as follows: “[It] is the process whereby religion abandons its assigned place in the private sphere and enters the undifferentiated public sphere of civil society to take part in the ongoing process of contestation, discursive legitimation, and redrawing of the boundaries.”75 Religions and religious movements, then, have

68 Casanova, Public Religions, 3. 69 Ibid., 66. 70 Ibid., 19-20. 71 Ibid., 212. 72 Ibid., 27. 73 Ibid., 6. 74 Ibid., 5. 75 Ibid., 65-66.

17 become more involved in public and political debates – an occurrence which we can also distinguish in the Mexican public sphere, conspicuously so in debates surrounding Santa Muerte veneration. Not only Santa Muertistas themselves speak out in public, other religious actors have discussed the faith as well; most notably the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. Most explanations for what Casanova calls the deprivatization of religion view this deprivatization as either an antimodern reaction of traditional institutions unwilling to give up their privileges, or as instrumental mobilizations of religious arguments for non-religious purposes.76 Casanova, however, states that:

[…] religious institutions and organizations refuse to restrict themselves to the pastoral care of individual souls and continue to raise questions about the interconnections of private and public morality and to challenge the claims of the subsystems, particularly states and markets, to be exempt from extraneous normative considerations. One of the results of this ongoing contestation is a dual, interrelated process of repoliticization of the private religious and moral spheres and renormativization of the public economic and political spheres.77

The term “deprivatization,” then, is used by Casanova for three purposes: First as a polemical tactic against theories of modernization that see privatization of religion as essential for the ‘success’ of modern liberal society; second and third as a description for two different ‘movements’ religion has made in the past decades – a move from the private to the public sphere, and a “change in the type of publicity” sought by religious movements.78 In addition, Casanova states that this deprivatization –religious actors ‘stepping into’ the public sphere or debate – are usually a result of some form of state intervention in the private sphere.79 Think for example of the legalisation of abortion in many (Western) countries and the responses those law-changes provoked from religious institutions. Finally, Casanova seems to find the public presence of religious movements quite positive, primarily because the fact that religions assess issues of morality in the public sphere forces societies to critically assess their normative foundations, according to him.80 Thus, Casanova tries to show “that there can be and that there are public religions in the moderns world which do not need to endanger either modern individual freedoms or modern differentiated structures.”81 However, he

76 Casanova, Public Religions, 215. 77 Ibid., 5-6. 78 Ibid., 220-21. 79 Ibid., 227. 80 Ibid., 229. 81 Ibid., 215.

18 maintains that only public religions which operate in the sphere of civil society (as opposed to operating at state or political society level) are compatible with modern differentiated structures.82

82 Casanova, Public Religions, 219.

19

2. The cult of Santa Muerte

2.1 Death and its centrality in Mexican culture

Before we can continue our discussion of the cult of Santa Muerte, it is essential to briefly assess the unique position “death” occupies in Mexican culture, in order to sketch the socio-historical context in which the cult of Santa Muerte operates. The concept of death permeates Mexican society: The Chilean anthropologist Claudio Lomnitz even states that “the cult of death could be thought of as the oldest, seminal, and most authentic element of Mexican popular culture.”83 Moreover, he has even described death in the form of the “playful skeleton” as being one of Mexico’s three totems (the other two being the Virgen de Guadalupe, and Benito Juárez – Mexico’s first indigenous, and presumably most beloved, president).84 According to Lomnitz, the idea of death as a Mexican totem originates in the 1940s, with Juan Larrea, a Spanish poet.85 The perceived origins of the Mexican cult of death are manifold, and its exact genealogy remains unclear. As Lomnitz states: “Mexico’s nationalization of death is not a simple case of so-called invented traditions. Connections between death and community are so densely constructed that they resist any attempt to locate the origin of the phenomenon either squarely in ‘the state’ or in a pristine and unpolluted ‘popular culture’.”86 However, Lomnitz does distinguish some points to which the cult of death can be traced back. Lomnitz traces the earliest signs of death as a central element of Mexican culture back to the period of Spanish colonialism, in two separate variations. The first possible root is tied to the idea that Mexico as a nation is ‘built’ on death: The genocide of the indigenous Mexicans by Spanish colonizers functioned as a performative strategy of marking the land as theirs, and thus death signifies the birth of the current-day Mexican nation.87 Therefore “the edifice of the modern state had the emblem of death at its hollow center.”88 The second explanation that traces the death-cult back to the colonial period is linked to the importance of martyrdom within the colonizers’ religion, Roman Catholicism. Lomnitz argues that “martyrdom is the very keystone of Christianity”89 and that in early-modern Spain “the aspiration to martyrdom was not an unusual childhood ambition.”90 These ideas, then, may have migrated to Mexico with the Spanish colonizers. However, Lomnitz remains critical of this explanation, because, as he argues:

83 Claudio Lomnitz, Death and the Idea of Mexico (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2005), 24. 84 Ibid., 43. 85 Ibid., 23. 86 Ibid., 26. 87 Ibid., 216. 88 Ibid., 219. 89 Ibid., 35. 90 Ibid., 35.

20

The peculiarity of Mexico’s death cult becomes apparent as soon as we realize that what is at stake is not the sublimation of a stoic death (though this, too, exists in Mexico) but the nationalization of playful familiarity with and proximity to Death itself.91

Indeed, in Mexico the familiar relation with death does not seem to be tied to past heroes or martyrs, but more to an often festive interaction with death, most notably with the “playful skeleton” – for example in the case of the nation’s largest celebration, the Days of the Dead. Finally, there is also an explanation for the centrality of death in Mexican culture that pinpoints another period as the birth-time of the death-cult, namely the period of the Mexican Revolution (1910- 1920). The Mexican Revolution is recognised by Lomnitz as the heyday of Mexican nationalism, and in line with Friedrich Nietzsche he argues that nationalism is always founded on a death cult.92 Moreover, Lomnitz argues that the Mexican intellectuals that instigated the Mexican revolution found in the images “of Aztec sacrifice, of the Aztec skull rack, and of life and death as a whimsical couple […] a source of pride and a blueprint for Mexico’s modernist revolution.”93 In addition, “the popular embellishment of death, with its resonance with both Aztec and Catholic traditions, seemed to be a perfect embodiment of the formula of cultural hybridity, mestizaje, that was at the heart of Mexico’s cultural revolution,”94 according to Lomnitz. He therefore concludes that death as a national totem (primarily in the form of the playful skeleton) emerged in de aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, when ideas from the pre-colonial period, colonial Roman Catholicism, and Mexican nationalism and pride fused together and became symbolised by the concept of Death.95

2.2 La Santa Muerte

On to the saint herself, then: La Santa Muerte is generally not seen as a saint who has lived a human life, but as a personification of death.96 Santa Muerte’s most common image is that of a skeleton, which is usually fully covered – except for hands, feet, and head – by a bridal gown or habit. Some Santa Muerte effigies also wear hooded robes in the style of the Grim Reaper, combined with coloured necklaces and other jewellery, black or brown wigs and crowns. In two-dimensional

91 Lomnitz, Death, 35-36. 92 Ibid., 27. 93 Ibid., 43. 94 Ibid., 40-41. 95 Ibid., 43. 96 Chesnut, Devoted, 6.

21 images, such as drawings and tattoos, Santa Muerte’s skull is usually bald, and a halo is often portrayed around her head. Moreover, the saint is generally shown carrying a number of attributes: she most often carries a scythe, scales of justice and/or an hourglass (to indicate the passing time of human life). Sometimes she also carries an (symbolising her appetite for human flesh) and a book or dagger.97 Two of Santa Muerte’s characteristics set her apart from other, comparable, saints: First of all, Santa Muerte is perceived as an indigenous Mexican saint by her followers, as opposed to the canonized Roman Catholic saints, which have arrived in Mexico during the Spanish colonial period. Her national character resounds in her name, since death is so central to Mexican culture, as we have just discussed. When elaborating on the centrality of death in Mexican culture, Lomnitz argues that this is nowadays most visible in Mexico in the veneration of Santa Muerte as the death saint or personification of death.98 A second aspect that sets Santa Muerte apart is her female nature – Santa Muerte is the only female death saint that we know of, at least in the and possibly worldwide.99 Both and Guatemala do know a saint of death as well (respectively called and El Rey San Pascual), but these two male death saints are not nearly as well-known or popular as the Mexican Santa Muerte.100 Besides her indigenous nature, Santa Muerte’s femininity is also a very important point of attraction for her followers – especially for women and girls who lean towards a saint with whom they can identify. Indeed, women and girls make up the majority of her cult. Many of these female followers perceive Santa Muerte as a maternal figure that watches over them and protects them.101

97 Chesnut, Devoted, 6, 8, 28; J. Katia Perdigón Castañeda, La Santa Muerte: Protectora de los hombres (Mexico-city: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2008), 77; Desirée A. Martín, Borderlands Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture (New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, 2014), 183. 98 Lomnitz, Death, 57. 99 Chesnut, Devoted, 61. 100 Ibid., 60-61. 101 Ibid., 62, 188.

22

2.3 History and origins

Early traces When Santa Muerte’s origins are concerned, Andrew Chesnut claims that “most devotees have little interest in the history of the skeleton saint,” but are much more concerned with her practical purposes.102 This situation may account for the amount of vagueness and debate that surrounds Santa Muerte’s origins: neither scholars nor devotees agree on a consistent account of where she originated. Most scholars trace Santa Muerte’s origins to medieval Europe, and usually point in the direction of La Parca (“death”): the Spanish personification of death, which was embodied by a female skeleton. When Spanish Catholic missionaries came to Latin America, they employed La Parca as a tool for the conversion of indigenous peoples.103 The majority of Santa Muerte’s devotees, on the other hand, view Santa Muerte as an adaptation of an indigenous of death, instead of an ‘imported’ one. This group, then again, splits into two when it comes to her exact myth of origin: The largest group of devotees see Santa Muerte as stemming from the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl, who ruled the underworld (Mictlan) with her husband Mictlantecuhtli, and was usually portrayed as a skeleton. The second group, however, that her roots can be found in the belief system of indigenous people that were never ruled by the Aztecs, named the Perépecha. These two groups of devotees do agree, though, that Santa Muerte veneration (be it under different names) was driven ‘underground’ by the Spanish colonizers, and has only recently had a chance to become public again.104 As Chesnut argues: “In response to persecution by the Church, devotees of the Skinny Lady [another nickname for Santa Muerte] made their veneration of her even more clandestine, to the extent that she disappears from the Mexican historical records for the next century and a half.”105 Finally, there is one relatively widespread myth of origin which explains Santa Muerte’s strong link to romance, romantically troubled women, and love magic. This myth tells the tale of a bride waiting at the altar for her husband-to-be. Unfortunately, the husband never shows up, and the poor bride dies of grief right by the altar, after which she becomes a saint: La Santa Muerte.106 Today, scholars are aware of one relatively old explicit mention of Santa Muerte, in a 1797 Inquisition document titled “Sobre las supersticiones contra varios Indios del pueblo de San Luis de la Paz” (“Concerning the of Various Indians from the Town of San Luis de la Paz”).107 Apart from this document, there is no mention of a death-saint until the 1940s. Scholars generally

102 Chesnut, Devoted, 27. 103 Chesnut, Devoted, 30-31; Deibert, Shadow, 6-7; Kristensen, “Death,” 5. 104 Chesnut, Devoted, 27-28; Deibert, Shadow, 6-7; Kristensen, “Death,” 6. 105 Chesnut, Devoted, 32. 106 Kristensen, “Death,” 10. 107 Chesnut, Devoted, 31;, Perdigón, Santa Muerte, 33.

23 agree that Santa Muerte veneration has for a while been an underground practice – Andrew Chesnut explicitly ascribes this disappearance from the public sphere to persecution by the Catholic Church. In the 1940s and ‘50s, Santa Muerte reappears in scholarly literature, but not yet in her current manifestation: The saint that is described in ethnographic reports in the 1940s and ‘50s may be called Santa Muerte, but she is not as specifically concerned with life and death yet as she is today. During this period, Santa Muerte is mostly known as a saint of love – specifically as a saint of women who are unhappy with their love lives. Chesnut mentions one Mexican and three American anthropologists who discuss Santa Muerte’s country-wide role as a “love sorceress” in the 1940s and ‘50s.108 One of the first scholars who investigated the recent organised worship of Santa Muerte – as opposed to the individual worshop of Santa Muerte within the privacy of people’s homes – was María de Luz Bernal. In the 1970s, she described groups of women who would dress completely in black and kneel down in front of shrines dedicated to Santa Muerte, in order to ask for power over the men in their lives. With sentences like “Most Holy Death, torture him, mortify him” they tried to win back the men in their lives that had abandoned them or ran astray, according to De Luz Bernal.109 In addition, the oldest prayer to Santa Muerte that is known, is a plea to the saint asking to bind a loved one to the devotee.110 This function – the punishing of unfaithful husbands and delivering them back to their wives ‘mortified’ – already implies that Santa Muerte has a darker side, a side that has become notorious in more recent years.111 The attraction of love-magic to women, especially poor and marginalised women, might be quite understandable when we review the socioeconomic status of most Mexican women, both in previous centuries and nowadays: Many women were and are economically dependent on their husbands. When their husbands would leave them for another woman, it would thus not only result in heartbreak, but also in economic distress. Therefore, as Chesnut states: “If witchcraft is a weapon of the weak, a magical attempt on the part of the socioeconomically powerless to manipulate and control circumstances […] that they are unable to influence through other means, then the double attraction of love magic to women […] is easily comprehensible.”112

Rise to fame The worship of Santa Muerte is thus not completely ‘new’, thought its current manifestation is notably different from earlier ones. Especially since the 1990s, the veneration of Santa Muerte has

108 Chesnut, Devoted, 3. 109 Ibid., 34. 110 Ibid., 122. 111 Ibid., 96. 112 Ibid., 123.

24 received renewed attention, both in general Mexican society, as in Mexico’s penitentiary system. There are three occurrences that precipitated the “return” of Santa Muerte veneration and are said to be (partly) responsible for the renewed attention to Santa Muerte: Firstly, the American anthropologist Laura Lee Roush113 states that when liberation theology started waning in the 1990s, its former sympathisers were often left searching: Many who had hitherto felt supported by a priest that adhered to liberation theology were left empty-handed, but with a continuing dissatisfaction with traditional Roman Catholicism or a sense of abandonment by the Roman Catholic Church and its priests. Many of them, then, found solace in Santa Muerte veneration: Roush suggests that Santa Muertes growth in popularity has been most distinctly visible in those areas where liberation theology had also been strongly present.114 In addition, some suggest that the Mexican Catholic hierarchy’s continuing support for conservative political parties may have driven away those believers that were aiming for social change.115 Secondly, in 1992 the Ley de Culto Público (a law regulating religion in public) was abandoned.116 According to Laura Roush, the Mexican Catholic Church traditionally tended to publicly discourage and scold parishioners for venerating Santa Muerte, while often tolerating it behind closed doors. When the Ley de Culto Público was overturned, however, more space was created in the public sphere for alternative beliefs and non-Catholic religion. As a result, worshippers took their belief in Santa Muerte increasingly into the open. The Catholic Church, then, may have felt threatened by the cult of Santa Muerte, since it might attract Roman Catholics to put their faith in another belief-system.117 This explanation lines up with Parkers argument of popular religious expressions having existed ‘underground’ (sometimes for centuries) and coming back into the public sphere after the loss of the ‘symbolic monopoly’ of the Catholic Church over society. Third and finally, Mexico was struck by a severe economic crisis in 1994.118 The rise in popularity of Santa Muerte can also readily be linked to this occurrence, since during the crisis a large portion of the middle class lost its buying power, and the poor became even more extremely poor. In this line of argumentation, Santa Muerte veneration is seen as both a manifestation of crisis,

113 Laura Lee Roush currently works as a lecturer at El Colegio de Michoacán (Mexico). 114 Cited in Antonia Blumberg, “Meet Santa Muerte, the Tequila-loving Saint Comforting both Criminals and the Marginalized,” Huffington Post, November 7, 2014, accessed May 31, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/santa-muerte-saint-death_n_6108198.html. 115 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 436. 116 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 139. 117 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 138-139; Blumberg, “Meet Santa Muerte.” 118 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 183.

25 as a solution to crisis.119 Thus, the cult of Santa Muerte may “reflect[…] economic and political uncertainty.”120 Though Santa Muerte was thus already gaining visibility and popularity in the 1990s, one event is generally seen as the most important turning point for Santa Muerte veneration: In September 2001, the son of Enriqueta Romero, an inhabitant of a notoriously poor barrio (neighbourhood) named in Mexico City, gave her a life size statue of Santa Muerte as a token of gratitude for his early release from prison – which Romero believes was prompted by her pleas to Santa Muerte.121 Romero claims she had worshipped Santa Muerte since as far back as 1964, but did not dare to take her beliefs out into the open.122 After her son gifted her the statue, she initially placed it in her small living room, in which she also sold quesadillas. When customers came in and saw the statue, they asked Romero if they could pray and offer to it. Romero agreed, but soon found her living room to be so crowded with worshippers, that she ventured to place the statue on the curb in front of her house – hereby installing the first public Santa Muerte shrine. Romero placed the statue on its altar outside on All Saints Day (November 1st) of 2001.123 After this first public assertion of space for Santa Muerte, the cult’s fame and popularity increased both rapid and strong. Moreover, in August 2009, Romero also started a monthly Santa Muerte ceremony held at the shrine – an event which now counts over 5,000 participants every month.124

2.4 Santa Muerte today

One of Santa Muerte’s most important functions is the protection (amparo) that she offers her devotees: protection from harm by human violence and by means of black magic, as well as protection from harm by institutions.125 This function is naturally closely linked to the socio- economic status of most of Santa Muerte’s devotees. As noted before, the great majority of Santa Muertistas come from the lower strata of society, are impoverished and occupy a marginalized position in society. These are also the people that often lack protection by the justice system: According to Chesnut, only two percent of criminal offenses in Mexico result in a conviction, with victims coming from the bottom of society faring by far the worst when it comes to justice.126 Many of Santa Muerte’s devotees feel not only that the state cannot protect them, but also that the

119 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 183. 120 Campbell, “Saint.” 121 Kristensen, “Death,” 1. 122 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 188. 123 Chesnut, Devoted, 39. 124 Chesnut, Devoted, 13; Campbell, “Saint.” 125 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 130. 126 Chesnut, Devoted, 178.

26

Roman Catholic Church cannot. Especially when it comes to those at the bottom of society – such as prostitutes, criminals, and homosexuals – many of their daily practices are (sometimes fiercely) condemned by the Mexican Roman Catholich Church. While performing these practices, they thus do not feel protected by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church – which explains them being drawn to Santa Muerte.127 On top of that, some of Santa Muerte’s followers even feel explicitly harmed by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church or justice system, thus they will obviously not view these institutions as options for finding protection.128 On a related note, devotees sometimes state that there are dangers (usually related to activities that are either illegal or deemed immoral by the Church) which they cannot discuss with priests, and that people have lost faith in traditional ecclesiastical institutions. As Enriqueta Romero, the founder of Santa Muerte’s first public shrine, states:

The Catholic Church has lost touch with its followers. The average Mexican does not feel the church is acting in his best interests, and then there are the scandals of child abuse. Holy Death fills a spiritual void. She listens to us and she truly loves us. That’s why more and more people ask her for help.129

Largely thanks to her representation in mass media, Santa Muerte is primarily known for her connection to the Mexican criminal underworld of the drug cartels. In reality, however, Santa Muerte’s cult comprises a variety of people from the fringes of society: criminals indeed, but also prostitutes, homosexuals, transgender people, immigrants and the extremely poor – those who cannot find a solution to all their problems with the Catholic Church, or whose lifestyle is being (actively) condemned by it, as discussed above.130 But, Chesnut notes that the Death Saint´s following is not exclusively comprised of people from the lower walks of life: “High school students, middle-class housewives, taxi drivers, drug traffickers, politicians, musicians, doctors, and lawyers all are among the ranks of the faithful.”131 In opposition to the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical structure, the cult of Santa Muerte is highly egalitarian and knows little to no ‘official’ theology or teachings.132 Nor does it uphold strict moral standards; everybody is welcome, regardless their daily occupations. As Enriqueta Romero states: “the church reprimands, [Santa Muerte] accepts everyone, with faults

127 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 130, 143, 145. 128 Ibid., 146. 129 Jan-Albert Hootsen, “Inside Santa Muerte, Mexico’s Fast-Growing Death Cult,” Vocativ, December 23, 2013, accessed May 31, 2015, http://www.vocativ.com/culture/photos/santamuerte/. 130 Sesin, “Growing Devotion;” Campbell, “Saint.” 131 Chesnut, Devoted, 11-12. 132 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 137.

