John Lee Brook 23 skeletal and bald, Santa Muerte is devoid of sexuality. Female attire is added, along with wigs. Her ability to work miracles surpas

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1 22 one Santa Muerte IN TONY SCOTT S 2004 action film Man on Fire, the haunted protagonist John Creasy (Denzel Washington) seeks revenge against a gang of kidnappers he believes has murdered a little girl he was hired to protect. In one scene, as Creasy revisits the location of the kidnapping, journalist Mariana (Rachel Ticotin) picks up an amulet off the ground and says to him, It s Santa Muerte. Death worship. The religion of La Hermandad. There s a curse on you. The name La Hermandad, the gang in the movie, is an allusion to the notorious Mexican kidnapper known as El Mochaorejas (literally, the ear chopper ), a devotee of Santa Muerte. The kidnappers first names in the movie, Daniel and his brother Aurelio, are the first names of real life Mexico City kidnappers in the late nineties, Daniel and Aurelio Arizmendi López, the infamous Ear Loppers. The film was not a big hit. Nevertheless, it offered an interesting glimpse into the mystical component of the Mexican drug cartels: the cartels, some more than others, were ensconced in the cult of Santa Muerte. Santa Muerte is the personification of death, referred to in Revelation 6:8: And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. To the people of Mexico, Santa Muerte is not the personification of a dead person; rather she is the actual embodiment of death. She conveys her adherents to the afterlife. And her gender, as indicated by the feminine Santa, is distinctly female. In iconic form, which is

2 John Lee Brook 23 skeletal and bald, Santa Muerte is devoid of sexuality. Female attire is added, along with wigs. Her ability to work miracles surpasses even that of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. For this reason she is known as La Dama Poderosa, the Powerful Lady. Offering protection to those who worship her, Santa Muerte s followers include criminals, especially drug traffickers. According to one expert, Father David Romo, over five million Mexicans adore and admire her. In reality, the numbers are probably much higher. Santa Muerte is the patroness of the majority of prisoners in Mexican, Texan and Californian prisons, who offer her sacrifices of cocaine, marijuana, cigarettes and blood. Those criminals not in prison look to Santa Muerte for divine intervention, protecting them from capture, arrest and imprisonment. They, too, make sacrifices to her. Unlike other saints, her reputation is that she takes care of business. Santa Muerte is dynamic. She does not simply make vague promises, she delivers. Worshipers desiring her divine intervention in confounding enemies, in acts of vengeance, and in protecting drug shipments, burn a black candle to her. Her image that of the Grim Reaper adorns the black SUVs and pickup trucks of drug traffickers throughout Mexico. The Skinny Lady, another of her appellations, carries a scythe in her right hand. She has assassin eyes, hollow orbits. And her teeth are sharp, like a shark s. The Roman Catholic Church frowns upon Santa Muerte and those who worship her. According to the Church, there is nothing holy or saint-like about Santa Muerte, and anyone who worships her is heretic. Santa Muerte is the spawn of the devil himself; the Church maintains that Santa Muerte is the cult of drug traffickers and responsible for Mexico s bacchanalia of bloody barbarism. As in many religions and cults, for example, Wiccans, colors represent concepts in Santa Muerte, mostly in the use of devotional candles. Gold candles symbolize economic power, success and money. Peace and harmony are reflected by the white candle. A red candle stands for love and passion. Increased mental powers are the

3 24 BLOOD + DEATH bailiwick of the blue candle, while green invokes justice. A yellow candle is for miraculous healing, as are purple candles, which restore health. Black candles symbolize protection against black magic and against revenge from hostile spirits such as demons. The black candle also aids in the destruction of one s enemies. There are certain sacrifices or gifts that Santa Muerte desires in return: money, flowers, candy, alcohol (especially tequila), tobacco, fruits, water, bread, and incense. Cigars and cigarettes are two of the Skinny Lady s favorite gifts. They should be lit, and the smoke blown over the image, which serves to purify the altar. In prayer, the White Sister is referred to as Desired death of my heart or Heart of my heart. The provenance of Santa Muerte is open to interpretation. Experts say she has roots in the religious practices of the Mayans and Aztecs. The Aztec god and goddess of death, Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl, are said to have eaten the dead flesh of human sacrifices. Other experts say Santa Muerte is simply a variation of the Afro-Caribbean religion, Santeria, or put forward any number of different theories. The bottom line is that Santa Muerte has existed since shortly after World War II. Mexico City abounds with shrines and altars to Santa Muerte. Most of the ten shrines and 120 altars are located in Tepito, aka Tepis, Tepiscoloya or Tepistock. The most notorious barrio in all Mexico, Tepito s infamy stems from the criminal element, which is prevalent, and a black market openly selling knockoff goods, drugs and guns, as police look the other way. The primary spokesperson for the cult of Santa Muerte is David Romo Guillén aka Lord of the Rings, who is the Archbishop and Primate of the Catholic Apostolic Traditional Church. Father Romo is not ordained and has not taken Holy Orders of any type, but arrogated his titles on his own initiative. Masses are held at midnight, attended by young people dressed in costume, as if celebrating Halloween. Father Romo is well-connected with the Mexican cartels. Over the last fifteen years, Santa Muerte s popularity has

