Her believers say that Santa Muerte doesn’t perform miracles, but she does help you. She doesn’t demand that you be pious either. You can ask her for the unimaginable: that she protect you with her shadow while you commit a crime, that the bullet enters the body of the right person, that love returns, whether from the arms of someone else or from a person in jail, a hospital or even an rehabilitation facility for addicts.
Every October 31, thousands of her fervent devotees come to thank her at the most famous altar in the city, in the Tepito neighborhood, which Doña Queta has set up outside her house since November 2001. She became popular in the toughest neighborhood in Mexico City, that place where you know how to enter, but not how to leave and where you can get literally anything.
On her feast day, people come to worship her at an altar where she waits dressed in lace, with a hat and surrounded by tequila, apples, cigars and other images considered pagan. Her hands are seen full of offerings: cake, tamales, apples, cigarettes, flowers, live music and alcohol to have a drink in front of her. She deserves it, they say, for being the most faithful of all the saints.
On the eve of Day of the Dead, the parishioners gather outside the small chapel to bring their offering to ‘La Niña Blanca’
Those who come to Tepito are not the only ones. Santa Muerte, that female and cult deity is the one that adds the most new parishioners year after year. “She has 12 million followers, two million less than the world Jewish community,” explains Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, an expert in religiosity, especially known for his work on this cult.
“Currently, Santa Muerte enjoys a very good reputation for being the most fulfilling, effective and fast spiritual figure of all. Something that has proliferated through social networks with around a thousand groups on Facebook dedicated to her cult and that has led her to have more and more followers,” writes Chesnut in his book Santa Muerte, the fastest growing religious movement in the world.
Posts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok help to make the cult visible in other parts of the world. Different novenas are shared to pray depending on the needs of believers, there are guides for prosperity, love, work and any type of favors. On TikTok there are millions of videos of different altars, all set to music in rap, reggaeton, banda, corridos tumbados and even cumbia with lyrics where ‘La Muerte’ is mentioned.
An effective healer, say her parishioners, very good at doing justice in the name of those who ask for it, “resultant” for prosperity. Although she is considered a favorite among criminals, favored by prisoners to shorten sentences, the reality is that the ‘Niña Blanca aka White Girl’ fulfills other types of favors, almost always related to love sickness. She is the heart doctor who receives requests to save relationships or to make love last forever.
Of course, if you don’t comply, she’ll get even with you, because “you don’t play with Death,” says René, a resident of Tepito and a devotee since he was a child.
The cult that was born outside a neighborhood
The cult of Santa Muerte was born in colonial times but became popular in the rough neighborhoods of Mexico and has reached Patagonia, passing through El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Chile, where there is talk of the existence of altars and temples where she is venerated both in the capitals and in the provinces of those countries. The great majority of her followers joined in the last 23 years, according to Andrew Chesnut.
It all began on the night of October 31, when Enriqueta Romero took the image of more than a meter and a half in height out of her house, wearing a long dress, cape and hat, and placed it on an altar at the entrance of the neighborhood where she lives, on the Alfarería 12 thoroughfare.
“I had it in my house for years. My aunt, who was always devout, left it to me and I made her clothes, prayed to her and made offerings to her, until one day, I decided that I would leave the living room of my house and put it in a display case, at the entrance of the neighborhood, without imagining that people would approach her and adopt her as part of the neighborhood,” Queta tells DOMINGA magazine.
Today, after 23 years, Queta receives calls from Denmark in which they tell her that the image has traveled around the world and is now a “deity” worshipped outside of her country. For her, the exponential growth of the cult is due to the need that people have to solve their problems with faith.
“The need grew and the faith grew. When they get to her they have already gone through San Judas Tadeo, the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos and even Santeria. But when they discover her they stay because she did fulfill their needs. Of course, if they ask for stupid favors and don’t fulfill the offering they promised, then they will be screwed,” she says.
Queta is an 80-year-old woman of faith, dedicated to taking care of the altar and selling Death merchandise, such as figures, candles, jewelry and other “branded” items. She also prays to the Devil, the Virgin of Guadalupe and to “the head guy,” as she says referring to God.