27 and without.”133 Many of Santa Muerte’s devotees, however, continue to identify themselves as Catholics, and see Santa Muerte veneration more as “complementary” to their Catholicism than as standing in contrast with it.134 Andrew Chesnut, for example, notes that ”only one of [his] informants claimed that worship of the skeleton saint was her exclusive religion.”135 Also, Chesnut emphasizes that Santa Muerte “possesses both distinctly Christian and non-Christian identities depending on how individual devotees perceive her,”136 – for example, a rather anti-Catholic devotee will place emphasis on Santa Muerte’s perceived pre-Catholic identity as a goddess of the underworld, whereas Roman Catholic devotees might place more emphasis on Santa Muerte’s perceived co- operation with the Christian God.137 As noted before, the veneration of Santa Muerte is very popular within the penitentiary system as well: In most Mexican prisons, and some Texan and Californian ones, the worship of Santa Muerte is the most popular religious practice.138 This is not only the case among the incarcerated, but also among guards and attorneys.139 As Chesnut states: “In such a dangerous workplace, full of drugs and prison shanks, one can imagine the appeal of supernatural protection offered by the Powerful Lady.”140 Santa Muerte is therefore sometimes pinpointed as the patron saint of the penitentiary system – something which of course also colours public assumptions about her. Inside the penitentiary system, most Santa Muertistas are men. Outside of the prisons, however, the majority of devotees are women in their teens, twenties and thirties.141 The ‘centre’ of the cult of Santa Muerte (in as far as we can speak of a centre for such a loosely organized movement) is located in the Mexico City barrio (neighbourhood) of Tepito:142 a neighbourhood which is often seen as a “nucleus of class resistance” in the public mind.143 It is a place where liberation theology was traditionally highly present, and it is one of the poorest areas of Mexico City.144 Moreover, Tepito is the only place where Santa Muertistas gather in large numbers, during the monthly rosary organized by Enriqueta Romero.145 The rosary, as well, shows elements of exactly that which sets the cult of Santa Muerte apart from the religion of the elite. As Laura Roush establishes: [It is] “undeniably transgressive, [infused] with certain countercultural and defiant

133 Campbell, “Saint.” 134 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 443. 135 Chesnut, Devoted, 115. 136 Ibid., 173. 137 Perdigón, Santa Muerte, 60. 138 Chesnut, Devoted, 14. 139 Ibid., 15. 140 Ibid., 15. 141 Ibid., 13. 142 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 188. 143 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 140. 144 Ibid., 144. 145 Campbell, “Saint.”

28 pleasures.”146 The Santa Muertistas, however, do not seem to form groups of such a large size outside of the rosary, thus keeping the cult of Santa Muerte predominantly individual, intangible, and unorganized.147

2.5 Beliefs and practices

One of us A crucial characteristic of Santa Muerte, which also explains her attractiveness for her devotees, is the fact that she is perceived to be ‘one of them’. Santa Muerte is described as radically different from the pure and chaste female saints of Roman Catholicism. Santa Muerte is a bitch or a “battle- ax;”148 somebody you “don’t have to hide yourself away from;”149 someone who does not judge or differentiates between her followers on the basis of their moral standing. A stark contrast with Mexico’s official patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, who is viewed as “tending rather to well-off people with college degrees and nice clothes”150 by Santa Muertistas. Or, as Patrick Polk151 states:

146 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 129. 147 Ibid., 142. 148 Chesnut, Devoted, 192. 149 Jules Suzdaltsev, “Narco-Saints Are Melding Catholicism with the Drug War in Latin America,” Vice News, April 3, 2014, accessed May 31, 2015, http://www.vice.com/read/narco-saints-exhibition. 150 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 209. 151 Patrick Polk is a professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA.

29

“You have this idea that the Virgin Guadalupe is this pure mother and Santa Muerte gets the rest”152 – ‘the rest’ being people on the margins of society whose struggle for survival does not always leave them time, opportunity or desire to be ‘moral’ and ‘pure’. Also, as Desirée Martín153 states, “she [Santa Muerte] eliminates the need for hierarchy or authority in spiritual worship, for the connection between the saint and her followers is direct”154 – as is generally the case in cults centred around the worship of a saint. Thus, as Martín establishes: “Santa Muerte is not venerated for her purity or holiness but for her accessibility to the masses […] and her resistance to the powerful forces of the state, the Catholic Church, and wealthy elites.”155 Santa Muerte’s devotees claim that they feel an intricate connection and familiarity with her. They show their respect and love for her by means of offerings, though not the type of offerings one might expect: The saint is mainly given things like liquor, cigarettes and fake money, but also marihuana – in a few gruesome and infamous cases the saint has even been known to receive human sacrifices, though this is definitely not the norm.156 British anthropologist Marcel Reyes- Cortez also states that Santa Muerte statues in a way tend to become members of a devotee’s family: “When participants talk and communicate with the material object/body they are actually talking to the Santa Muerte as a living entity.”157 The adoption of Santa Muerte into the family may also increase the feeling of Santa Muerte as familiar and ‘one of us’, instead of ‘one of them’ as Roman Catholic saints tend to be perceived by Santa Muertistas. On top of that, as said before, the cult of Santa Muerte is highly egalitarian: There is no official leadership or hierarchy, everybody is equally welcomed, and devotees do not need status or money to participate. Chesnut notes that “the Saint doesn’t discriminate” (“La Santa no discrima”) is almost like a mantra for devotees:158 Everybody is equal in death, and the gaps between rich and poor, educated and uneducated, powerful and powerless are obliterated after people pass away. Death, then, is “ultimate Justice.”159

Pragmatism Above all, Santa Muerte veneration is highly pragmatic. Santa Muerte is perceived to have an infinite power to perform , and she fulfils wishes which the Roman Catholic saints will most certainly not fulfil – think for example of wishes concerning things like vengeance or adultery.

152 Suzdaltsev, “Narco-Saints.” 153 Desirée A. Martín is a lecturer at the University of California. Among other things, her research focuses on “US-Mexico border studies” and “20th century Mexican cultural reproduction.” 154 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 208. 155 Ibid., 183. 156 Chesnut, “Death to Santa Muerte.” 157 Marcel Reyes-Cortez, “Material Culture, Magic and the Santa Muerte in the Cemeteries of a Megalopolis,” Culture and Religion 13:1 (2012), 117. 158 Chesnut, Devoted, 177. 159 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 458.

30

Moreover, the saint is almost seen as omnipotent: she is more powerful than all other saints, and takes orders from God alone.160 Maybe it is not so surprising, then, to see that many devotees embrace belief in Santa Muerte after feeling that they have been disappointed by other saints.161 Thus, devotees feel more certain about Santa Muerte’s efficacy than they do about other Saints. This is also partly connected to her ‘prime specialty,’ death. As father David Romo, an important Santa Muerte spokesman, argues: “[Santa Muerte is the] only saint we can be sure exists […] People trust in the one thing that will be real in their lives, and that is their own death.”162 On top of that, Santa Muerte is concerned with the problems “of the people:” The Holy Mysteries during Enriqueta Romero’s rosary ceremony, for example, are dedicated to “unemployment, imprisonment, addictions, miscarriage of justice, and neglect by a strained public medical system.”163 Santa Muerte thus handles problems that are acute and faced in daily life by her devotees. This is also the case in the private veneration of Santa Muerte. For example, Chesnut mentions the “first ritual for health,” a ritual “For luck in love,” “the ritual for winning a court case,” and a ritual “For Jump-Starting Your Business.”164 Central to the private veneration of Santa Muerte is the votive gift, which is a ritual sacrifice that supposes a sort of reciprocal ‘contract’: “I ask of you and I offer in return.”165 The most popular votive gifts for Santa Muerte are the votive candles: differently coloured candles which represent the different aspects of Santa Muerte. The red candle, then, represents love and passion; the white candle represents purity, protection, gratitude and consecration; the black candle represents vengeance, harm and protection from black magic and enemies; the gold candle represents money, prosperity and abundance; the blue candle represents concentration and insight; the purple candle represents healing; the cream candle represents peace and harmony in the home and the business; the brown candle represents enlightenment and wisdom; the green candle represents justice; the yellow candle represents recovery from alcohol or drug abuse; and finally, the multi-coloured candle represents all of the above.166 Thus, the multi-coloured candle can be used for several petitions at once, as Chesnut notes: “In a single rainbow-colored ritual object the Godmother dispatches justice, restores balance, neutralizes enemies, returns unfaithful men, and grants myriad favors.”167 Red, white, and black, though, are the most often used and well-known candles. By some devotees,

160 Perdigón, Santa Muerte, 60. 161 Chesnut, Devoted, 52, 59, 60, 193. 162 Reyes-Cortez, “Material Culture,” 117. 163 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 146. 164 Chesnut, Devoted, 130, 138, 173, 179. 165 Parker, Popular Religion, 199. 166 Chesnut, Devoted, 20-22, 25, 165, 188; Reyes-Cortez, “Material Culture,” 118. 167 Chesnut, Devoted, 20.

31 however, these colours are seen as not only representing aspects of the saint, but in fact as various saints or at least various personalities. As one devotee states when he talks about his beliefs:

I have my Santísimas Muertes. […] there is the good and the bad. The good is the Golden one, the Red Santísima. The Golden one is for money, the Red is for love, the White is the same, for love. The Black is not anything like this. The first three do not ask anything in exchange but the Black does […] one must give something back. A person that I love a lot… someone in my family, my kid. Meanwhile the others (the Gold, Red and White) will oppose her… Sometimes the Gold and the Black fight.168

This devotee thus states that Santa Muerte’s various aspects or identities can get wrapped up in a struggle, when two or more sides of her do not agree on the right course of action. Despite this man’s convictions, Chesnut suggests that the great majority of devotees reject the idea of Santa Muerte claiming the lives of a devotee’s loved ones in exchange for granting wishes.169 Finally, by venerating Santa Muerte devotees feel that they make sure that they will not die at an early age, and that when Death does come for them, it will be a ‘good death’.170 As one devotee states: “I believe in God, but trust in her.”171

Collective rituals The veneration of Santa Muerte takes place mostly behind closed doors, in the privacy of devotees’ homes.172 This could be the combined result of the traditional suppression of the faith by the Catholic Church, and negative attention for the faith in Mexican public debate. Devotees can find prayers and rituals for worshipping and petitioning Santa Muerte online and in print. The most widely available Santa Muerte guidebook is La Biblia de la Santa Muerte (The Bible of Saint Death).173 Also, a monthly magazine is published on Santa Muerte, titled Devoción a la Santa Muerte (Devotion to Santa Muerte).174 However, the relatively private nature of Santa Muerte veneration does not mean that there are no collective rituals or gatherings: Ever since Enriqueta Romero started up her rosary, many more have sprung up. Nowadays a couple of dozens take place each month in Mexico City alone.

168 Cited in Gareth A. Jones, Elsa Herrera and Sarah Thomas de Benítez, “Tears, Trauma and Suicide: Everyday Violence among Street Youth in Puebla, Mexico,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 26:4 (2007), 475. 169 Chesnut, Devoted, 63. 170 Reyes-Cortez, “Material Culture,” 118. 171 Chesnut, Devoted, 60. 172 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 188. 173 Chesnut, Devoted, 156. 174 Ibid., 154.

32

These bottom-up ceremonies do not require official clergy to lead them and are very susceptible to syncretism (the mixing of elements from various cultural or religious traditions) and alterations, even though most are directly inspired by or remain copies of traditional Roman Catholic rituals.175 (As is for example the case with Enriqueta Romero’s rosary.) The ceremonies often turn out to be a colourful combination of traditional Roman Catholic elements, popular religious imagery connected to Santa Muerte, and at times elements from other religions, such as santería. As Martín states: “The ecclesiastical status of these sacred figures […] has little impact on the masses’ desire to worship on their own terms.”176 Besides the , collective rituals nowadays take place in many Santa Muerte temples and churches. Especially Mexico City and know many temples that hold daily masses. For example, the church of father David Romo conducts an exorcism and liberation mass at noon, a five o’clock healing service, and a Friday afternoon “mass for prisoners,” which is dedicated to petitioning Santa Muerte for the release of a prisoner and is the only mass Romo conducts that concerns a specific group of people. Also, a number of Santa Muerte temples and churches offer baptisms, rosaries, exorcisms, cleansings, and marriages nowadays177 – some (such as Romo’s church) even provide same-sex weddings; one more aspect that does not sit well with the Mexican Roman Catholic Church.

2.6 Key figures

Within the Santa Muerte community – in as far as you can speak of ‘community’ when discussing such a loosely organized movement – two people can be seen as key figures: Enriqueta Romero, the aforementioned founder of Santa Muerte’s first public shrine, and David Romo Guillén, a controversial Catholic priest who adopted the belief in Santa Muerte as complementary to his Catholicism, and has since been the most important public spokesperson for the cult of Santa Muerte.178 Whereas Enriqueta Romero, also known as Doña Queta (‘Doña’ meaning Madam or Mrs.), is generally seen as the peaceful and quiet madrina (godmother) of the “correct and well- meaning side of Santa Muerte,”179 Romo is much more outspoken, controversial and known by the general public. Especially Romo has kept Santa Muerte veneration in the Mexican press’ headlines, as we will later see. In the mid-1990s, Romo founded the “Traditional Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, Mex-USA” (also known as the “Mexico-USA Tridentine Catholic Church”) which is located in Tepito in Mexico

175 Chesnut, Devoted, 80, 84. 176 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 2. 177 Chesnut, Devoted, 89, 95. 178 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 439; Kristensen, “Death,” 19. 179 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 141.

33

City – the same neighbourhood where Enriqueta Romero’s shrine is located. Romo first founded the church as a ‘traditional’ Roman Catholic church. After a while, however, he became interested in Santa Muerte. He subsequently concluded that the belief in Santa Muerte was indeed compatible with Roman Catholicism, as so many Santa Muertistas believe, and ‘adopted’ her; making her an increasingly central element of his church. On , 2003, Romo even organised a celebration in his church, devoted to officially incorporating Santa Muerte into “the church’s set of beliefs and practices.”180 As could be predicted, Romo very openly ‘shifting his allegiance’ did not go unnoticed: Though Romo’s church had been legally recognized in early 2003, in 2005 the Mexican government already revoked the legal recognition (and accompanying legal rights) of Romo’s church, while arguing that the veneration of Santa Muerte had become too central to the church, leading it to violate its own bylaws. The church was also said to no longer conform to the belief system that could grant it a similar status to the Mexican Roman Catholic Church.181 Romo, however, has subsequently accused the Catholic Church of being the master-mind behind the revocation of his church’s legal recognition.182 On top of that, he filed a defamation suit against the Mexican Catholic Church, after bishop Martín Rábago of Léon said the following concerning the veneration of Santa Muerte:

Groups with satanic practices exist and they do psychological damage to young people, and I have experienced this because parents and even kids themselves have come to me under the influence of these sects, and they are psychologically disturbed and disoriented. The damage done to them is very severe.183

Romo stated that after he filed the defamation suit, he received several death threats, trying to force him to withdraw the suit. Though Romo did not withdraw, Chesnut reports that in the end the suit was dismissed by the Office of the Attorney General, though it remains unclear on the basis of which argument the suit was dismissed.184 However, Romo’s struggles with the establishment did not end here, and in July 2009, Romo regained public attention when he tried to convince his followers at a press conference to vote against serving president Felipe Calderón in the next elections, and to vote for the left-wing, anti-establishment PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática) instead.185

180 Chesnut, Devoted, 41-43. 181 Chesnut, Devoted, 43; Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 449. 182 Chesnut, Devoted, 44. 183 Ibid., 44. 184 Ibid., 44. 185 Ibid., 45.

34

In another dramatic turn, Romo was arrested in 2011, under the aforementioned Calderón administration: He was charged with extortion and running a kidnapping ring, and subsequently sentenced to 66 years in prison.186 Romo himself still maintains that he is not guilty, and that he was arrested purely for political reasons and subsequently tortured – a conviction his supporters share.187 Moreover, Romo’s supporters see his arrest as a form of religious persecution, and believe their leader was imprisoned in order to discredit their faith and silence its supporters.188 In an article in the LA Times on January 5th 2011, a supporter of Romo is quoted who even states that “La Santa Muerte will not abandon the father, and nor will we […] This is war.”189 Romo’s arrest and subsequent conviction, then, were the start of a whole new chapter in the continuing animosity between the Mexican government and adherents of Santa Muerte, as will be more elaborately discussed in chapter 3.

186 Author unknown, “Dan 66 años de cárcel a líder de la Iglesia de la Santa Muerte,” Proceso, June 14, 2012, accessed June 20, 2015, http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=310895. 187 Wilkinson, “Mexico.” 188 Ibid. 189 Ibid.

35

3. Struggles and Conflict surrounding Santa Muerte

As noted above, the cult of Santa Muerte has never been free of controversy. Especially the faith’s perceived connection to criminality, drug-trafficking and has coloured perceptions of the cult of Santa Muerte in the public mind. In addition, the cult has often been condemned by both Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authorities and by secular officials – as was for example illustrated in chapter 2.6. Though the Mexican federal government and Mexican Roman Catholic Church do not operate collectively, they have traditionally been closely connected as a result of colonial era policies. Since 1493, Spain recognised Roman Catholicism as the only religion of the Spanish state and all of its colonial territories – thus including Mexico. Also, the Spanish government had a strong political relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. After Mexico’s independence, a fierce internal war was fought from 1854 to 1859, known as the Guerra de la Reforma (War of the Reformation), which resulted in an official separation of church and state – making Mexico the first Latin American country to know such a separation.190 However, this does not mean that since then the Mexican government has become anti-Catholic or has been fully uninfluenced by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church – which is still the country’s dominant religious institution. However, the Church cannot exert not direct control over the Mexican government anymore, even if some of its adversaries (such as David Romo Guillén) tend to imply that it does – and especially did so under the conservative, pro-church administration of Felipe Calderón. The ways in which the Mexican government and Roman Catholic Church influence each other are complex and manifold, and cannot be reduced to a simple ‘unified block’ thwarting the cult of Santa Muerte. However, both have had their share in opposing Santa Muerte´s cult. This chapter will briefly discuss the friction between the cult of Santa Muerte and these two most outspoken adversaries, the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and the Calderón administration (2006-2012), and elaborate on several culmination points.

3.1 Santa Muerte and the Mexican Roman Catholic Church

Indictments by the Church As discussed above, believers and scholars alike are inclined to believe that the cult of Santa Muerte has traditionally been supressed and criticized by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. Behind closed doors, though, the worship of Santa Muerte is said to have been relatively tolerated by the Church for a while. However, this radically changed during the 1990s, when the laws

190 Carlos Garma Navarro, “Religious Change in Mexico: Perspectives from Recent Data,” Social Sciences and Missions 24 (2011), 76-77.

36 concerning (most notably the aforementioned Ley de Culto Publico) were changed and it became easier for non-Roman Catholic religious groups to start up official religious communities, houses of worship, et cetera. This change, then, resulted in a firm increase of competition for the Roman Catholic Church, which according to Chesnut was now “in a state of panic over its losses.”191 After the altering of the laws governing religion, the Church responded by strongly condemning and speaking out against “the invasion of the sects” in Latin America, which included not only many Pentecostal competitors but also the cult of Santa Muerte.192 According to Chesnut, this is not an unusual turn of events: “For the most part the Catholic Church in the region [Latin America] has looked the other way on these homegrown saints. However, when they have achieved a certain level of mass appeal the Church has moved to vilify and repress certain folk saints.”193 Chesnut observes that this has happened in the case of Santa Muerte as well. There are three main indictments the Mexican Roman Catholic Church has used to put the cult of Santa Muerte in bad light: The claim of idolatry, the claim of Satan-worship, and the claim of demonic possession. The first and most important transgression the Mexican Roman Catholic Church accuses Santa Muertistas of is tied to the issue of idolatry. Idolatry occurs, according to Christian theology, when an icon is perceived as having a separate agency from God.194 Moreover, idolatry is seen as a severe sin by the Roman Catholic Church. As noted above, Santa Muerte devotees often tend to dress and feed their statues, or talk to them. Moreover, some devotees have stated that their statues act on their own accord: the statues are said to have moved, eaten, cried or dropped things. For example, Enriqueta Romero is convinced that one time her statue turned its head to look at her, and that her statue tends to drop things on the floor.195 The Danish anthropologist Regnar Albæk Kristensen argues that Santa Muertistas indeed tend to treat their statues as individuals with their own agency, but that they are acutely aware of the accusation of idolatry and therefore usually state that their icons solely represent the spirit of Death when asked forthright.196 Secondly, the worship of Santa Muerte is often assimilated to worshipping the devil by Mexican ecclesiastical spokesmen. The most frequently used argument purports that Christ overcame death, which implies two things: death cannot be holy and death is an enemy of Christ. To worship death is thus to worship the enemy of Christ, and the ultimate enemy of Christ is Satan. Therefore, Santa Muerte veneration is essentially Satan-worship.197 Thirdly, a number of Mexican Roman Catholic priests

191 Chesnut, “Death to Santa Muerte.” 192 Ibid. 193 Chesnut, R. Andrew, “Healed by Death: Santa Muerte, the Curandera,” in The Handbook of Contemporary Christianity: Movements, Institutions & Allegiance, ed. Stephen Hunt (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 336. 194 Kristensen, “Death,” 14. 195 Ibid., 14. 196 Ibid., 12-14. 197 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 139.

37 claim that Mexico has known a steep rise in the frequency of exorcisms, and that they “can barely handle the number of demonic possessions.”198 This claim is in turn being linked to the increasing popularity and worship of Santa Muerte.199 On top of these claims, the fact that priests such as David Romo Guillén claim that their Santa Muerte churches are equal to or even a part of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, has not done much to appease the Mexican Roman Catholic hierarchy either.200

A history of condemnation Many spokesmen of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church have condemned the worship of Santa Muerte in the past few decades. One of the first was the Archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, in the 1990s, who started a campaign against Santa Muerte by distributing flyers that warned against Santa Muerte. The flyers discussed Santa Muerte veneration as demon worship and Satanism, supporting the aforementioned claim that death cannot be holy since Jesus Christ overcame death. In 2003, as well, Rivera distributed a number of flyers which dealt with ways to safely dispose of Santa Muerte paraphernalia and ritual items. He also set up a spot in Mexico-City’s metropolitan cathedral where people could safely leave their Santa Muerte statues or icons “without fear of repercussions.”201 Other ecclesiastical spokesmen, as well, have openly condemned Santa Muerte. A culmination point, as noted before, took place in 2004, when José Guadalupe Martín Rábago of Leon, who is the president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, spoke out against Santa Muerte in a Press Conference – which subsequently led to the defamation suit being filed by father David Romo. Despite Romo’s defamation suit, the last few years the Catholic Church’s attitude towards Santa Muerte has continued to be primarily hostile. Mexican ecclesiastical spokesmen still do not hesitate to condemn Santa Muerte: Take for example father Hugo Valdemar from the archdiocese in Mexico City, who stated in 2013 that “the cult of the Holy Death is destructive […] It is blasphemous, it is diabolical and obviously it is anti-cultural.”202 In response to the condemnation from the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, Judith Katia Perdigón Castañeda suggests that nowadays, the Church discriminates against Santa Muerte devotees in a way reminiscent of the historical discrimination against homosexuals and people suffering from HIV.203

198 Hootsen, “Inside Santa Muerte.” 199 Hootsen, “Inside Santa Muerte;” Sesin, “Growing Devotion.” 200 Guillermoprieto, “Vatican.” 201 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 139-140. 202 Hootsen, “Inside Santa Muerte.” 203 Cited in Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 452.

38

In addition, not only Mexican ecclesiastical officials have spoken out against Santa Muerte. A Vatican official, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi204 has contributed to the public condemnation of the cult of Santa Muerte as well – something which definitely does not happen to just any religious movement that may compete with the Roman Catholic Church. Chesnut argues that “the Vatican's condemnation of the cult of Santa Muerte as the poster child of Latin America's ‘culture of death’”205 is due to the unique combination of extensive media coverage, theological concerns, religious competition and a large Latin American influence in the Vatican.206 The Vatican Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi spoke out against the cult of Santa Muerte on four occasions in 2013, with statements like: “it’s not religion just because it is dressed up like religion; it’s a against religion.”207 Moreover, Ravasi has called the worship of Santa Muerte “a degeneration of religion,” “blasphemous,” “infernal” and “the celebration of devastation and of hell.”208 Ravasi also tried to incite the Mexican federal government to ‘protect’ young Mexicans from the influence of Santa Muerte. Alma Guillermoprieto, a journalist for National Geographic News, states that Ravasi’s statements do not connote an “official” condemnation by the Vatican, but only a condemnation by a Vatican official, and that this could be interpreted as a means of showing the Vatican’s position on the matter without forcing away the faithful – those who may worship Santa Muerte, but also continue to identify themselves as Roman Catholics. As stated before, the Church is losing members at a particularly high rate in Latin America. It is thus plausible that the Vatican does not want to scare away any more believers, even if those believers may worship a ‘not-so-desirable’ saint on the side.209

The voice of nuance Though Santa Muerte has obviously been heavily critiqued by ecclesiastical officials, not all Catholic authorities judge the cult of Santa Muerte so harshly. One notable example is the bishop of the Diocese of Matamoros, Ruy Rendon Leal. Leal has consistently called for dialogue between the Church and Santa Muertistas, and tolerance, saying that: “When people get a statue of the holy death and places to worship, simply because the church does not endorse this cult, this does not

204 Gianfranco Ravasi is a Roman Catholic Cardinal of Italian descent. He has taught exegesis of the in Milan, at the Theological University of Northern Italy, a university of the Roman Catholic Church. Ravasi was appointed cardinal in 2010, by Pope Benedict XVI. 205 Chesnut, “Death to Santa Muerte.” 206 Ibid. 207 Author unknown. “Vatican declares Mexican Death Saint Blasphemous.” BBC News, May 9, 2013, accessed May 18, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22462181. 208 Ibid. 209 Alma Guillermoprieto, “Vatican in a Bind About Santa Muerte,” National Geographic News, May 14, 2013, accessed May 18, 2015, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130512-vatican-santa-muerte- mexico-cult-Catholic-church-cultures-world/.

39 mean as a church we can remove, destroy, or burn their objects of faith.”210 Also, father David Romo has stated that a number of Roman Catholic officials have come to worship Santa Muerte in his church, despite the fact that the Mexican Roman Catholic hierarchy disapproves of this devotion.211 However, this does not in any way mean that the conflict and struggles between the Roman Catholic Church and the cult of Santa Muerte are readily being resolved. From the other side of the debate as well, it must be made clear that not all Santa Muertistas share David Romo’s fierce anti-establishment sentiments, nor his left-wing, progressive political views. However, since the cult of Santa Muerte is so loosely organized, it is also rather impossible to find out how many Santa Muertistas agree with Romo’s ideas, though Andrew Chesnut notes that during his research he encountered “precious little” anti-Catholic sentiments.212 Thus, it is probable that only Romo’s direct supporters are as fiercely opposed to the Mexican Catholic Church and federal government as he is. ‘Mainstream’ Santa Muertistas, then, are more likely to be moderate in their convictions and behaviour. However, this does not mean that it is unimportant to pay attention to Romo’s position, since this is the position which is most frequently discussed in the mass-media. Also, this more extreme (political) position receives by far the most attention from both Church and state – much more attention than is given to the ‘silent masses’ within the cult of Santa Muerte, who are significantly less vocal and thus criticize the dominant elites implicitly at most.

3.2 Santa Muerte and the government of Felipe Calderón

Santa Muerte in mass-media As noted before, not only the Mexican Roman Catholic Church has condemned the cult of Santa Muerte; the Mexican federal government has consistently demonized and tried to suppress this cult, as well. The public demonization of Santa Muerte reached its peak under the administration of president Felipe Calderón (from 2006 to 2012), which addressed Santa Muerte devotees with such terms as “narcosatánicos” (narco-satanists).213 In public debate, the cult of Santa Muerte was often linked to the criminal underworld and to drug abusers and traffickers. This bias is partly due to the fact that the Mexican government (especially under Calderón) has consistently emphasized this aspect, but also to the fact that both Mexican and American mass-media have paid most attention

210 David Metcalfe, “More from Matamoros – Bishop Issues Call for Tolerance of Santa Muertistas,” January 31, 2014, accessed June 10, http://skeletonsaint.com/2014/01/31/more-from-matamoros-bishop-issues-call-for- tolerance-of-santa-muertistas/. 211 Reyes-Cortez, “Material Culture,” 117. 212 Chesnut, Devoted, 115. 213 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 455.

40 to the ‘black’ Santa Muerte of death.214 As Andrew Chesnut notes: “Always playing up the sensational and the sordid in an effort to gain more readers and viewers, newspapers and TV networks invariably focus on the black Saint Death candle of crime and violence.”215 The media’s narrow focus can be explained by two occurrences: Firstly, Santa Muerte’s rise in popularity has coincided with rising numbers of (mostly drug-related) criminal offences in Mexico. Secondly, a number of horrendous crimes and criminals have been found to have links with the cult of Santa Muerte.216 Illustrative is Santa Muerte’s big ‘media-debut’, which took place in 1998 when the notorious Mexican kidnapper Daniel Arizmendi López was arrested. López was also known as El Mochaorejas (“the Ear Chopper”), because he used to send the ears of his victims to their family members when these did not pay the ransom soon enough. During López’s arrest, an effigy of Santa Muerte was found, and after his conviction López was allowed to bring this effigy with him to prison.217 This first well-known report of Santa Muerte veneration strongly coloured public conceptions of her from thereon. The past few decades, then, Santa Muerte icons, statues and paraphernalia were also frequently used as ‘evidence’ in court cases.218 Moreover, several gruesome crimes that were committed ‘in honour’ of the saint have received great media attention. For example, in 2012 three people were arrested for (and confessed to) making human sacrifices to honour Santa Muerte.219 Also, the fact that the neighbourhood of Tepito is seen as the centre of Santa Muerte’s cult has shaped public conceptions of the faith, as Tepito is perceived to be “a community of criminals [and] a nucleus of class resistance”220 by the Mexican mainstream. On top of this, as noted before, documents that stem from the United States and are less concerned with “the sensational and sordid,” paint Santa Muerte in a one-sided and strongly critical way as well. Examples of such documents are firstly an article that appeared in the American journal named “Small Wars and Insurgencies,”221 which is titled “Torture, Beheadings, and Narcocultos,”222 and according to the authors “provides an overview of those incidents of torture and beheadings

214 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 4; Chesnut, Devoted, 96-98. 215 Chesnut, Devoted, 175-76. 216 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 129. 217 Chesnut, Devoted, 15-16; Martín, Borderlands Saints, 206. 218 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 189. 219 Chesnut, “Death to Santa Muerte;” Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 454; Author unknown, “Officials: 3 killed as human sacrifices in Mexico,” CNN, March 31, 2012, accessed June 20, 2015, http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/30/world/americas/mexico-human-sacrifice/. Author unknown, “Familia mexicana hacía sacrificios humanos en honor a la Santa Muerte,” Univision, March 30, 2012, accessed November 11, 2016, http://www.univision.com/noticias/noticias-de-mexico/familia-mexicana-hacia- sacrificios-humanos-en-honor-a-la-santa-muerte. 220 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 140. 221 ‘Small Wars and Insurgencies’ is a Virginia (U.S.) based journal focusing on intrastate conflict, that is published by the non-profit organisation ‘Small Wars Foundation’. 222 Pamela L. Bunker, Lisa J. Campbell and Robert J. Bunker, “Torture, Beheadings, and Narcocultos,” Small Wars & Insurgencies 21:1 (2010), 145-178.

41 linked to the Mexican cartels [...] performed in ritual fashion to fulfill religious or spiritual demands,”223 and secondly a report from the United States Army titled “The Death Cult of the Drug Lords: Mexico’s Patron Saint of Crime, Criminals, and the Dispossessed,”224 which discusses the cult of Santa Muerte as “an intriguing facet of Mexican organized crime”225 and states that:

The cult appears to be closely associated with crime, criminals, and those whose lives are directly affected by crime. Criminals seem to identify with Santa Muerte and call upon the saint for protection and power, even when committing crimes. They will adorn themselves with her paraphernalia and render her respect that they do not give to other spiritual entities.226

Thus, in North-American media and official documents as well, the main emphasis is on the dark side of Santa Muerte and her cult. Perdigón Castañeda therefore states that the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and the mass-media are jointly responsible for the negative view on Santa Muerte in the public mind and public debate.227 However, the fact that Santa Muerte’s ‘black’ side is the most widely known and commented upon, does not mean that this is also her most important aspect for devotees. To this day, Santa Muerte is mostly concerned with matters of the heart, connected to her ‘red’ side as love saint for girls and women – a fact that Chesnut ascribes to pervasive sexism in Mexican society, and limited employment options for women. Marriage is still one of the best options for women to assure socioeconomic stability.228 As noted earlier, outside of the penitentiary system the great majority of Santa Muerte devotees are women. Also, a Santa Muerte salesman in the Mexican city of Morelia, Vicente Pérez Ramon, states that the red – the candle for a petition concerning love and passion – makes up about 80 to 90 percent of his total sales.229 It may thus be clear that even though the black Santa Muerte of death is most visible in mass-media and public debate, the red Santa Muerte of love is still popular among devotees.

223 Bunker, Campbell and Bunker, “Torture,” 145. 224 Kevin Freese, “The Death Cult of the Drug Lords: Mexico’s Patron Saint of Crime, Criminals, and the Dispossessed,” Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS, accessed June 20, 2015, http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/Santa-Muerte/santa-muerte.htm. 225 Ibid. 226 Ibid. 227 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 452. 228 Chesnut, Devoted, 124. 229 Ibid., 121.

42

Santa Muerte and the Mexican state As discussed above, the conflict and struggles between the cult of Santa Muerte and the Mexican state reached its peak under the 2006-2012 Calderón administration. Calderón’s predecessors, Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) and Vicente Fox (2000-2006), had already started off the Mexican “war on drugs,” but neither of them tried to fight drug trafficking even remotely as fierce as Felipe Calderón did. Ironically, during the intensification of the war on drugs, drug-related violence in Mexico only increased: During the six years of Calderón’s presidency approximately 50,000 drug- related took place.230 During its war on drugs, the Calderón’s administration targeted Santa Muerte and her followers as “religious enemy number one.”231 Andrew Chesnut states, though, that Santa Muerte “isn’t so much the guardian angel of narcos as she is the patroness of the drug war,”232 because her cult is comprised of people from both sides of the drug war accordingly. Not only ‘narco’s’ venerate Santa Muerte; the belief in Santa Muerte seems widespread among prison guards, military men and police officers, as well.233 Despite this fact, the Calderón administration successfully profiled Santa Muerte as the patron saint of ‘narcos’, in response to the widely published connection of Santa Muerte imagery, effigies and tattoos to drug-related arrests and crimes that was noted above.234 This move can also be (partly) explained by the fact that the Partido Acción Nacional

230 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 436. 231 Chesnut, Devoted, 102, 116. 232 Ibid., 107. 233 Ibid., 107. 234 Ibid., 47, 103.

43

(National Action Party) or PAN – which is the political party Felipe Calderón was part of – has traditionally strong ties with the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. And we have already seen that the Mexican Roman Catholic Church has tried to suppress and denounce the cult of Santa Muerte since long before the Mexican government became involved. The animosity between the Calderón administration and groups of Santa Muertistas reached culmination points on two occasions: Firstly, the large-scale demolition of Santa Muerte shrines near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2009, and secondly the arrest of father David Romo in 2011. In March 2009, the Mexican government ordered the demolition of approximately 40 shrines to Santa Muerte in Northern Mexico, near the border with the United States, which were subsequently bulldozed by the Mexican army.235 This was not the first incident of that kind, since the government of Calderón had routinely destructed public Santa Muerte shrines since 2007 – mostly shrines that had popped up on the sides of freeways, arguing that these shrines were illegally built on public land.236 However, never before had such a large-scale destruction taken place as in March 2009. The government argued that these shrines were “narco-shrines” by explicitly linking them to the borderlands’ drug cartels and stating that such shrines provoke shoot-outs and executions.237 This large-scale demolition (probably combined with the build-up of smaller-scale demolitions) then engendered an enormous backlash, with hundreds of Santa Muertistas taking to the streets of Mexico City to petition for religious equality, while chanting slogans like: “We are believers; we are not criminals.”238 Also, after the demolition, David Romo started warning his followers of the “Holy War” against the Roman Catholic Church that they were now engaged in, according to him – he came to this conclusion because he was convinced that the Mexican Roman Catholic Church was the mastermind behind the large-scale destruction.239 This, then, brings us to the second culmination point in the Santa Muerte-Calderón administration conflict: The arrest and imprisonment of father David Romo. As discussed in chapter two, David Romo’s Mexico-USA Tridentine Catholic Church lost its official recognition as a church in 2005, which sparked protest under Santa Muertistas and put Romo and his followers at odds with the Mexican state.240 This tension strongly increased in 2009, when Romo not only accused the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and government of religious persecution in response to the destruction of borderlands shrines, but also urged his fellow Santa Muertistas to vote against the PAN (Calderón’s party) in the 2009 congressional elections. In a press-

235 Chesnut, Devoted, 4; Chesnut, “Death to Santa Muerte.” 236 Sesin, “Growing Devotion;” Martín, Borderlands Saints, 4. 237 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 4-6. 238 Campbell, “Saint.” 239 Chesnut, Devoted, 44-46. 240 Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 450.