She doesn’t look her age, she says she has seven children and 53 grandchildren. “Really, 53 grandchildren?” I ask her. “Yes, my kids who are really badasses,” she says. She overcame cancer and doesn’t stop smoking. While she talks, she takes care of the candle business, drinks a ‘Coca-Cola’, attends to her suppliers or gives orders to her assistants, members of his family.
From Monday to Sunday, she opens the little shop that she adapted next to the altar. From 9 in the morning to 9 at night, she sits at the same table to listen to the supplications and happy stories about how dutiful “her skinny deity” is.
“I always ask God first to allow me to worship and pray for the Most Holy Death, because that is the coolest one. And the truth is that we cannot prove anything, that is why I entrust myself to everyone, in the end, I never know where I will end up, whether with God or with the Devil, nor if it will be “My skinny deity” that I see in my last breath.”
The Devil is an image that in recent years has been present in Tepito, a few steps from the altar to the Holy Death, on the same street as Alfarería. There is an altar with a large Devil dressed in red, it is not the only one, there are already several altars in Tepito and the Morelos neighborhood that receive parishioners of this deity.
Doña Queta has placed images of the Devil on the altar, so they now share the space. Next to them there is a box for alms, with which, she says, she maintains a mini chapel, outside the neighborhood, where hundreds of people come every day to light candles with requests or thanks for favors granted.
Both cults have given sustenance to this devotee, not only does she administer the alms, she also runs her business with all kinds of articles, some very handcrafted that she herself creates in ceramics. “I am very grateful to my deities, thanks to them I never lack money, I always have something to eat and lead a peaceful life, without worries, I sell my candles, my figures, bracelets and all kinds of images that people buy from me as protection.”
And then she clarifies: “I do not read cards or do cleansings, I do not like to deceive, in my life I have never spoken with Death, nor do I have powers, I just follow her and love her, she is my beautiful skinny deity.”
The origins of Santísima Muerte
Santa Muerte is a fusion between pre-Hispanic and Catholic beliefs, and its roots go back to the Colony, when indigenous rituals were mixed with Christian religiosity. The Mexicas had deities related to death, such as Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl, gods who ruled the underworld and presided over the dead.
Mictlantecuhtli, also known as the lord of darkness, was in charge of collecting human beings who died naturally. His name is composed of two words, the first meaning “mansion of the dead” and the second, “lord.”
Death was seen as a natural and necessary cycle. The imposition of Christianity attempted to erase these beliefs, but many of them survived through a syncretism that amalgamated symbols and rituals. In the case of Santa Muerte, her representation is an adaptation of the Catholic image, the skeleton carrying a scythe, mixed with pre-Hispanic practices of veneration of the deceased.
The Catholic Church says it is a perversion
Santa Muerte is considered a macabre symbol of narco culture, even in reports from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) the figure appears when talking about members of drug trafficking, such as the Gulf Cartel and the Juarez Cartel, as well as the Sinaloa Cartel. In fact, the DEA has a sculpture of Santa Muerte, with a golden cloak and a tunic of 100 dollar bills, which was seized in 2011 from two women who were transporting her along with methamphetamine, from Arizona to Minnesota.
The Catholic Church has openly condemned the cult, classifying it as a practice of idolatry and heresy. The Vatican has warned its faithful about the dangers, arguing that it represents a distortion of the Christian faith and that, instead of promoting values of life and peace, it focuses devotion on death.
In 2013, Mexico’s then-archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera said that Santa Muerte is “a perversion of religion,” and called on Catholics to avoid her. “It is absurd [to consider her a saint]. Every Christian is supposed to be in favor of life and not death,” he said.
In 2016, during his visit to Mexico, Pope Francis condemned her cult, saying: “There are so many who, seduced by the empty power of the world, exalt chimeras and clothe themselves in macabre symbols to commercialize death.”
For academics, the cult of Santa Muerte represents an expression of “popular Catholicism,” a religion that emerges from below and gives voice to the needs of people in situations of hopelessness and crisis. This female skeleton, with dresses and hats, has become a symbol of cultural resistance and an expression of faith for those who feel excluded from traditional spirituality.