44 conference during the build-up to these elections, Romo publicly declared his loyalty to the opposing (leftist and progressive) fringe party PRD, as noted in chapter 2.241 He thus openly showcased his anti-Catholic and anti-PAN sentiments, even urging Santa Muertistas not to vote for “politicians who openly profess to be Roman Catholic and who like to be seen at processions and attending Mass.”242 In this way, Romo established the entire cult of Santa Muerte as being anti-Catholic and anti-PAN. Moreover, he even painted the cult as being pro-PRD, which may be seen as specifically problematic (from the viewpoint of many members of Mexico’s elite classes) due to this party’s continuous opposition to both the PAN and the Roman Catholic Church on accord of its radically different views on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. In an elaboration of this progressive political agenda, a number of Santa Muerte churches (including Romo’s) have started performing same-sex marriages since February 2010, in the Mexican states where these are legal.243 Chesnut therefore argues that:

In a political context in which both the Catholic Church and the PAN perceive Santa Muerte to be a heretical partisan of the left-leaning PRD, Calderón’s pogrom against her […] is also an indirect attack on the PRD and a frontal assault on Padre Romo and his church.244

It is thus not so surprising that when Romo was arrested, his followers readily concluded that the arrest was an intentional tactic from the government to discredit the cult of Santa Muerte and persecute their faith. This conviction only grew in strength when Romo publicly declared that the charges – kidnap and blackmail – were false, that he had been tortured and that his arrest was politically motivated.245 Despite his denial of guilt, however, in 2012 Romo was sentenced to serve 66 years in prison.246 One more issue that has obviously done nothing to calm enraged Santa Muertistas is the fact that this was not the first perceived case of Santa Muertista targeting by the government: Enriqueta Vargas, the leader of a Santa Muerte community in the Mexican town of Tultitlán, has accused the Mexican government of murdering her son for his beliefs. (Her son had previously been a prominent figure in the local Santa Muerte community.) The Mexican government, however, has denied all accusations and dismissed his death as being related to drug-crimes.247

241 Chesnut, Devoted, 45, 114-5. 242 Ibid., 45. 243 Author unknown, “La Iglesia de Santa Muerte Mexicana celebró su primera boda gay y prevé 9 más,” ABC.es, March 3, 2010, accessed May 18, 2016, http://agencias.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=296160. 244 Chesnut, Devoted, 114-15. 245 Wilkinson, “Mexico.” 246 Author unknown, “Dan 66 años de cárcel.” 247 Blumberg, “Meet Santa Muerte.”

45

Therefore, it were not only Romo’s direct followers who were suspicious of the motivations underlying his arrest. Moreover, Chesnut states that not only Santa Muertistas, but many who distrust the Mexican judicial system suspect that Romo was indeed framed, by either the Calderón administration or Mexican Roman Catholic ecclesiastic authorities, or both.248 Finally, Romo’s supporters made it clear that this was the final straw for them. As one supporter stated: “La Santa Muerte will not abandon the father [Romo], and nor will we […] This is war.”249

248 Chesnut, Devoted, 188. 249 Wilkinson, “Mexico.”

46

4. Santa Muerte in Mexican newspapers

Now that we have shortly discussed the cult of Santa Muerte and its position in Mexican society, it is time to start refocussing on our main question: What does the way in which (the cult of) Santa Muerte is discussed in public debate tell us about the position of religion in Mexican society? Therefore, this chapter will contain an inventory of the articles concerning Santa Muerte that have been published in three of Mexico’s largest newspapers in between 2006 and 2012. The newspapers in question are firstly the relatively left-wing paper La Jornada, secondly a newspaper which is affiliated with the political centre, Reforma, and thirdly the relatively right-wing paper El Universal. La Jornada, which translates as “the working day” was founded in 1984 and has been recognised as “the only daily with a left-of-center political perspective”250 in Mexico. The newspaper is published by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico), which in 2005 was ranked as the best university in Latin America, Spain and Portugal by The Times.251 La Jornada has also been noted by Noam Chomsky to be “maybe the only real independent newspaper in the hemisphere.”252 La Jornada is a daily morning newspaper in the ‘budget’-range, that is distributed nationwide and sells approximately 90.000 copies per day.253 The newspaper’s website is viewed by 2 million unique visitors every month.254 Secondly, El Universal (“the universal”) is a relatively cheap newspaper as well.255 El Universal was founded in 1916 by Mexican minister of “public instruction” Félix Palavicini.256 It is published nation-wide and sells 300.000 copies daily.257 El Universal’s website is viewed by 2.2 million individual visitors each month, according to its own graphics.258 Opposed to the prior two, Reforma is one of the most expensive Mexican newspapers, which “target[s] upscale readers with discretionary income in neighborhoods of the more well-to-do in the southern and western parts of [Mexico-]city.”259 Though Reforma is generally seen as a newspaper of the political centre, it has also been criticized as being a “press bulletin for the PAN”

250 Richard R. Cole, Communication in Latin America: Journalism, Mass Media, and Society (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1996), 128. 251 Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd, “Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM),” accessed November 19, 2016, http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/universidad-nacional-aut%C3%B3noma-de-m%C3%A9xico- unam/undergrad. 252 FORA, “Chomsky: US Supported Indian, Pakistani Nuclear Programs,” accessed August 19, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3kAld2YwgU&t=21s. 253 María Esther Arce Barceló, “Análises del periódico Mexicano: ‘La Jornada’: Un Modelo de Comunicación Alternativa en la Era de la Globalización.” (PhD diss., Universidad de Murcia, 2011), 402. 254 La Jornada, “Estadísticas,” accessed November 19, 2016, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/tarifas/. 255 Cole, Communication, 128. 256 Ibid., 124. 257 El Universal, “Historia Breve,” accessed November 19, 2016, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/historia- breve. 258 El Universal, “Publicidad,” accessed November 19, 2016, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/publicidad. 259 Cole, Communication, 133.

47 by presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, after the paper published a poll which showed Lopez Obrador tying with Felipe Calderón for the presidency.260 Reforma was founded most recently, in 1993, by Alejandro Junco de la Vega.261 The newspaper is only distributed in Mexico-City, and sells approximately 135.000 copies each day.262 The newspaper’s website is, according to its own sources, viewed by 175.000 unique visitors per day.263 The Malaysian professor of linguistics Tan Bee Hoon states that “mass media play a significant role in the production of beliefs, prejudice and domination over the social context as mass media tend to marginalise Others and misconstrue […] event[s].”264 By means of critically analysing discourse used in mass-media, then, one can “unravel[…] the hidden ideologies and scrutinise the presence of power,”265 as well as “reveal stereotypes, presuppositions, hegemony, power and ideological stances.”266 Discourse, here, is seen as “a social practice which establishes power between various entities.”267 By reviewing the type of discourse used in the aforementioned Mexican newspapers, we can discover how actors in the debate(s) surrounding Santa Muerte are perceived in the public eye, how these stand in relation to each other, what power-struggles are (explicitly and implicitly) being fought out, and what this tells us about social structures in Mexican society. For this chapter, a total of sixty articles have been reviewed: eighteen articles that have been published in El Universal, nineteen articles that have been published in La Jornada, and twenty- three articles that have been published in Reforma. These are all of the articles concerning Santa Muerte that have been published in the three newspapers in the period between 2006 and 2012. The content of the articles will be discussed based on ‘categories’ (such as ‘subjects’, ‘discourse’, etc.), and not in a chronological order. I have chosen to do so because the articles and their content do not seem to contain any clear developments over time: it is simply the case that most attention was paid to (the cult of) Santa Muerte when specific events took place – such as pilgrimages, festivities, assassinations, and the arrest of David Romo – instead of on a regular, consecutive basis. In the following paragraphs, each newspaper will be discussed separately. Per newspaper, attention will be paid to the subjects of its articles, which type of discourse the newspaper uses, how the

260 S. Lynne Walker, “Favorite in Mexican presidential race battles against pollsters,” San Diego Union Tribune, November 30, 2005, accessed November 19, 2016, http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20051130/news_1n30mexico1.html. 261 Cole, Communication, 132. 262 Price Waterhouse Coopers, “Grupo Reforma Certificación 2014,” accessed November 19, 2016, http://comercial.reforma.com/libre/comercial/mediakit2014/pdf/certificacion2014.pdf. 263 Grupo Reforma, “Estadísticas,” accessed November 19, 2016, http://comercial.reforma.com/libre/comercial/mediakit2014/digistats.asp. 264 Tan Bee Hoon and Renugah Ramanathan, “Application of Critical Discourse Analysis in Media Discourse Studies,” The Southeast Asia Journal of Studies 21:2 (2015), 66. 265 Ibid., 58. 266 Ibid., 66. 267 Ibid., 58.

48 newspaper handles source-material, which actors are represented in the articles, and how these actors are being presented by the newspaper.

4.1 El Universal

Subjects El Universal seems to mostly focus on the festive side of Santa Muerte veneration: out of the eighteen articles concerning Santa Muerte that the newspaper published between 2006 and 2012, seven articles (39 percent) focus on Santa Muerte celebrations, festivities and pilgrimages. Squarely opposed to this positive tone, the paper also published two articles concerning human sacrifices allegedly made by Santa Muertistas – making El Universal the only paper of the three that discusses this topic. Furthermore, two articles are dedicated to Romo’s arrest and alleged crimes, two are dedicated to discussing the types of people who worship Santa Muerte, and all of the following subjects are discussed once: The execution of Santa Muerte leader Jonathan Vargas, the destruction of the borderlands shrines, the construction of a Santa Muerte shrine in a Chihuahua prison, the impending closure of the Santa Muerte temple in Tultitlán, and finally an article which adresses the struggle between the cult of Santa Muerte and the Mexican Roman Catholic Church.

Discourse Overall, El Universal seems to be a relatively neutral observer of the cult of Santa Muerte: it publishes articles that are critical of the cult of Santa Muerte as well as articles that are more focused on the positive, cheerful or colourful side of Santa Muerte veneration. However, the newspaper does tend to use rather suggestive language and words with negative connotations. For example, when an article speaks of a criminal band adhering to Santa Muerte, the newspaper chooses the word ‘indoctrination’ over more neutral or positive terms like ‘adoption’. In this way, the agency of the believers is implicitly being denied, and instead they are portrayed as more or less passive ‘victims’ of the belief in Santa Muerte, or possibly of band-leaders worshipping Santa Muerte and forcing the faith upon their ‘subordinates’. Moreover, the most infamous part of Santa Muerte worship is immediately being pointed out, as the full quote reads: “The American ‘Los Zetas’ are indoctrinated in the rites of Santa Muerte, for after they assassinate their rivals, they offer the blood of the deceased [to Santa Muerte].”268 Thus, not only does this article put forward a connection between Santa Muerte and her use in the criminal circuit, there is also an immediate connection

268 Original: “’Los Zetas’ estadounidenses […] adoctrinados en los ritos de la Santa Muerte, por lo que tras los asesinatos de sus rivales dan como ofrenda la sangre de los muertos.” In: Doris Gómora, “’Zetas,’ adeptos de Santa Muerte, El Universal, January 24, 2012.

49 being made with that which has made Santa Muerte most notorious in public perception: human sacrifice. Moreover, the entire article in which this quote appears focuses solely on torture, human sacrifice to Santa Muerte, and felonies like , illegal arms trade and drug trafficking, with an overwhelming emphasis on the cruel and gory: “They tortured him, and ended by opening his stomach and taking blood in a cup, in order to toast to Santa Muerte.”269 In addition to this, El Universal is the only newspaper of three that even discusses human sacrifice in relation to Santa Muerte, as well as the only one that uses the infamous term “narcosatánicos” (“narco-satanists”).270 In addition, El Universal tends to opt for using more aggressive terms like guerra 271 (“war”) instead of terms like “conflict” – for example when speaking of struggles between criminal bands – and to inflate certain issues. For example, the newspaper reports that Romo’s church has lost its official recognition on the basis of “gravely deviating” (“desviaba gravamente”272) from the statutes of the law concerning religious associations in Mexico. However, as noted before, El Universal also pays much attention to the more upbeat side of Santa Muerte worship. More specifically, it pays an extraordinary amount of attention to the festive side of the cult – festivities, pilgrimages and celebrations surrounding Santa Muerte are discussed about four times as often as in Reforma, and as much as eight times as often as in La Jornada. Also, on several occasions articles in El Universal emphasize that Santa Muerte is not only a patron saint of delinquency, but knows a much more diverse following.273

Sources El Universal is generally quite precise in recording the sources of arguments and statements. It does not often propose opinions or accusations as facts, but tends to use words like ‘relatar’ (to tell) and ‘difundir’ (to spread), and frases as “David Romo Guillén, como presunto partícipe en un grupo de secuestradores” (“David Romo Guillén, as an alleged participant of a group of kidnappers”).274 Note as well that the word ‘grupo’ (group) is being favoured over the more menacing but more often- used ‘banda’ (). However, sources are not always made clear, as is for example the case when the paper discusses the lack of official recognition for Romo’s church and reports that: “[…] some voices say that this arrangement is necessary because they [Santa Muertistas] can spread criminal

269 Original: “Ellos lo torturaron, y terminaron por mantener abierto su vientre, y pusieron la sangre en una copa, para hacer un brindis a la Santa Muerte.” In: Doris Gómora, “’Zetas,’ adeptos de Santa Muerte, El Universal, January 24, 2012. 270 Author unknown, “Ven a narcos detrás de ‘tributos’ a Santa Muerte,” January 11, 2011. 271 Doris Gómora, “’Zetas’.” 272 Author unknown, “Enigmas,” El Universal, January 8, 2011. 273 For example in: Author unknown, “Enigmas;” Author unknown, “Celebran familias a la Santa Muerte,” , 2011; Author unknown, “Festejan aniversario de la Santa Muerte en Tultitlán,” December 28, 2012. 274 Author unknown, “Enigmas.”.

50 behaviours en masse under the pretence of religious goals […].”275 ‘Some voices’ is obviously not a very clear description of where this idea originates. In addition, El Universal tends to copy people’s words without questioning them much – this goes for both the words of opponents of Santa Muerte, as well as the words of Santa Muertistas themselves. For example, one article copies this explanation for the popularity of Santa Muerte as stated by Roman Catholic priest Celso Ramírez León, without offering any critical evaluation of the argument: “The cult of Santa Muerte is a social phenomenon, brought about by the lack of values in people who lack knowledge of the Catholic religion.”276 As we can see, this viewpoint is presented very factually: actually not as a viewpoint at all, but as quite a definite explanation of the phenomenon. In addition, no alternative explanations are being offered in the article.

Actors and representation In El Universal, most room – 32 percent – has been reserved for ‘regular’ or ‘anonymous’ members of Santa Muerte’s cult (i.e. people who are not spokespeople or leaders, but ‘average’ or lay members of the cult of Santa Muerte). In twelve articles, regular Santa Muertistas are being interviewed. After that, the most space is reserved for Enriqueta Vargas – mother of the assassinated Santa Muerte leader Jonathan Vargas, and current leader of the Santa Muerte temple in Tultitlán – whose words are paraphrased in seven different articles. Then, both local authorities and lesser-known Santa Muerte leaders or spokespeople are heard in four different articles, and three articles paraphrase the words of known criminals who worship Santa Muerte – while explicitly pointing out this fact. Following closely behind, social scientists are given a platform twice, as well as the Mexican police force and ‘anonymous’ adversaries of Santa Muerte. Finally, one article paraphrases the words of two Roman Catholic priests, Celso Ramírez León and Francisco Pérez Téllez. A quite striking omission in this list is David Romo, who is probably the most well-known champion of Santa Muerte, and who is quite often cited in the other two newspapers. In the newspaper’s articles, all actors seem to be taken equally serious. Both opponents of Santa Muerte and Santa Muertistas themselves are given space to voice their opinions, and none of the statements are being ridiculed or attenuated. Overall, El Universal seems to want to present the cult of Santa Muerte as neutral as possible, and tries to discuss all different aspects of the cult without judgment. However, in some articles there does seem to be a mild anti-Santa Muerte sentiment, or at least some prejudices, lying under the surface. For example, one article discusses

275 Original: “[…] algunas voces dijeron que tal disposición se debía a que se podrian propagar masivamente conductas criminales con fines supuestamente religiosos […].” In: Author unknown, “Enigmas.” 276 Original: “[…] el culto a la Santa Muerte es un fenómeno social provocado por la falta de valores de las personas, quienes carecen de conocimiento sobre la religión católica.” In: Juan Manuel Barrera, “Defienden templo de la Santa Muerte,” El Universal, January 23, 2008.

51 fragments from a book published about Santa Muerte (written by José Gil Olmos277) and copies the part where Olmos states that: “One saw in this cult a business, in fact, aimed at creating the cathedral of Santa Muerte, he [Romo] asked his believers for donations and one never knew where this money went.”278 This fragment seems to imply that Romo embezzled the donations he received from his followers. It remains unclear whether the entire book takes on a sceptical or critical position towards Santa Muerte, and there is no justification being given for the choice of this particular fragment.

4.2 Reforma

Subjects In the years from 2006 to 2012, Reforma has published 23 articles concerning Santa Muerte – the largest amount of the three newspapers. The subjects of Reforma’s articles are remarkably diverse: Three articles discuss Romo’s arrest and alleged crimes, two discuss the execution of Jonathan Vargas, two discuss the types of followers Santa Muerte attracts, two discuss the destruction of the borderlands shrines, and two discuss the construction of an expensive Santa Muerte effigy in . The subjects that only pop up once mostly contain some anti-Santa Muerte sentiment – subjects that are discussed once are for example: step-by-step instructions for leaving the cult of Santa Muerte, a discussion of Santa Muerte veneration as a threat to civil security, the worship of Santa Muerte by known criminals, and the condemnation of Santa Muerte by the Catholic Church. However, a few articles have a lighter tone, for example an article that provides an in-depth analysis of the cult of Santa Muerte, and an article concerning a street dancer who dresses up like Santa Muerte.

Discourse Of the three newspapers, Reforma certainly seems to be taking the most critical position towards Santa Muerte. In the articles that Reforma published between 2006 and 2012 which concerned Santa Muerte, drug trafficking in relation to Santa Muerte is mentioned twelve times – in El Universal this number is five, and in La Jornada drugtrafficking in relation to Santa Muerte is only mentioned twice. Also, words connoting criminality (such as delincuente and criminal) are written 30 times in the 23 articles that Reforma published about Santa Muerte between 2006 and 2012 – more

277 José Gil Olmos is a Mexican journalist who has written for El Nacional, La Jornada, and Proceso. He has also published three books, one of which is titled “La Santa Muerte: la virgin de los olvidados.” 278 Original: “[…] vio en este culto un negocio, de hecho, intentó crear la catedral de la Santa Muerte, pidió donativos a sus fieles y nunca se supo dónde quedó ese dinero.” In: Author unknown, “Enigmas.”

52 than once per article. In contrast, El Universal uses words connoting criminality five times, and La Jornada six times. In addition, violence (violencia) is mentioned 8 times in Reforma, whereas it is only mentioned once in both other newspapers. One example of a coverage that focused specifically on the dark reputation of Santa Muerte is an article published in January 2011, titled “Piden los criminals apoyo a Santa Muerte” (“Criminals ask Santa Muerte for support”). This article was published in the “justice” section of Reforma, and seems to propose that the grand majority (if not every single member) of Santa Muerte’s cult is either a criminal, or does not condemn illegal actions. A fragment of the article reads:

In order to obtain divine protection, take their revenges and ask for their crimes to be successful, crime has taken an interest in the cult of Santa Muerte.

“The people who adhere to the cult of Santa Muerte, generally people with low incomes, do not condemn crime with the same intensity as Catholicism does, and thus we see that it is also about a search for acceptance,” said Martín Barrón, researcher at the National Institute of Criminal Sciences (Inacipe).

The highest leaders of the cult of Santa Muerte have been linked to organised crime; like Jonathan Legaría Vargas, leader of “Santa Muerte International,” who was riddled [with bullets] in 2008, and David Romo Guillén, archbishop of the Catholic Apostolic Traditional Church Mexico-United States, imprisoned for belonging to a ring of kidnappers. 279

Not only does this article sketch a pretty unpleasant view of Santa Muertistas, it also does so without offering counter-voices: the questionable moral of Santa Muertistas is presented as fact.

279 Original: Para obtener protección divina, cobrar venganzas y pedir que los ilícitos sean exitosos, la delincuencia se ha acercado al culto a la Santa Muerte.

"Las personas que profesan el culto a la Santa Muerte, generalmente personas de bajos recursos, no condenan a la delincuencia con la misma intensidad que el catolicismo, y entonces vemos que también se trata de la búsqueda de ser aceptados", explicó Martín Barrón, investigador del Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Penales (Inacipe).

Los máximos líderes del culto a la Santa Muerte han estado relacionados con el crimen organizado; como Jonathan Legaría Vargas, líder de la "Santa Muerte Internacional", quien fue acribillado en 2008, y David Romo Guillén, arzobispo de la Iglesia Católica Apostólica Tradicional México-Estados Unidos, detenido por pertenecer a una banda de secuestradores.

In: Antonio Nieto, “Piden los criminals apoyo a Santa Muerte,” Reforma, January 8, 2011.

53

Also, out of the three newspapers, Reforma seems to be the one that most often advances convictions of the Mexican Roman Catholic church. In Reforma, Santa Muerte is linked to ‘the devil’ (el demonio) three times – this does not happen a single time in the other papers. In addition, Reforma is the only paper that has published articles reiterating the Mexican Roman Catholic Church’s condemnation of Santa Muerte, and an article that presents the following step-by-step instructions for renouncing the “culto satánico” (satanic cult) of Santa Muerte, which were composed by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church:

 Destroy the Santa Muerte statue, as well as everything related to her.  If you are afraid to throw the objects away, you can take them to a priest so that he will do it.  Reconcile oneself with the Lord during the sacrament of confession, for this cult is a mortal sin.  Ask the priest of your church to go to your home in order to bless it.  Return to your life of faith within the Catholic Church, that is to say, attend mass, pray the rosary, read the Word of God and pray.280

However, the aim of this article does not seem to be to explicitly get people to take these steps; it mainly seems as if Reforma wants to factually report on an action of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. In the article, this action is neither explicitly condemned nor reinforced. Finally, Reforma sometimes seems to inflate occurrences and choose words that emphasize the extreme and adverse. For example, when interviewing a Santa Muertista, she is being introduced as “esposa de un ex recluso”281 (“wife of a former inmate”). This piece of information adds pretty little to her opinion, yet it is mentioned. This type of description obviously emphasizes the idea of Santa Muertistas being criminals. Another example is when the Mexico City neighbourhood of Tepito is mentioned, and on a sidenote is said to be “una zona reconocida por sus altos índices delictivos”282

280 Original: • Destruir la estatua de la Santa Muerte, así como todo lo relacionado con ella. • Si tienen miedo de tirar los objetos, pueden llevarlos con un sacerdote para que él lo haga. • Reconciliarse con el Señor, en el sacramento de la confesión, pues este culto es pecado mortal. • Pedir al Padre de su iglesia que vaya a su casa a bendecirla. • Regresar a su vida de fe dentro de la Iglesia católica, es decir, que acudan a misa, recen el rosario, lean la Palabra de Dios y hagan oración.

In: Natalia Vitela, “’Combaten’ Santa Muerte con receta,” Reforma¸ April 15, 2006.

281 Antonio Nieto, “Piden los criminals apoyo.” 282 Luis Cruz, “Veneran la Muerte viviendo al límite,” Reforma, April 24, 2009.

54

(“a zone known for its high crime-rates”) instead of for example ‘a neighbourhood known for its extreme poverty.’ It must be noted, however, that the bleak and dark is not all that Reforma reports on: It also published a few articles that concerned the more upbeat side of Santa Muerte, for example an article titled “Festejan en Pachuca arribo de Santa Muerte” (“They celebrate the arrival of Santa Muerte in Pachuca”) which reports on a pilgrimage and festivities in celebration of a new Santa Muerte effigy in the town of Pachuca.283

Sources Reforma is generally quite precise in its reporting; it is usually clear whose opinions and arguments are being put forward. However, sometimes ideas are being portrayed as more factual than they may actually be. (Think of the example noted earlier, when it was stated that Santa Muertistas are generally not inclined to condemn criminal activity.) It may therefore be argued that Reforma is not the most critical newspaper of the three. Also, Reforma sometimes puts forward questionable causes and consequences. It for example states that: “The proliferation of these chapels [to Santa Muerte] exploded in 2007, when the federal government started the fight against drug trafficking.”284 This sentence is constructed in a way that implies that the two occurrences are linked to each other, while they may just as well have happened simultaneously without having a connection. It must be noted, however, that Reforma does not publish the words of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church or other Santa Muerte-opponents exclusively – as noted before, the paper has also represented the opinions of Santa Muerte ‘leaders’ like David Romo and Enriqueta Romero.

Actors and representation In the articles that have been analysed, Reforma, like El Universal, offers most space to ‘regular’ Santa Muertistas. Eight of the twenty-three articles give a voice to average Santa Muerte believers – about 16 percent. Furthermore, David Romo takes the floor five times, and five articles reiterate the words of social scientists. Four times words of local authorities are paraphrased, as well as of the Office of the Attorney General and of various lesser-known Santa Muerte ‘leaders’ or spokespeople. Then, two Roman Catholic bishops are being heard – respectively Francisco Robles Ortega and José Guadalupe Martín Rábago. Furthermore, Enriqueta Romero’s words are paraphrased twice, as well as the words of law-enforcement agents, the Roman Catholic Church (without mentioning whose words exactly) and the words of ‘regular’ people who oppose Santa Muerte. Finally, a number of

283 Verónica Jiménez, “Festejan en Pachuca arribo de Santa Muerte,” Reforma, November 3, 2008. 284 Original: “La proliferación de esas capillas detonó en 2007, cuando inició la lucha del Gobierno federal contra el narcotraficó.” In: Martha Cázares y Luis Brito, “Deribban 30 capillas de la Santa Muerte,” Reforma, March 25, 2009.

55 actors are heard once: the Roman Catholic diocese of León, Hugo Valdemar, the Mexican federal government, Enriqueta Vargas, and a known criminal who is a follower of Santa Muerte. All in all, then, Reforma almost equally represents the voices of those on both sides of the Santa Muerte debate.

4.3 La Jornada

Subjects In the years between 2006 and 2012 La Jornada published nineteen articles about Santa Muerte. The subjects of these articles varied. Most striking is the fact that La Jornada is the only newspaper of the three that has dedicated entire articles solely to Romo’s condemnation of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church’s (perceived) anti-Santa Muerte sentiment and actions. Three of the 19 articles are dedicated to this subject. It thus seems to be the case that out of the three newspapers, La Jornada is the one that offers David Romo the largest platform. Also, the largest number of articles in La Jornada (four in total) are dedicated to Romo’s arrest and alleged crimes. Furthermore, two articles are dedicated to the loss of official recognition of Romo’s church, and two offer an in-depth description of the cult of Santa Muerte. Finally, a number of varying subjects are discussed once, including: the execution of Jonathan Vargas, the disputed legality of the Santa Muerte temple in Tultitlán, the possibility of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church adopting Santa Muerte, homicides linked to Santa Muertistas, and the condemnation of Santa Muerte by the Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).285 Also, in La Jornada, religious freedom (“libertad de culto” or ”libertad de religiones”) is most often discussed, when compared to the other two newspapers. This subject is discussed once in both El Universal and Reforma, as opposed to six times in La Jornada. Finally, the supposed torture of David Romo is also most often discussed in La Jornada – six times, as opposed to twice in El Universal and once in Reforma.

Discourse Of the three newspapers, La Jornada seems to be the least prone to using words connoting criminality and drug trafficking in relation to Santa Muerte. It never uses terms as ‘narcosatánicos’, and words such as ‘narcos’ are only seen in quotes, for example remarks made by the Mexican

285 The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church, is a Christian denomination which originated in the United States. The vicepresident of the Mexican branch of this church, Raúl Ruiz Rodríguez, linked Santa Muerte to an increase in the prevalence of suicides in the province of Yucatan on June 15, 2009. He thereby called Santa Muerte veneration a “” that is “dangerous for Mexico.” (Author unknown, “Líder mormón censura culto a la Santa Muerte,” La Jornada, June 15, 2009.)

56

Roman Catholic Church.286 Also, La Jornada does not seem to be inclined to present all its news as fact: the newspaper generally uses words such as “considerar” (to consider), “presuntar” (to presume), and “expresar” (to express) instead of accepting opinions and accusations as factual. Another example takes place when the newspaper discusses the loss of registration of Romo’s church, and does not state that its registration was lost because of an undeniable or factual violation of bylaws, but that it was lost because the government argued that the church violated bylaws:

“In 2005, the government withdrew its registration as a religious association under the argument that it conducted activities outside the provisions of the basic documents that were submitted to the authorities, that is to say, in their statutes they did not mention the worship of Santa Muerte.”287

La Jornada thus tends to bring a certain amount of nuance and critical evaluation into its articles. However, this does not mean that La Jornada is only concerned with nuance and never caters to those wishing to read more “sensational and sordid” news: For example, when David Romo’s arrest is discussed, instead of calling Romo by his name, he is mentioned as “el arzobispo primado de la denominada Iglesia Santa, Católica, Apostólica y Tradicional México-Estados Unidos”288 (“the first archbishop of the so-called Holy Catholic Apostolic and Traditional Church, Mexico-United States”), even though his function as Santa Muerte-bishop has already been discussed twice earlier in the article – it does not add anything to mention it once again, except for emphasizing and sensationalising his link with Santa Muerte.

Sources La Jornada is generally quite precise when it comes to representing and justifying its sources. Strikingly, David Romo is cited in La Jornada significantly more often than his opponents, as discussed above. However, it is hereby not always clear when or where the newspaper obtained these remarks made by Romo: On April 8, 2009, for example, La Jornada reports that Romo blames the Mexican Roman Catholic Church for the destruction of the Santa Muerte shrines in Northern Mexico, and therefore wants to incite a ‘holy war’ (“guerra santa”) against the Church. However,

286 For example: Carolina Gómez Mena, “El culto a la Santa Muerte, el preferido del narco: Valdemar,” La Jornada, January 8, 2011. 287 Original: “En 2005, Gobernación le retiró el registro como asociación religiosa bajo el argumento de que realizaba actividades fuera de lo establecido en los documentos básicos entregados a la autoridad, es decir, en sus estutatos no mencionaba la veneración a la Santa Muerte.” In: Fabiola Martínez, “Busca iglesia de la Santa Muerte registro ante SG,” La Jornada, July 21, 2007. 288 Alejandro Cruz and Carolina Gómez, “Aprehenden al líder de la Iglesia de la Santa Muerte,” La Jornada, January 5, 2011.

57 nowhere in the article it is noted when or where Romo has said this.289 (In other instances, for example, Romo has spoken out during press conferences.) It must be noted, though, that this does not only apply to remarks that are attributed to David Romo, nor does it only apply to La Jornada. Mexican newspapers – and many newspapers in general – seem to have a tendency to prefer articles to be easily readable over an elaborate justification of sources. Most importantly, La Jornada does present sources for the statements published more often than not.

Actors and representation In La Jornada, several actors in the debate are offered a platform, though most space is reserved for David Romo – about 25 percent of the times someone’s words are cited or paraphrased in La Jornada’s articles, the person in question is Romo. (His words are paraphrased in 9 different articles, to be exact.) Furthermore, the second most heard actor in La Jornada is the Roman Catholic diocese in Mexico City, most often represented by Hugo Valdemar, spokesman of the diocese and fervent adversary of Santa Muerte. Valdemar receives approximately 11 percent (4 times) of the room that La Jornada dedicated to citations and paraphrases. After Valdemar, several actors follow head-to- head, all claiming about 8 percent of the space in La Jornada (3 times): local authorities, the Office of the Attorney General of Mexico City, David Romo’s lawyer, and finally several social scientists researching Santa Muerte. Two times the stage is offered to Enriqueta Romero and the federal government. Finally, several actors are heard once: Enriqueta Vargas, a Roman Catholic priest called Angel Lauro Sánchez Montalvo and Roman Catholic bishop Leopoldo González González. Finally, ‘regular’ members of the cult of Santa Muerte are interviewed twice. Of all three newspapers, La Jornada speaks about the Mexican Roman Catholic Church most often – generally in a neutral or mildly critical fashion. The Mexican Roman Catholic Church is discussed 14 times in La Jornada: twice as often as in El Universal, and 3.5 times as often as in Reforma. La Jornada speaks about the cult of Santa Muerte as well, but generally in a less critical fashion than it discusses the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. On several occasions, La Jornada offers a pretty in-depth analysis of (aspects of) the cult of Santa Muerte. It for example discusses the votive gift to Santa Muerte, Santa Muerte effigies, the image of Santa Muerte as the Angel of Death, and Santa Muerte symbols such as the globe and scales,290 as well as offering an in-depth analysis of the cult’s history, its adherents and its current manifestation – all the while focussing on similarities

289 Carolina Gómez Mena, “Crece 1000% número de fieles a la Santa Muerte,” La Jornada, April 8, 2009. 290 Fabiola Martínes, “Busca;” Mirna Servin Vega, “Decenas de creyentes marcharon de la Pensil a Tepito,” La Jornada, June 25, 2007; Fabrizio Lorusso, “Entrevista con la Santa Muerte,” La Jornada, May 8, 2011.

58 between Santa Muerte-belief and Roman Catholicism, instead of oppositions.291 In addition, La Jornada published an ‘interview’ with Santa Muerte herself, which answers questions and remarks ranging from “Honored Saint, what is your commitment to democracy?”292 to “Gossip says that your cult is only for the poor, criminals, ‘nacos’ and prostitutes.”293 In all cases, the answer to the question emphasizes the upbeat, festive, and empowering aspects of Santa Muerte, while overturning dark and criminal conceptions of Santa Muerte and radiating implicit critique of the Mexican establishment. In conclusion: Though La Jornada offers quite a lot of room for Santa Muertistas to be heard – most notably for David Romo – it does also publish the ‘other side’ of the story. La Jornada thus tends to represent both sides of the debate surrounding Santa Muerte.

291 Fernando Camacho Servín, “Con la Santa Muerte ‘haz lo que te naca, míjo’, dice Doña Queta,” La Jornada, November 1, 2011. 292 Original: “Estimada Santa, ¿cuál es su compromiso con la democracia?” In: Fabrizio Lorusso, “Entrevista.” 293 Original: “Las malas lenguas dicen que su culto solo es de pobres, presos, ‘nacos’ y ‘prostis’.” In: Fabrizio Lorusso, “Entrevista.”

59

5. Analysis and discussion

5.1 Public religions in public debate

Public religion The current visibility and significance of the cult of Santa Muerte in Mexican society, is notably different from the ways in which Santa Muerte veneration manifested itself and was practiced in previous decades. As noted in the introduction, Chesnut states that the cult of Santa Muerte is nowadays comprised of ten to twelve million believers.294 As discussed in chapter 2, the first known instances of the worship of Santa Muerte in its current form started in the 1950s, at which time it was mostly private and invisible in the public domain. (Nowadays, Santa Muerte veneration is still mostly private, but much less invisible the public domain.) This situation continued well into the 1980s; only in the 1990s did Santa Muerte veneration become publicly visible, and only in the early years of the 21th century did the cult of Santa Muerte become somewhat organised in various towns, and did Santa Muertistas become publicly involved in socio-political issues – mainly David Romo and his followers, but also lesser-known Santa Muertistas like Enriqueta Vargas.295 The same seems to go for the Mexican Roman Catholic Church: The Mexican anthropologist Carlos Garma Navarro states that “the Catholic Church has […] openly decided to have a more important public presence in the country,”296 after the changes to the law concerning religion in Mexico in 1992, which have been discussed in chapter 2. These changes not only created more room for new religious organisations, but also loosened “legal restrictions on the public expression of the views of religious leaders and clergy”297 of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. Thus, according to Garma, “Catholic priests and bishops openly began to speak on social issues, and since then they often use the press and other media to ensure that they are heard.”298 Both the cult of Santa Muerte and the Mexican Roman Catholic Church are thus quite involved in public debate nowadays, including public debate surrounding (the cult of) Santa Muerte. We have not only seen this in the newspaper articles that were discussed in chapter 4, which will be discussed below: As discussed in chapter 3, Mexican Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authorities have spoken out about (the cult of) Santa Muerte on several occasions, most often in a disapproving fashion, such as when Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi called the cult “blasphemy,” “infernal,” and a “degeneration of religion.”299

294 Cited in Sesin, “Growing Devotion.” 295 The current-day leader of the Santa Muerte community in Tultitlán, who was mentioned several times in chapter 4. 296 Garma, “Religious Change,” 86. 297 Ibid., 86. 298 Ibid., 86. 299 Author unknown. “Vatican declares Mexican Death Saint Blasphemous.”

60

Sometimes, though, the tone of speech was lighter, as was the case when bishop Ruy Rendon Leal called for tolerance and dialogue between the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and Santa Muertistas.300 As discussed in chapter 1, José Casanova’s states that the past decades have shown us an increasing “deprivatization” of religion, which he defines as: “the process whereby religion abandons its assigned place in the private sphere and enters the undifferentiated public sphere of civil society to take part in the ongoing process of contestation, discursive legitimation, and redrawing of the boundaries.”301 In addition, Casanova states that religious actors are likely to continue playing important roles in the public debate, despite their loss of ‘real’ power (for example in governments): they will continue to “participate in the very struggles to define and set the modern boundaries between the private and public spheres, between system and life-world, between legality and morality, between individual and society, between family, civil society, and state, between nations, states, civilizations, and the world system.”302 Both the Roman Catholic Church and the cult of Santa Muerte seem to visibly step into the public sphere in order to participate in struggles like these in Mexican society. They claim their place in public debate in order to contest the boundaries of what is private and what is public, and what the state can and cannot do when it comes to religions in the Mexican society: for example, whether the arrest of David Romo can be seen as a fully secular, legal matter, or whether it is, as Romo and his followers state, a religiously motivated arrest that is aimed at discrediting the cult of Santa Muerte. In this context, the Mexican Roman Catholic Church seems specifically invested in contestation of the credibility and legality of cult of Santa Muerte and its adherents. Moreover, the voices of both Santa Muertistas and Mexican Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authorities are not only heard around issues that directly concern the religious aspects of Santa Muerte veneration. When issues that are loosely affiliated with the faith – such as the arrest of David Romo on the accusation of kidnap – are reported in Mexican newspapers, both Santa Muertistas and Roman Catholic spokespeople are heard as well. In addition, Casanova claims that religious responses in the public domain are usually the result of state intervention in the private sphere.303 One could argue that in the case of Santa Muerte, most public resistance came after two specific events, allegedly instigated by the Mexican government: the destruction of the borderlands shrines, and the arrest of David Romo. Especially Romo and his followers seem to have been fuelled by these two “state interventions in the private sphere” and have taken their protests to a whole new level in the aftermath of these occurrences.