The expansion of a stigmatized belief
There are altars in Mexico and several countries around the world. In Mexico City, in addition to that of Doña Queta, there is one on Dr. Vértiz Avenue, where there is also a small chapel dedicated to the image.
But the largest sanctuary in the country is in Tultitlán, State of Mexico; there, on Sundays, the parishioners attend the most popular service, a 22-meter image stands with open arms to shelter those who believe in it. The figure is located in the middle of the temple on a plot of land surrounded by different altars, chapels and display cases, one for example is dedicated to the protection of children and has toys or items such as pacifiers.
Images have been found in several countries. Chesnut has been investigating the movement for 13 years and assures that the Santa Muerte movement is the fastest growing religious movement, not only in this country, but on the continent, from Canada to Chile. After Mexico, its presence is robust in the United States, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but also in Colombia and Ecuador, as well as Peru and Brazil, where it is becoming more popular every day.
“There are no official surveys on the number of devotees, but I estimate that there are perhaps 12 million. Of them, the vast majority have become devotees since 2001, when the pioneer of the cult, Enriqueta Romero, placed her life-size statue in Tepito,” said the academic in a conference in 2022 at UNAM.
Doña Queta believes that there was always a Mexican who took her to these places. One of the main points of expansion has been the United States, where immigrant communities have introduced and promoted her. In cities like Los Angeles, Houston and New York it is common to find dedicated altars, with rituals that seek protection, justice or help in difficult times.
Among the most famous is the altar in Queens, where a transgender woman, Arely Vázquez, offers an annual party in honor of Santa Muerte and also organizes monthly meetings in her house for worship. She only keeps one promise, La Muerte cured her of pancreatic cancer.
This devotion has found an echo among sectors that feel helpless, such as undocumented workers, homeless people and those affected by violence.
Santa Muerte has found a base of followers who see her as a powerful protector, says Walter Alberto Calzato, an anthropologist at the University of Buenos Aires, who wrote an article on the devotion to ‘San La Muerte’, as they call her in Argentina. The article says that she is present in Corrientes, Formosa, Chaco, Santa Fe, Greater Buenos Aires and the Federal Capital. Her devotees find a figure that doesn’t discriminate.
Her cult is made up of people from all social, economic and cultural classes who have not found a response in other religions
The devotion has even reached Spain, where Latin American migrants have brought the tradition and shared it with local communities. In Madrid and Barcelona ceremonies and altars in her honor have been reported, although it is a minority practice.
Writers such as Alberto Hernández in his book El culto a la Santa Muerte define the devotion as follows: “If the perspective of the devotees is taken into account, for most of them Santa Muerte is above all a saint.”
The October 31st festival in Tepito
Santa Muerte comes in a long dress with black lace this October 31st. The mariachis finish and the band starts. Then a rock group will come. They promised to celebrate her with live music. Firecrackers go off and the cheers of the pilgrims can be heard: “The Saint, the Saint!” They come from Chimalhuacán, Neza or Ecatepec.
The cult is inclusive, its followers seek refuge in a skeleton that provides them with supposed security. For a long time it was thought to be the sanctuary of police, drug traffickers, prostitutes and criminals, but it has been shown that other social groups and different socioeconomic levels also resort to it.
Here comes Alejandra on her knees with her baby in her arms, she is 15 years old. The night she went into labor she had an apparition, she says that it appeared to her in the patio of her house, approached her, handed her the baby dressed in yellow and disappeared. “That is why I came to thank her,” she thinks that Death did her the favor of giving her a healthy child.
Gustavo, 32, is also coming and says he owes her a lot. She took his partner out of prison and also cured him of an illness, when he was already thought dead.
Tonight will be a 24-hour party where the alcohol and music never ends, nor does the faith. Despite the stigma, the prohibition, today the mouths of millions of faithful pray: “I go with you, Most Holy Death, and in your power I trust, placing myself under your protection, my soul will return safely, sweet mother, do not go away. Do not take your light away from me, come with me everywhere and never leave me, it is true that you protect me like a true mother, let the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit bless us. Amen.”
Source: Milenio
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