300 Metcalfe, “More from Matamoros.” 301 Casanova, Public Religions, 65-66. 302 Ibid., 6. 303 Ibid., 227.

61

Romo has blamed the Mexican Roman Catholic Church for instigating both of these events as well, yet without providing any evidence to back up these claims.304 Finally, Casanova argues that only religions which operate in the sphere of civil society, instead of on the level of the state, are compatible with a modern society in which secular and religious spheres are differentiated.305 Though it can be argued that the Mexican Roman Catholic Church leans more toward the state level than the cult of Santa Muerte does, it still seems as though both religious groups (in as far as we can speak of ‘groups’ in this context) operate in the sphere of civil society, rather than on a state level. Even though the Calderón administration was rather conservative and leaned toward the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and traditional religious morality, this does not mean that the Mexican Roman Catholic Church had an actual say in state policy. All operations of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, including the ones involving the cult of Santa Muerte, took and take place on the level of civil society. It thus seems as though both the cult of Santa Muerte and the Mexican Roman Catholic Church can be characterised as public religions as Casanova describes them. How exactly, then, do these public religions conduct themselves in public debate, and how are they presented?

Public debate In chapter 4, the articles about Santa Muerte that have been published in three of Mexico’s largest newspapers between 2006 and 2012 have been discussed. The three newspapers that have been analysed – El Universal, Reforma, and La Jornada – are three of the largest Mexican newspapers, which are aligned with different positions on the political spectrum. A number of differences can be discerned between the newspapers when it comes to elected subjects, discourse, use of sources, and the representation of various actors in the debate(s) surrounding (the cult of) Santa Muerte. In none of the newspapers any clear development has been visible between 2006 and 2012; it seems that Santa Muerte and her cult have simply received heightened attention at certain points in time. (For example when there were Santa Muerte celebrations or when David Romo was arrested.) Let us begin with the articles that have been published in El Universal. It seems as if Santa Muerte is primarily a convenient subject for El Universal: a subject that sells. For example, on July 13, 2010, El Universal published an article that concerned 27 new community projects in a penitentiary in Chihuahua. It was a page-long article in which maybe three sentences discuss the

304 As noted in chapter 3, it is unlikely that the Mexican Roman Catholic Church exerts direct control over the Mexican federal government – Mexico has known a separation of church and state for more than the past 1,5 century. However, the church and state have traditionally been interlinked in Mexico (as in all of Spain’s former colonies) which makes it plausible to assume that the actions of the federal government are in some way influenced by denunciations of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, even if it would be too crude to reduce church and state to a simple ‘unified block’ suppressing the cult of Santa Muerte. 305 Casanova, Public Religions, 219.

62 construction of a Santa Muerte sanctuary in the prison, yet the title of the article was still “Construirán altar de la Santa Muerte en penal de Chihuahua” (“They will construct a Santa Muerte- altar in Chihuahua prison”).306 This title does not so much reflect the content of the article, as it is a tool for sparking the reader’s interest. In addition, El Universal seems inclined to use sensationalising discourse, often using more extreme terms (such as war, conflict, and narco-satanists) which draw people’s attention, as opposed to more moderate discourse which would make articles more of a ‘dull’ read, even if the use of moderate discourse might result in a more accurate reflection of situations and occurrences. Thus, it seems as if El Universal is first and foremost concerned with sparking the public’s interest – as obviously most newspapers are, to different degrees. This leads El Universal’s articles to also swim with the tide: El Universal has both the most shocking and gory articles of the three, as well as the most upbeat and festive ones, as elaborated in chapter 4. In addition, El Universal is reasonably nuanced when it comes to representing the main actors in the debate concerning Santa Muerte, but not without exceptions: Remember for example the article discussed in chapter 4 that contained a citation from José Gil Olmos which implied that David Romo embezzled donations from Santa Muerte devotees. As mentioned, some covert anti-Santa Muerte sentiment seemed to be seeping through this article, since the author of the article chose to cite only this particular line from José Gil Olmos’ book, without discussing the rest of the book or the context of this fragment.307 Secondly, Reforma: Generally, Reforma seems to be quite critical of the cult of Santa Muerte. However, despite the often negative depiction of Santa Muertistas in Reforma, there is not an exclusive focus on the darker side. In several articles it is made clear that not all followers of Santa Muerte belong to the criminal underworld, but that there are also more ‘mainstream’ Santa Muertistas.308 Also, the paper has published one article which is mostly based on the analysis of a social scientist who researched Santa Muerte in Mexico City (the Danish anthropologist Regnar Albæk Kristensen) and does in fact discuss the cult of Santa Muerte rather thoroughly, without solely emphasizing the cult’s link to criminality.309 In addition, Reforma has repeatedly paraphrased Santa Muertistas themselves. By publishing the words of Santa Muertistas – as happens for example in the aforementioned article – it is being ensured that Santa Muerte’s followers are actively engaged in the public debate, and not only spoken about. However, in these articles with lighter subjects as well, there is definitely attention being paid to critical and/or fearful voices. For example, in an

306 Author unknown, “Construirán altar de la Santa Muerte en penal de Chihuahua,” El Universal, July 13, 2010. 307 Original: “[…] vio en este culto un negocio, de hecho, intentó crear la catedral de la Santa Muerte, pidió donativos a sus fieles y nunca se supo dónde quedó ese dinero.” In: Author unknown, “Enigmas.” 308 For example in Cruz, “Veneran la Muerte viviendo al límite,” and Martha Martínez, “Repudian ataques a la Santa Muerte,” Reforma, April 19, 2009. 309 Martínez, “Repudian ataques.”

63 article that tells its readers about a street dancer who dresses up as Santa Muerte, quite a lot of attention is being paid to people who pass by and are critical of Santa Muerte, stating things like:

Looking frightened, Gabriel Pérez, a 56-year-old merchant, looked at a ceramic statue. "I was afraid because I thought I was doing a rite to Saint Death. That is bad because Christ overcame death when he rose, I believe that we must adore Saint Life, because without her there is no death.”310

Thus, as stated before, Reforma does seem to be the newspaper that is most negative or critical towards Santa Muerte, when compared to El Universal and Jornada. There seems to be a trend of emphasizing the negative aspects of and negative news about Santa Muerte. Also, the Mexican Roman Catholic Church seems to be granted more credibility in Reforma than in the other two newspapers, and the words of the Church are not often scrutinized but tend to be more or less presented as truths. Remember for example the article discussed in chapter 4, which presented a step-by-step instruction for leaving the cult of Santa Muerte, as proposed by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. However, this does not mean that Santa Muertistas themselves are never represented in Reforma. But in conclusion, it is probably safe to say that out of the three newspapers, Reforma leans most toward the clerical and political elite, and is most cautious of the cult of Santa Muerte. Third and finally: La Jornada. Though La Jornada seems to lean slightly more towards the cult of Santa Muerte, and seems to be critical of the Mexican establishment – including the Mexican Roman Catholic Church – it does tend to represent both ‘sides’ of the debate surrounding Santa Muerte. For example, in the article where David Romo announces the start of a ‘holy war’ against the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, and his reasons for doing so are repeated, La Jornada also publishes the opinion of a Roman Catholic clergyman (Hugo Valdemar) about the matter. La Jornada thus seems to aim for impartiality in its reporting: Though La Jornada has published a large amount of criticism towards the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, mostly remarks made by David Romo, it has not done so exclusively. La Jornada for example published remarks made by bishop Leopoldo Gónzalez Gónzalez, who has plead for pluralism and tolerance towards Santa Muerte.311 The image that is being sketched of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church is thus more nuanced than one would guess at first glance. Overall, La Jornada seems to want to focus mostly on similarities between the

310 Original: Con cara de espanto, Gabriel Pérez, comerciante de 56 años, miraba una estatua de cerámica. "Me dio miedo porque pensé que estaba haciendo un rito a la Santa Muerte. Eso es malo porque Cristo venció a la muerte cuando resucitó, yo creo que hay que adorar a la Santa Vida, porque sin ella no hay muerte." In: Dora Luz Haw, “Bailan al son de la muerte,” Reforma, November 2, 2006. 311 Carolina Gómez Mena, “Crece 1000% número de fieles.”

64 cult of Santa Muerte and Roman Catholicism. For example, in 2009 La Jornada published an article discussing the view of Mexican anthropologist Félix Báez-Jorge, who stated that it is quite likely that the church will grow to accept Santa Muerte over time and will incorporate her into its own canon, as it has done with other saints before. This may imply that La Jornada wants to aim for mutual tolerance and understanding – although this is not always the position that is obvious when David Romo’s comments are published. Quite often, claims made by Santa Muertistas are being discussed and subtly endorsed, such as the claim that David Romo was tortured after his arrest.312 Generally, La Jornada seems to be most tempted to favour the opinions and claims of Santa Muertistas. In opposition, La Jornada seems to be taking the least positive stance towards the Mexican Roman Catholic Church of the three newspapers, even though it is not only critical. In conclusion, thus, La Jornada seems to lean towards representing Santa Muertistas over their opponents, even if it does so in a subtle fashion. In summary, then: Of the three, El Universal is most prone to using discourse that emphasizes the candid and sensational. But, this does not mean that the paper also sketches the darkest image of Santa Muerte veneration: there is a relatively equal distribution of attention for different aspects of the cult. La Jornada seems to be the strongest ally of the cult of Santa Muerte – specifically of David Romo Guillén – of the three. La Jornada has published by far the most arguments and remarks made by Romo, and in addition seems to take the most critical stance towards the Mexican Roman Catholic Church of the three newspapers. Reforma, finally, seems to be the one out of the three that is most critical of the cult of Santa Muerte, and leans most closely to the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. However, Reforma also gives a voice to Santa Muertistas such as David Romo, whose voice is notably absent in El Universal. But, in conclusion, Reforma seems to be most inclined to represent the views of the socio-political and religious elite, La Jornada seems to be most inclined to represent the cult of Santa Muerte – most notably David Romo Guillén – and El Universal falls roughly ´in the middle’.

5.2 Symbolical resistance: But to what?

Santa Muerte as protectora of the naco The aforementioned conclusion that Reforma is most critical of Santa Muerte may slightly deviate from the conclusion one might be inclined to draw beforehand: one might be inclined to assume El Universal – being the most right-wing of the three newspapers – would be most critical of the cult of Santa Muerte. However, being a more expensive newspaper, Reforma leans most closely to

312 For example in Cruz and Gómez, “Aprehenden al líder.”, and Carolina Gómez Mena, “Asunto circunstancial, la imputaciones en mi contra: líder de la Santa Muerte,” La Jornada, January 9, 2011.

65

Mexico’s socio-political elite, and it may thus make sense that this newspaper is most critical of a faith that is often seen as marginal, low-class superstition. This can, however, shift our train of thought into a new direction: Earlier, we might have been inclined to think Mexico’s political and socio-economic elite were so critical of Santa Muerte as a result of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church’s disapproval of her – especially in the period of the Calderón administration (2006-2012) which had strong ties with the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, and has been accused of being a puppet of the Church by David Romo.313 In the second and third chapter of this thesis, empirical research of (the cult of) Santa Muerte has been discussed, most importantly the research of Andrew Chesnut. Chesnut seemed to ‘side’ with Romo, and imply that much of the animosity towards and actions against (the cult of) Santa Muerte stemmed from the Mexican Roman Catholic Church’s disapproval of her. In regards to the destruction of the borderlands Santa Muerte shrines, he for example stated that “the PAN-ista administration [of Felipe Calderón] did a big favour to the Catholic Church by eliminating in one fell swoop tens of competing sacred sites.”314 Possibly, though, the fact that Reforma – voice of Mexico’s socio-political elite – seems to be most critical of Santa Muerte points to the following: The disapproval of Santa Muerte may not so much be linked to a threatening of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, but much more to the social class of the majority of Santa Muertistas. The Mexican socio-political elite may be critical of the cult of Santa Muerte for reasons that have little to do with the convictions of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. This view, then, is more in line with another researcher of Santa Muerte veneration, namely Desirée Martín. In her book Borderlands Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture, Desirée Martín states that the underlying reason for the condemnation of the cult of Santa Muerte has significantly less to do with her reputation as a patron-saint of criminals, than with the socio- economic class to which Santa Muerte’s followers belong: the social class of the “naco.” Naco is a derogatory, racist term in Mexican popular discourse, that is applied to all that is “tacky, low-class, vulgar, uncultured, dark-skinned, or indigenous looking.”315 In addition, naco is a term that represents the lowest classes of Mexican society: the poor and marginal. Santa Muerte, in turn, represents these “impoverished barrio residents [who] fall outside the parameters of national citizenship and represent a form of refusal of the state.”316 According to Martín, the naco is threatening to the socio-economic middle- and upper classes because the naco is universal, and can be found ‘within’ each person. The naco symbolizes the “tacky,” “low-class,” and “vulgar” aspect of

313 Chesnut, Devoted, 44-46. 314 Ibid., 114. 315 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 192. 316 Ibid., 191.

66 everybody’s personality: everybody behaves like a naco at times.317 The naco is the Other that resides within. Therefore: “the revulsion toward the naco stems from the fact that cosmopolitan Mexicans view them with terror – as their own mirror image.”318 This Other needs to be pushed away in order to maintain one’s own identity, without it ever being possible to fully, radically exterminate this Other. The Other can never be fully gone, but needs to be driven to the absolute margins. In addition, Martín states that Santa Muerte’s most defining characteristic is that of transgression – the transgression of boundaries, such as legal boundaries, ethical boundaries, sexual boundaries, racial boundaries and class-based boundaries.319 In summary, Martín states that:

La Santísima Muerte’s ambivalent nature remains a serious threat to her critics, such as the Catholic Church, the Mexican state, and many middle- and upper-middle-class Mexicans […] While such criticism is usually attributed to Santa Muerte’s status as a pagan or satanic icon, in reality she and her devotees are most threatening because they disrupt the status quo of class-based, racial, gender, and sexual hierarchies […] Indeed, the ambiguity, mobility, and transgressivity symbolized by Santa Muerte is so menacing to the dominant powers of state, church, and social elites that its true significance must be elided or denied.320

Thus, Santa Muerte’s followers may to a certain extent be disruptive to the status quo, which we could assume Mexico’s socio-political elite is eager to maintain. Santa Muerte’s followers might be perceived as particularly threatening because they embrace their status as marginal when they embrace Santa Muerte – patron saint of the margins – and in that way try to symbolically push themselves away from the socioeconomic and political margins of society. By worshipping Santa Muerte, her followers seem to be trying to create an alternative symbolical space for meaning- making, identity formation and subject-hood: a space in which they do matter, and in which they are no longer marginal and naco. A space where they are heard, and attention is being paid to the problems that they face in daily life.321 It is thus possible that the anti-Santa Muerte sentiment among the Mexican general public, and the disapproval by the Mexican elite, has much less to do with religion (narrowly defined) than one might think, but much more with social class. It is,

317 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 193. 318 Ibid., 194. 319 Ibid., 190. 320 Ibid., 185. 321 Think for example of the mass for the release of prisoners that is held in Romo’s church. For many in the lower classes of Mexican society, this is a very poignant issue. It is not uncommon for Santa Muerte’s followers to have husbands, lovers, parents, and children in prison. The Mexican Roman Catholic Church, however, does not focus on this issue nearly as explicitly as the cult of Santa Muerte does.

67 however, easy to get side-tracked because David Romo Guillén, the most well-known spokesman of Santa Muerte, seems to have chosen the Mexican Roman Catholic Church as a scapegoat for the anti-Santa Muerte sentiments in Mexican society. (Remember for example Romo’s accusations that the Mexican Roman Catholic Church was responsible for the revocation of his church’s official recognition, and for the destruction of the borderlands Santa Muerte shrines.322) It may be the case that the idea of this struggle being incited by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church has much more to do with a personal dissatisfaction Romo might hold towards the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. This argument becomes even more plausible when we consider that the majority of Santa Muertistas continue to identify as Roman Catholics in addition to their belief in Santa Muerte, and barely seem to feel animosity towards the Mexican Roman Catholic Church323 – even if they feel that their faith in Santa Muerte is a necessary addition for dealing with those issues that the Roman Catholic Church cannot help them with.324 In conclusion, then, previous research may have been too narrowly focused on the animosity between the cult of Santa Muerte and the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, and it would be wise to take socio-economic factors into account as well. In this context, Santa Muerte’s identity as a female saint is also significant: Both women and marginalised men – like the devotees of Santa Muerte – occupy a comparable subordinate place within the patriarchal structures of Mexican society. Both fall outside the boundaries of Mexican society’s political and socioeconomic establishment. This may then explain Santa Muerte’s attraction not only for her female devotees but also for male Santa Muertistas. It seems plausible that Santa Muerte’s devotees feel attracted to her because they represent the same things: marginality, transgression, and rejection by the dominant elite. By re-appropriating a female image as an image of protection, strength, and empowerment, Santa Muerte’s devotees symbolically oppose a society in which they are seen as ‘less’, as naco, or as criminal. Simultaneously, they seem to embrace their status as cultural and political outsiders: the cult of Santa Muerte offers them an alternative space for identity-formation and the articulation of their desires and necessities. A society outside of society, symbolised by a saint outside canon of saints that are currently recognised by the (Mexican) Roman Catholic Church. The cult of Santa Muerte can thus not only be seen as an alternative to mainstream Mexican society and culture, but also as a counterculture. In this case, society is used to connote “a group of people who share a common culture, occupy a particular territorial area, and feel themselves to constitute a unified and distinct entity.”325 The term ‘culture’, then, is taken to

322 Chesnut, Devoted, 44, 46. 323 Ibid., 115. 324 Sesin, “Growing Devotion;” Campbell, “Saint.” 325 John Scott (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

68 refer to “the symbolic and learned aspects of human society,”326 as opposed to biologically transmitted characteristics. Culture thus refers to things like laws, morals, beliefs, values, knowledge, customs, language, and unwritten rules. A cult such as the cult of Santa Muerte, then, can be seen as countercultural because it deviates from the norms, beliefs, values, and customs that are accepted in Mexican society as a whole, as discussed above.

The cult of Santa Muerte as popular religious counterculture The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘counterculture’ as “a way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm.”327 The British Library, then, elaborates this definition by stating that the rejection or challenging of mainstream culture that ‘countercultures’ engage in can mean:

1. Protesting against a particular situation or issue 2. Rebelling against the accepted or acceptable way of doing things 3. Struggling for liberation when you are oppressed or marginalised 4. Finding new ways to represent yourself when you are misrepresented or simply not represented 5. Creating your own culture when you are dissatisfied with the culture that is made for you328

These tendencies can also be distinguished in the cult of Santa Muerte: its adherents feel (and often are) marginalized in the Mexican mainstream. They are little represented in the mainstream culture of the elite, and try to create an alternative space with alternative norms, values, and attitudes in order to (implicitly and often unintentionally) rebel against the status quo. This idea of the cult of Santa Muerte as a counterculture guides our train of thought back to our theoretical basis: In chapter 1, it has been discussed that Cristián Parker sees popular religions as particularly viable countercultures. When applying Parker´s theory to the cult of Santa Muerte, it seems that this faith indeed fulfils the three functions of popular religion that Parker distinguishes: It serves as “symbolical compensation” for lacking fulfilment of human needs, it adds more meaning to a life lived on the margins of society, and it can function a form of “symbolical resistance” to the status quo. Remember that Parker called popular religion the religion of the “subordinate groups of a

326 John Scott (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). 327 Oxford University Press, “Counterculture,” accessed December 12, 2016, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/counterculture. 328 The British Library Board, “Counter Culture,” accessed December 12, 2016, http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/counterintro.html.

69 society marked by a clear class differentiation.”329 As is clearly illustrated by Martín’s characterization of Santa Muertistas as naco’s, the followers of Santa Muerte are indeed often members of subordinate groups of the Mexican contemporary class-based society. As discussed in chapter 1, Parker distinguishes six “themes [which] characterize the countercultural thrust of contemporary popular religion:”330 First, as Parker states, “popular religion affirms life in a violent and unstable socio-economic and political context that daily threatens the survival of popular masses.”331 This characteristic may be discerned in the cult of Santa Muerte: As discussed in chapter 2, her followers feel that Santa Muerte has absolute control over life and death and spares her devotees an early or ‘bad’ death when they worship her.332 Moreover, Santa Muerte has powers of healing and protection333 – powers that ensure her devotees’ survival in a turbulent and often violent environment. Because indeed, Santa Muertistas are often members of vulnerable population segments: many of them belong to the socioeconomic bottom of society, where people have little options for securing their health, safety, and basic human needs. Santa Muerte, then, gives them at least symbolical options for ensuring their survival and improving their quality of life.334 Second, popular religion affirms the female, employs a feminine viewpoint, or holds an emphasis on women, when the dominant culture and ecclesiastical system is explicitly patriarchal.335 It can be clear that this characteristic fits the cult of Santa Muerte like a glove, since Santa Muerte is perceived to be female herself and often deals with traditionally ‘feminine’ issues, such as love and romance. Remember for example that the red votive candle (which is used for issues concerning love) is the highest-selling Santa Muerte candle.336 Also, as discussed in chapter 2, many girls and women ask Santa Muerte for aid in their love-life because marriage is still an important route to (relative) economic stability.337 Moreover, even though most Santa Muertistas within the prison- system are men, most of her devotees still are women, and the saint is often perceived as a type of maternal figure.338 In the cult of Santa Muerte, then, femininity is highly present and valued, and the most powerful entity is a woman. Finally, Santa Muerte ‘leaders’ and spokespeople are both male and female. In opposition, Mexico’s dominant culture and the Mexican Roman Catholic Church are still explicitly patriarchal – women cannot be Roman Catholic priests, it is still easier for men to

329 Parker, Popular Religion, 36. 330 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 203. 331 Ibid., 202. 332 Reyes-Cortez, “Material Culture,” 118. 333 Chesnut, Devoted, 96, 163. 334 Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 146. 335 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 203. 336 Chesnut, Devoted, 121. 337 Ibid., 123. 338 Ibid., 62, 188.

70 secure high-paying jobs than it is for women, and gender wage inequality remains a pressing reality.339 (The cult of) Santa Muerte thus disrupts traditional gender-hierarchies and reverses the patriarchal values that are still prominent in mainstream Mexican society. Third, popular religion puts emphasis on feelings, the festive, and the corporeal, instead of on intellectualism and moralism.340 This characteristic seems to fit the cult of Santa Muerte as well: the saint is perceived by her devotees as being less concerned with morals and ethics than they feel that the canonized Roman Catholic saints are, and her tangible, almost corporeal presence is of great importance to her devotees. Devotees tend to treat their effigies, statues and icons almost as people that have an individual will and personality, as discussed in chapter 2. Of course, this does not imply that such interactions are fully absent from Mexican Roman Catholicism, but devotees often perceive Santa Muerte as more familiar, while they tend to view the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and its saints as more aligned with the higher classes where the intellectual and moral is more valued. (Remember for example the Santa Muerte devotee who stated that the most popular Mexican Roman Catholic saint, de Virgin of Guadalupe “tend[s] rather to well-off people with college degrees and nice clothes.”341) Not many Santa Muertistas are highly educated, nor do they have extensive options for living a morally righteous life – when your daily survival is threatened, it is easier to give up legal and ecclesiastical rules such as ‘do not steal’, than it is to starve. Fourth, popular religion tends to affirm “the festive and carnivalesque”342 over the formal and bureaucratic dominant culture.343 Once again, this aspect is visible within the cult of Santa Muerte: the saint is being dressed, talked to, fed, and offered gifts of fake money, alcohol or even narcotics. Also, the few communal rituals that are held in honour of Santa Muerte – such as Enriqueta Romero’s rosary, and pilgrimages in some Mexican towns and cities – are vibrant and colourful affairs, that absolutely lack strict organisation and order. In line with this ‘festive and carnivalesque’ nature, it is near impossible to discern ‘formal and bureaucratic’ aspects within the cult of Santa Muerte: the cult is loosely organised, knows an egalitarian composition and has very little room for strict rules and regulations.344 Fifth, popular religion affirms the “vitalistic” as opposed to the intellectual and rational:345 the vitalistic refers to the view that life stems from a ‘unique source’, which cannot be reduced to

339 Lilia Domínguez-Villalobos and Flor Brown-Grossman, “Trade Liberalization and Gender Wage Inequality in Mexico,” Feminist Economics 16:4 (2010), 53. 340 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 203-4. 341 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 209. 342 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 204. 343 Ibid., 204. 344 Chesnut, Devoted, 177; Roush, “Santa Muerte,” 137. 345 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 204.

71 physiological or chemical processes.346 This resistance to the modern scientific idea that humans are mere machines whose source of life stems only from the body is also evident in Roman Catholicism. As noted above, most Santa Muertistas see themselves as Roman Catholics as well as Santa Muertistas. However, the exact relationship between the Christian God and Santa Muerte remains contested: Some Santa Muertistas see God as giving life, and Santa Muerte as taking it away, while others see Santa Muerte as the guardian of both life and death, who ‘reports’ to the Christian God.347 Yet still others see Santa Muerte as the only divine entity we can be sure exists.348 However, all of Santa Muerte’s devotees seem to agree that life stems from a transcendent source, and that humans are more than a collection of physiological mechanisms. Sixth and finally, popular religion affirms the transcendent as opposed to the scientific.349 This last characteristic is least easy to apply to the cult of Santa Muerte. Though Santa Muerte is seen as a transcendent entity – who sometimes manifests herself imminently through statues and effigies – most Santa Muertistas seem to be little concerned with the transcendent. The worship of Santa Muerte is generally much more focused on the mundane: on survival, health, justice, love, prosperity. However, the scientific also seems to garner little interest from most Santa Muertistas. It may thus not be so valuable to hold on strictly to this opposition between transcendent and scientific: It may make more sense to view the mundane as the opposite of the transcendent, especially in the case of Santa Muerte worship. The fact that this sixth characteristic does not seem to fit as easily as the other ones is also interesting when delving a bit deeper into the cult of Santa Muerte as counterculture. Parkers characterisation seems to imply that the countercultural tendencies of popular religions are to some extent intentional: People step away from the patriarchal, moralistic, formal, rational, and scientific, and thereby refuse to adhere to the cultural standards of both mainstream (secular) society and traditional, conservative religions. Though the cult of Santa Muerte does indeed seem to shy away from the patriarchal, moralistic, formal, rational, and scientific of the dominant culture – at least to a significant extent – this does not seem to be that intentional. As noted above, most Santa Muertistas are drawn to the cult in a quest for symbolical survival and protection. They are fully occupied with survival, and have little time left for active resistance and cultural change. One notable exception may be David Romo and his followers, who are the most visible and outspoken champions of social justice for the cult of Santa Muerte – though not explicitly for the minority groups to which Santa Muertistas belong.

346 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, “Vitalism,” accessed December 9, 2016, www.merriam-webster.com. 347 Perdigón, Santa Muerte, 60. 348 Reyes-Cortez, “Material Culture,” 117. 349 Parker, “Modern Popular Religion,” 204.

72

As discussed in chapter 1, Parker states that a popular religious counterculture offers its ‘members’ renewed options for (symbolical and ‘real’) cultural resistance. As discussed above, the cult of Santa Muerte may implicitly critique, and therefore resist, the class-based nature of Mexican society by creating a symbolical space in which the class to which most Santa Muertistas belong is not marginal, but the exact opposite: Within the cult of Santa Muerte, the marginal classes are the dominant classes. The cult of Santa Muerte as a popular religious counterculture may therefore pose quite a challenge for Mexico’s socio-political elite in the future. Even if most Santa Muertistas are rather lewd on political activism (with notable exceptions such as David Romo and his supporters), this does not mean that there are no cultural or political struggles being acted out between the cult of Santa Muerte and the dominant elite – including the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and Mexican state. However, many struggles and dissatisfactions are expressed implicitly, rather than explicitly. For example, a willingness to ‘overlook’ or neglect ecclesiastical decrees and denunciations is present, when one chooses to worship Santa Muerte. As discussed in chapter 3, various Roman Catholic ecclesiastical officials have renounced Santa Muerte as being immoral and satanic, yet her followers continue to worship her in addition to their Roman Catholicism. Moreover, many Santa Muertistas simply ignore or even disapprove of certain Roman Catholic norms and values even though they still see themselves as Catholic.350 As Laura Lee Roush argues: “When you decide to venerate the Santa Muerte there’s a transgression. There’s a critique [of the church]. You’re giving the finger to the church even if you still consider yourself Catholic.”351 In addition, the Santa Muertistas that are practicing Roman Catholics in addition to their belief in Santa Muerte get quite creative in bending and working around ecclesiastical rules. For example, Chesnut mentions a Santa Muertista who hides her effigy of Santa Muerte in her bag when going to mass, in order to have the effigy blessed by unsuspecting Roman Catholic priests.352 The embracing of Santa Muerte – combined with a disregard for ecclesiastical denunciations – may thus be seen as an expression of the wants and needs of a generally unheard, marginal group of people, which has now found a space and manner to express itself. The popularity of Santa Muerte thus also “signal[s] the obsolescence of institutions like the Catholic Church and Mexican state,”353 since Santa Muerte takes over a number of functions of the state and civil society, hereby implicitly criticizing the way these functions are (not) being fulfilled by civil and ecclesiastical institutions. In conclusion, this implicit expression of struggles and dissatisfactions, as well as the implicit resistance to the Mexican Roman Catholic Church’s monopoly, may very well be unintentional. As

350 Chesnut, “Death to Santa Muerte.” 351 Blumberg, “Meet Santa Muerte.” 352 Chesnut, Devoted, 142. 353 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 190.

73 noted above, it remains unclear how many Santa Muertistas are fuelled by explicit anti- establishment sentiments: As discussed in chapter 3, Andrew Chesnut found “precious little” anti- Catholic sentiments within the cult of Santa Muerte – with the notable exception of David Romo. In addition, it is more likely that the majority of Santa Muertistas worship Santa Muerte in an attempt at securing their survival, much more than in an attempt to reject cultural norms and values. However, even if the cult of Santa Muerte is unintentionally countercultural, it is countercultural nonetheless. The cult of Santa Muerte may thus indeed be seen as a viable popular religious counterculture against Mexico’s socio-political elite (including to the Mexican Roman Catholic church and the Mexican federal government) – though it cannot be seen as a counterculture in the way that it is a conscious, organized protest movement. But, the fact that the cult’s resistance to the dominant culture is implicit and often unintentional does not mean that the resistance is not there, or that it is not important.

5.3 The status of Santa Muerte and her cult

So to focus on our main question, then: What does the way in which (the cult of) Santa Muerte is discussed in public debate tell us about the position of religion in Mexican society? As discussed above, it may be the case that Santa Muerte is perceived as a threat to Mexican society and its

74 values because it is linked to the concept of the ‘naco’. And indeed, Santa Muerte seems to attract followers mostly from the margins of society. In his article “Religious Change in Mexico: Perspectives from Recent Data,” Carlos Garma Navarro discusses religious pluralism and states that Mexico knows quite blatant inequality which is reflected in the ways in which religious pluralism is developing: More specifically, Garma points out that the rate of conversion from Roman Catholicism to other religions (primarily Pentecostal movements) is highest among indigenous communities in Mexico, as a result of internal discrimination and ethnic inequality within the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, this inequality is also reflected in wider Mexican society and secular Mexican institutions.354 Also, Garma therefore states that “the defense of the rights of minority groups (religious and otherwise) requires continual effort”355 in Mexico. This observation, then, can be extended to include minority groups (religious and otherwise) that are not (exclusively) discriminated on the basis of ethnicity, but also on the basis of socioeconomic position, parentage, sexuality, gender-identity, and other grounds – as is the case for many of Santa Muerte’s followers. As illustrated by the three newspapers that have been discussed, Roman Catholicism (the religion most closely aligned with the Mexican ‘mainstream’ and socio-political elite) does not seem to be very critically assessed in Mexican public debate. One notable exception is the way the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and its actions are being scrutinized in La Jornada, a newspaper that profiles itself as being left-wing and anti-establishment. Opposed to La Jornada, Reforma (which is the newspaper that caters most to Mexico-city’s socio-political elite) is rather critical of the cult of Santa Muerte. The fact that the cult of Santa Muerte is most critically assessed in a medium that is allied with Mexico’s establishment can point in the following direction: Religion that is exclusively a religion of the people, like Santa Muerte veneration is, seems to inhabit a much less accepted space in Mexican society than religion which is also aligned with society’s elite, such as Roman Catholicism. (It is incontestable Roman Catholicism is a religion of the people as well, but it is not a religion that caters to society’s outcasts exclusively). The legitimacy of a religion that explicitly embraces the naco, the dark, the outcast, and the bottom of society – the cult of Santa Muerte – is consistently scrutinized and contested. This may in turn imply that religion in Mexican society is perceived as non-threatening and by extension inhabiting a rightful, uncontroversial place in society as long as it is not too far removed from society’s political and socioeconomic elite. Even if it is often implicit, the worship of Santa Muerte can indeed be characterised as being anti-establishment and challenging the status quo, as Desirée Martín already argued: “Santa Muerte is not venerated for her purity or holiness but for her accessibility to the masses […] and her

354 Garma, “Religious Change,” 88, 97-98. 355 Ibid., 98.

75 resistance to the powerful forces of the state, the Catholic Church, and wealthy elites.”356As discussed above, the way in which the cult of Santa Muerte creates a space for society’s outcasts to no longer be marginal but to feel valued and central, reverses the permeating class-system of the wider Mexican society and in this way implicitly criticizes and rejects the status quo. This anti- establishment nature may make the movement an unwanted threat to Mexico’s socio-political elite. Thus, as discussed before, the rejection of Santa Muerte by the conservative Calderón administration, and by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church, may have much less to do with religion as such, but much more with the intertwined identities of the movement’s members: Members who are often poor, low-educated, indigenous, morally or sexually deviant from mainstream society, and live a life centred around survival. In conclusion, then, the debate(s) surrounding Santa Muerte may have actually told us more about the permeating class-based structure of Mexican society than it has about the status of religion in Mexican society – though of course these two are inherently interlinked. This thesis has then not only provided new insight into (the status of) religion in Mexican society, but even more so into the status of the lower classes – the naco’s – and the resistance of Mexico’s establishment against the empowerment of these lower classes. A religion that embraces the fringes of society – like the cult of Santa Muerte does – can help marginalized citizens to symbolically ‘move away’ from the margins. By doing so, they implicitly disrupt the class-based status quo, which the Mexican establishment may be eager to maintain. This type of ‘outcast’-religion is may therefore be opposed, both overtly and covertly, by Mexico’s socio-political as well as religious elite.

356 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 183.

76

Conclusion

In this thesis, the cult of Santa Muerte in Mexican public debate has been discussed. The aim of this thesis was to analyse what the way in which (the cult of) Santa Muerte is discussed in public debate tells us about the position of religion in Mexican society. This thesis has started by elaborating two theoretical frames, which have been helpful in sketching the context in which the cult of Santa Muerte operates. The two theories that were discussed were firstly Cristián Parker’s characterisation of popular religion in Latin America, and secondly José Casanova’s characterisation of public religion in the modern (Western) world. Chapter 2, then, was dedicated to sketching an image of the cult of Santa Muerte. The cult’s innate ‘Mexican-ness’ has been attested, the cult’s origins and (recent) history have been discussed, as well as its current-day form, beliefs, practices, and key figures. Chapter 3 focussed on the history of animosity between the cult of Santa Muerte and two of its most outspoken adversaries: the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and the Calderón administration (2006- 2012). Chapter 4, then, presented an overview of Santa Muerte in Mexican public debate between 2006 and 2012. More specifically, sixty articles concerning Santa Muerte in three Mexican newspapers – El Universal, Reforma, and La Jornada – were analysed. Finally, chapter 5 has tried answer our main question: “What does the way in which (the cult of) Santa Muerte is discussed in public debate tell us about the position of religion in Mexican society?” As mentioned in the introduction, the academic interest in (the cult of) Santa Muerte is relatively new, which means that nor Santa Muerte herself, nor the cult surrounding her has been extensively researched yet. The most comprehensive work so far is Andrew Chesnut’s Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint (2012). Chesnut’s work partly overlaps with the first book published on Santa Muerte – a small book titled Santa Muerte: Protectora de los Hombres by Judith Katia Perdigón Castañeda (2008). However, Chenut’s work was more extensive, holding a broader focus on the various functions which the veneration of Santa Muerte can have for her devotees: aid in love, health, justice, employment, prosperity, addiction, vengeance, protection, peace, and knowledge. Both books, thus, largely focused on how the cult of Santa Muerte functions, but not so explicitly on the context in which the cult operates. The most extensive account of Santa Muerte’s functioning in its cultural context was written by Desirée Martín (Borderlands Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture, 2014). Based on Chesnut’s work, several documentaries and some empirical research (interviews with Santa Muertistas living in Mexico-City), Desirée Martín establishes that the condemnation of Santa Muerte by the Mexican socio-political elite has much less to do with Santa Muerte’s perceived ‘demonic’ and ‘criminal’ nature, than with the social class of most Santa Muertistas: the social class of the naco. Both Perdigón and Chesnut are more inclined

77 to ‘blame’ the Mexican Roman Catholic Church for the wide-spread condemnation of Santa Muerte. Remember for example Perdigón’s claim that the Church discriminates against Santa Muerte devotees in a way reminiscent of the historical discrimination against homosexuals and people suffering from HIV,357 and Chesnut’s assumption that the Mexican federal government did the Mexican Roman Catholic Church a ‘favour’ by wiping out the borderlands shrines to Santa Muerte.358 However, the findings on the basis of Mexican newspaper-articles that have been discussed in this thesis, seem to point more in the direction of Martín’s claims: the disapproval of (the cult of) Santa Muerte seems to be more influenced by ingrained classism359 in Mexican society, than by (Roman Catholic) religious arguments. The analysis of the aforementioned articles in Mexican newspapers implies that Santa Muerte and her followers are most critically assessed in Reforma, a newspaper that is traditionally aligned with Mexico-city’s higher socio-economic classes and political elite. The followers of Santa Muerte are explicitly not a part of this audience; the great majority of Santa Muertistas belong to the lowest, most marginal classes of Mexican society. As discussed in chapter 5, the fact that a newspaper which leans closest to the Mexican establishment is most critical of the cult of Santa Muerte, may imply that the controversy and air of disapproval surrounding Santa Muerte has much more to do with Mexico’s ingrained classism, as argued by Desirée Martín, than with the cult being perceived as a hotbed of criminality, or as a religious competitor for the Mexican Roman Catholic Church. We can reasonably assume that Mexico’s socio-political establishment is invested in retaining the status quo, thereby keeping the majority of Santa Muerte’s followers poor, marginalized, and ‘naco.’ These naco’s, characterised by Martín as “impoverished barrio residents [who] fall outside the parameters of national citizenship,”360 may then find in the cult of Santa Muerte an alternative space for identity formation. Since there is no ‘room’ for them in Mexican mainstream society, they create a symbolical space in which there is room for them; a space in which they don’t have to exist on the fringes, but where they are central, where they matter, and where they can find (symbolical) solutions to their everyday struggles. Of course, this creation of an alternative symbolical space, a countercultural space if you will, is not necessarily intentional: It is probable that the majority of Santa Muertistas are attracted to Santa Muerte for pragmatic reasons, and spend too much time simply trying to survive to be explicitly concerned with challenging the status quo. Also, many Santa Muertistas are members of mainstream cultural institutions in addition to their veneration of Santa Muerte – most notably, the majority of Santa Muertistas are Roman

357 Cited in Bastante and Dickieson, “Nuestra Señora,” 452. 358 Chesnut, Devoted, 114. 359 “Classism“ refers to “prejudice or discrimination based on class.“ (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, “Classism,” accessed December 12, 2016, www.merriam-webster.com.) 360 Martín, Borderlands Saints, 191.

78

Catholics, as mentioned above. It is probable that only a small group is actively concerned with challenging and defying the status quo, though this group (headed by David Romo) is most vocal in public debate. However, the fact that the resistance to the status quo is unintentional, does not mean that it is ineffective or unimportant. Through the mere act of ‘choosing’ Santa Muerte as an object of worship, Santa Muertistas refuse to comply to the norms and denunciations of the Mexican mainstream – headed by the Mexican Roman Catholic Church and the Mexican federal government, in this case. In conclusion, it seems as though religion in Mexico is perceived as inhabiting a legitimate place in society as long as it does not challenge the status quo. On the other hand, a religion that embraces the margins, and enables it’s believers to (symbolically) move away from those margins while implicitly rejecting the status quo, will be both overtly and covertly opposed by Mexico’s socio- political and religious establishment. In addition, then, the disapproval of the cult of Santa Muerte, and the way in which this movement is discussed in public debate, may thus have told us just as much about the status of particular groups of people – who happen to worship Santa Muerte in disproportional numbers – in Mexican society, as it has about the status of religions sui generis. Of course, a short analysis such as this thesis could provide cannot lead to a conclusive outcome; however, it has most definitely uncovered some of the issues that may be underlying the overt and covert rejection of the cult of Santa Muerte in Mexican society and by extension some of the issues that surround religions in Mexico in general. Thus, this thesis leads to a conclusion that is in line with Martín’s conclusion, but arrives at this point by means of analysing different source-material. This thesis, then, adds credibility to Martín’s argument. However, it is highly recommendable that more extensive research will be done in order to substantiate this view of the cult of Santa Muerte. On a closing note, it is interesting to remember that, as discussed in chapter 1, José Casanova states that the public presence of religious movements can have quite positive implications, especially when this ‘forces’ societies to critically asses their moral and normative foundations.361 It can be argued that the public presence of the cult of Santa Muerte does indeed ‘force’ Mexican society to assess its normative foundations, most importantly its ingrained classism. Though it remains unclear to what extent the public presence of Santa Muerte may inspire several ‘layers’ of Mexican society to reflect on their own presumptions and possible prejudices, it could very well be the case that the cult of Santa Muerte will slowly start influencing Mexican society and invite more and more people to assess the assumptions, prejudices and values that they have been raised with. As Carlos Garma states, then:

361 Casanova, Public Religions, 229.

79

Mexico has no other alternative than to face these differences of religious cultures. The days of the Catholic religious monopoly throughout the entire country are over, and […] religious diversity will persist despite efforts from the Catholic Church to reclaim lost territory. […] The desirable future is that of a tolerant and pluralistic Mexican society that will recognize religious differences and defend the human rights of all individuals.362

362 Garma, “Religious Change,” 98-99.

80

Bibliography

La Jornada

Antonio Román, José. “El Templo de la Santa Muerte de Tultitlán carecía de registro ante Gobernación.” La Jornada, August 8, 2008. Camacho Servín, Fernando. “Con la Santa Muerte “haz lo que te nazca, m’ijo”, dice doña Queta.” La Jornada, November 1, 2007. Chávez, Silvia and Javier Salinas. “Madre de líder de la Santa Muerte asesinado pide se investigue al obispo Onésimo Cepeda.” La Jornada, August 7, 2008. Cruz, Alejandro and Carolina Gómez. “Aprehenden al líder de la Iglesia de la Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, January 5, 2011. Cruz, Alejandro and Carolina Gómez. “Confirmado: Romo Guillén retiró dinero producto de una extorsión, dice la procuraduría.” La Jornada, January 6, 2011. Cruz Flores, Alejandro. “El líder del culto a la Santa Muerte ofreció entregar a seguidores a cambio de liberación.” La Jornada, January 7, 2011. García Hernandez, Arturo. “Por un proceso de inculturación litúrgica, la Iglesia podría aceptar a la Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, March 16, 2009. Gómez Mena, Carolina. “Asunto circunstancial, las imputaciones en mi contra: líder de la Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, January 9, 2011. Gómez Mena, Carolina. “Crece 1000% número de fieles a la Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, April 8, 2009. Gómez Mena, Carolina. “El culto a la Santa Muerte, el preferido del narco: Valdemar.” La Jornada, January 8, 2011. Gómez Mena, Carolina. “Tendrá templo mundial la Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, July 15, 2009. León Zaragoza, Gabriel. “Fieles a la Santa Muerte exigen alto a la represión.” La Jornada, April 6, 2009. León Zaragoza, Gabriel. “La guerra contra la Iglesia católica sólo se desactivará si el gobierno interviene.” La Jornada, April 7, 2009. León Zaragoza, Gabriel. “Seguidores de la Santa Muerte exigen respeto.” La Jornada, April 13, 2009. Lorusso, Fabrizio. “Entrevista con La Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, May 8, 2011. Martínez, Fabiola. “Busca iglesia de la Santa Muerte registro ante SG.” La Jornada, July 21, 2007. Martínez, Fabiola. “Da SG la toma de nota a la Iglesia de la Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, November 22, 2007. Servin Vega, Mirna. “Decenas de creyentes marcharon de la Pensil a Tepito.” La Jornada, June 25, 2007.

81

Author unknown. “Ataca un grupo armado a asistentes a celebración de la Santa Muerte en Torreón.” La Jornada, November 3, 2012. Author unknown. “Líder mormón censura culto a la Santa Muerte.” La Jornada, June 15, 2009.

Reforma

Alvadaro, Paulo. “Alarma culto a Santa Muerte.” Reforma, January 21, 2008. Cázares, Martha and Luis Brito. “Derriban 30 capillas de la Santa Muerte.” Reforma, March 25, 2009. Cruz, Luis. “Veneran la muerte viviendo al límite.” Reforma, August 24, 2009. Escalante, Jorge. “Satanizan a la Santa Muerte.” Reforma, October 7, 2007. Gámez, Silvia. “Venden ‘historietas’ y lucran con la fe.” Reforma, July 3, 2011. Gómez, Leslie. “Modifican el 'look' de la Santa Muerte.” Reforma, August 16, 2007. Gómez, Leslie. “Une a fieles sentimiento de temor.” Reforma, August 16, 2006. Jímenez, Verónica. “Apoyan a priistas fieles de la Santa Muerte.” Reforma, April 11, 2012. Jímenez, Verónica. “Enjoyan en Hidalgo Santa Muerte gigante.” Reforma, October 19, 2008. Jímenez, Verónica. “Festejan en Pachuca arribo de Santa Muerte.” Reforma, November 3, 2008. Jímenez, Verónica. “Saquean en Hidalgo santuario de la 'Niña'.” Reforma, August 26, 2006. López, Jonás. “Visitan fieles a la 'Niña Blanca'.” Reforma, January 6, 2011. Luz Haw, Dora. “Bailan al son de la muerte.” Reforma, November 2, 2006. Martínez, Martha. “Repudian ataques a la Santa Muerte.” Reforma, April 19, 2009. Moraga, Susana. “Descarta experto desbandada.” Reforma, January 6, 2011. Nieto, Antonio. “Piden los criminales apoyo a Santa Muerte.” Reforma, January 8, 2011. Nieto, Antonio. “Ven en 'Niña' más fieles.” Reforma, January 17, 2011. Sierra, Arturo. “Buscan protección 'divina' policías y delincuentes.” Reforma, January 6, 2011. Sierra, Arturo and Yáscara López. “Arrestan a líder de Santa Muerte.” Reforma, January 5, 2011. Sierra, Eduardo. “Buscan justicia en Santa Muerte.” August 2, 2010. Vitela, Natalia. “'Combaten' Santa Muerte con receta.” Reforma, April 15, 2006. Author unknown. “Defienden culto a Santa Muerte.” Reforma, April 13, 2009. Author unknown. “Ejecutan a dirigente de culto a la Muerte.” Reforma, August 1, 2008. Author unknown. “Tiene Santa Muerte pasado 'de miedo'.” Reforma, January 6, 2011.

El Universal

Barrera, Juan Manuel. “Defienden templo de la Santa Muerte.” El Universal, January 23, 2008.

82

Barrera, Juan Manuel. “Dejan sin negocios a la Santa Muerte.” El Universal, September 17, 2008. Barrera, Juan Manuel and Miguel Ángel. “La Santa Muerte no lo salvó de ser acribillado.” El Universal, August 1, 2008. Gómora, Doris. “’Zetas,’ adeptos de Santa Muerte.“ El Universal, January 24, 2012. Author unknown. “Celebran a la Santa Muerte con bodas y peregrinaciones.“ El Universal, December 28, 2011. Author unknown. “Celebran aniversario de la Niña Blanca.“ El Universal, December 26, 2010. Author unknown. “Celebran familias a la Santa Muerte.“ El Universal, November 1, 2011. Author unknown. “Construirán altar de la Santa Muerte en penal de Chihuahua.“ El Universal, July 13, 2010. Author unknown. “Cronista de Guardia.“ El Universal, January 10, 2011. Author unknown. “Devotos de Santa Muerte celebran en Tultitlán.“ El Universal, November 1, 2011. Author unknown. “El templo de la Santa Muerte en el Edomex cumple tercer aniversario.“ El Universal, December 27, 2010. Author unknown. “Enigmas.“ El Universal, January 8, 2011. Author unknown. “Festejan aniversario de la Santa Muerte en Tultitlán.“ El Universal, December 28, 2012. Author unknown. “Peregrinan en honor de la Santa Muerte.“ El Universal, October 31, 2010. Author unknown. “Poblanos peregrinan en honor a la Santa Muerte.“ El Universal, November 1, 2010. Author unknown. “Querétaro-Peregrinacion.“ El Universal, May 30, 2010. Author unknown. “Ven a narcos detrás de ‘tributos’ a Santa Muerte.“ El Universal, October 14, 2010.

Other Arce Barceló, María Esther. “Análises del periódico Mexicano: ‘La Jornada’: Un Modelo de Comunicación Alternativa en la Era de la Globalización.” PhD diss., Universidad de Murcia, 2011. Bastante, Pamela and Brenton Dickieson. “Nuestra Señora de las Sombras: The Enigmatic Identity of Santa Muerte.” Journal of the Southwest 55:4 (2013), 435-471. Blumberg, Antonia. “Meet Santa Muerte, the Tequila-loving Saint Comforting both Criminals and the Marginalized.” Huffington Post, November 7, 2014. Accessed May 31, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/santa-muerte-saint-death_n_6108198.html. Bunker, Pamela L., Lisa J. Campbell and Robert J. Bunker. “Torture, Beheadings, and Narcocultos.” Small Wars & Insurgencies 21:1 (2010), 145-178. Casanova, José. Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.

83

Campbell, David E. “A Saint For Lost Souls.” Foreign Policy, April 26, 2010. Accessed May 31, 2015. http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/04/26/a-saint-for-lost-souls/. Chesnut, R. Andrew. “Death to Santa Muerte: The Vatican vs. the Skeleton Saint.” Huffington Post, May 18, 2013. Accessed May 31, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/r-andrew-chesnut/death-to- santa-muerte-the-vatican-vs-the-skeleton-saint_b_3291499.html. Chesnut, R. Andrew. Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Chesnut, R. Andrew. “Healed by Death: Santa Muerte, the Curandera.” In The Handbook of Contemporary Christianity: Movements, Institutions & Allegiance, edited by Stephen Hunt, 336-353. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Cole, Richard R. Communication in Latin America: Journalism, Mass Media, and Society. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1996. Deibert, Michael. In the Shadow of Saint Death: The Gulf Cartel and the Price of America's Drug War in Mexico. Guilford: Lyons Press, 2014. Domínguez-Villalobos, Lilia, and Flor Brown-Grossman. “Trade Liberalization and Gender Wage Inequality in Mexico.” Feminist Economics 16:4 (2010), 53-79. El Universal. “Publicidad.” Accessed November 19, 2016. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/publicidad. El Universal. “Historia Breve.” Accessed November 19, 2016. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/historia- breve. Factio-Krajcer, Ana. “Santa Muerte’s Promise of Prosperity.” The Washington Post, November 8, 2014. Accessed May 18, 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/santa-muertes-promise-of- prosperity/2014/11/07/3f533dae-6464-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html. Freese, Kevin. “The Death Cult of the Drug Lords: Mexico’s Patron Saint of Crime, Criminals, and the Dispossessed.” Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS. Accessed June 20, 2015. http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/Santa-Muerte/santa-muerte.htm. FORA. “Chomsky: US Supported Indian, Pakistani Nuclear Programs.” Accessed August 19, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3kAld2YwgU&t=21s. Garma Navarro, Carlos. “Religious Change in Mexico: Perspectives from Recent Data.” Social Sciences and Missions 24 (2011), 75-100. Grupo Reforma. “Estadísticas.” Accessed November 19, 2016. http://comercial.reforma.com/libre/comercial/mediakit2014/digistats.asp. Guillermoprieto, Alma. “Vatican in a Bind About Santa Muerte.” National Geographic News, May 14, 2013. Accessed May 18, 2015. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130512-vatican- santa-muerte-mexico-cult-Catholic-church-cultures-world/.

84

Hinnells, John R. (editor). A New Dictionary of Religions. Oxford: Blackwell Reference, 1995. Hjelm, Titus. “Cult.” In The Brill Dictionary of Religion, edited by Kocku von Stuckrad, published online in 2006. Accessed December 4, 2016. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.uba.uva.nl:2048/10.1163/1872- 5287_bdr_SIM_00015. Hoon, Tan Bee and Renugah Ramanathan. “Application of Critical Discourse Analysis in Media Discourse Studies.” The Southeast Asia Journal of English Language Studies 21:2 (2015), 57-68. Hootsen, Jan-Albert. “Inside Santa Muerte, Mexico’s Fast-Growing Death Cult.” Vocativ, December 23, 2013. Accessed May 31, 2015. http://www.vocativ.com/culture/photos/santamuerte/. Jones, Gareth A., Elsa Herrera and Sarah Thomas de Benítez. “Tears, Trauma and Suicide: Everyday Violence among Street Youth in Puebla, Mexico.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 26:4 (2007), 462-479. Kristensen, Regnar Albæk. “How did Death become a Saint in Mexico?” Ethnos (2014), 1-23. La Jornada. “Estadísticas.” Accessed November 19, 2016. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/tarifas/. Lomnitz, Claudio. Death and the Idea of Mexico. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2005. Martín, Desirée A. Borderlands Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture. New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, 2014. Marty, Martin E. “The the Public and the Public’s Public.” In The Power of Religious Publics: Staking Claims in American Society, edited by William H. Swatos and James K. Wellman. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1999. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. “Vitalism.” Accessed December 9, 2016. www.merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. “Classism.” Accessed December 12, 2016. www.merriam- webster.com. Metcalfe, David. “More from Matamoros – Bishop Issues Call for Tolerance of Santa Muertistas.” January 31, 2014. Accessed June 10. http://skeletonsaint.com/2014/01/31/more-from-matamoros- bishop-issues-call-for-tolerance-of-santa-muertistas/. Oxford University Press. “Counterculture.” Accessed December 12, 2016. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/counterculture. Parker, Cristián. “’Magico-popular Religion’ in Contemporary Society: Towards a Post-Western Sociology of Religion.” In Theorising Religion: Classical and Contemporary Debates, edited by James A. Beckford and John Wallis, 60-74. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate, 2006. Parker, Cristián. “Modern Popular Religion: A Complex Object of Study for Sociology.” International Sociology 13:2 (1998), 195-212. Parker, Cristián. Popular Religion and Modernization in Latin America: A Different Logic. Translated by Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996.

85

Paulas, Rick. “Our Lady of the Holy Death Is the World’s Fastest Growing Religious Movement.” Vice News, November 13, 2014. Accessed May 31, 2015. http://www.vice.com/read/our-lady-of-the- holy-death-is-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-movement-456. Perdigón Castañeda, J. Katia. La Santa Muerte: Protectora de los hombres. Mexico-City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2008. Price Waterhouse Coopers. “Grupo Reforma Certificación 2014.” Accessed November 19, 2016. http://comercial.reforma.com/libre/comercial/mediakit2014/pdf/certificacion2014.pdf. Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. “Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).” Accessed November 19, 2016. http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/universidad-nacional-aut%C3%B3noma-de- m%C3%A9xico-unam/undergrad. Remus, Babett. “Sect.” In The Brill Dictionary of Religion, edited by Kocku von Stuckrad, published online in 2006. Accessed December 4, 2016. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.uba.uva.nl:2048/10.1163/1872- 5287_bdr_COM_00410. Reyes-Cortez, Marcel. “Material Culture, Magic and the Santa Muerte in the Cemeteries of a Megalopolis.” Culture and Religion 13:1 (2012), 107-131. Roush, Laura Lee. “Santa Muerte, Protection, and Desamparo: A View from a Mexico City Altar.” Latin American Research Review 49 (2014), 129-148. Stark, Rodney and William Sims Bainbridge. A Theory of Religion. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987. Schmidt-Biggeman, Wilhelm. “How Religion re-entered the Public Political Sphere.” In Religions in the Public Spheres, edited by Tadeusz Buksiński. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2011. Scott, John (editor). Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Sesin, Carmen. “Growing Devotion to Santa Muerte in U.S. and Abroad.” NBC News, December 29, 2014. Accessed May 18, 2015. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/growing-devotion-santa- muerte-u-s-abroad-n275856. Suzdaltsev, Jules. “Narco-Saints Are Melding Catholicism with the Drug War in Latin America.” Vice News, April 3, 2014. Accessed May 31, 2015. http://www.vice.com/read/narco-saints-exhibition. The British Library Board. “Counter Culture.” Accessed December 12, 2016. http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/counterintro.html. Walker, S. Lynne. “Favorite in Mexican presidential race battles against pollsters.” San Diego Union Tribune, November 30, 2005. Accessed November 19, 2016. http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20051130/news_1n30mexico1.html.

86

Wilkinson, Tracy. “Mexico has arrested a leader of Santa Muerte 'church'.” LA Times, January 5, 2011. Accessed June 11, 2015. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/05/world/la-fg-mexico-death-saint- 20110106. The World Bank. “Poverty numbers Mexico,” accessed March 1, 2016, http://data.worldbank.org/country/mexico. Author unknown. “Dan 66 años de cárcel a líder de la Iglesia de la Santa Muerte.” Proceso, June 14, 2012. Accessed June 20, 2015. http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=310895. Author unknown. “Familia mexicana hacía sacrificios humanos en honor a la Santa Muerte.” Univision, March 30, 2012. Accessed November 11, 2016. http://www.univision.com/noticias/noticias-de- mexico/familia-mexicana-hacia-sacrificios-humanos-en-honor-a-la-santa-muerte. Author unknown. “La Iglesia de Santa Muerte Mexicana celebró su primera boda gay y prevé 9 más.” ABC.es, March 3, 2010. Accessed May 18, 2016. http://agencias.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=296160. Author unknown. “Officials: 3 killed as human sacrifices in Mexico.” CNN, March 31, 2012. Accessed June 20, 2015. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/30/world/americas/mexico-human-sacrifice/. Author unknown. “Vatican declares Mexican Death Saint Blasphemous.” BBC News, May 9, 2013. Accessed May 18, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22462181.

87