4 John Lee Brook 25 blossomed, her buds flourishing throughout Mexico and South America, reaching into Australia. Her roots are strongest in Mexico City, however, despite Santa Muerte claiming no spiritual center. It is not an organized religion; it is simply belief in Holy Death or Saint Death. And in that sense is the essence of faith. For the Mexican cartels, Santa Muerte condones and justifies their atrocities. She is death incarnate. She is the celebration of death, which is no longer to be feared, but rather it is to be praised and adored. Under Santa Muerte, death has achieved the status of superstardom. And those who minister in her name reside in her limelight, because they do the will of God divine justice. The saint s precise origin is sketchy. Some say she embodies the Aztec goddess of death, Mictecacihuatl, who, like the Greek god Hades, reigned over the underworld, Mictlan. The Spanish Conquest, which persecuted any religious belief other than Catholicism, drove Mictecacihuatl s worshipers into concealment. Later, she resurfaced disguised as a Catholic saint. Others, including Mexican academics, trace her origin to medieval Western Europe rather than a pre- Hispanic origin. They assert the saint is synonymous with the Grim Reaper of European Catholicism that achieved notoriety during the Black Death. The first time Santa Muerte is mentioned by name is in a document from the Spanish Inquisition, dated The document states that the Chichimec Indians (of today s Guanajuato) worshiped Santa Muerte, the personification of Death. The Chichimec bound the saint with ropes, while threatening to torture her if she did not perform a miracle. In each case, the Church oppressed the belief and rituals associated with her cult, with the result that no one dared mention her until the 1940s. But she was always there, hidden in the background. When finally she emerged from the shadows, her first accretion was slow, but gathered strength and grew. La Familia Cartel was first to embrace the wild religious philosophy of Holy Death. When La Familia observed how their

5 26 BLOOD + DEATH gangbangers gravitated to religious ideas, they decided to emphasize and encourage such beliefs. Knowing a good idea when they saw it, Santa Muerte was elevated to the narco religion of La Familia. Operating out of Michoacán, La Familia had 9,000 armed gangbangers at their beck and call. The cartel came forth from Tierra Caliente aka the Valley of Hell, where it had three leaders: Nazario Moreno, Servando Gómez and José de Jesús Méndez aka The Monkey. Nazario Moreno aka El Mas Loco, The Craziest, headed the narco religion of La Familia. When he was a teenager, Nazario left the Valley of Hell traveling to California and Texas, where he worked a series of odd jobs. He quickly turned to drug smuggling, where the money was much easier. Nazario considered himself a visionary, someone touched by God, and, like the biblical Ezekiel, began writing his own bible, which spoke of his thoughts on God, divine justice, punishment and sin, good and evil. Nazario believed his delusional ramblings were divinely inspired. Because of a near fatal automobile accident in 1998, doctors put a steel plate in Nazario s head, which some believe made him even crazier than he already was. Upon his recovery, Nazario returned to the Valley of Hell, where he hooked up with La Familia. An uneasy alliance with the Zetas was about to come to a bloody end with La Familia betraying and murdering the Zetas. The Valley of Hell now belonged solely to La Familia. Under Nazario the High Priest, La Familia began indoctrinating their gangbangers in Santa Muerte. The gangbangers became religious zealots and embarked on a Holy War revolving around drugs, money, territory and death. Their holy mission was to impose divine justice on anyone who opposed them or got in their way. La Familia was so caught up in religious fervor that they published the glad tidings of their divine mission, taking out advertising space in newspapers.

6 John Lee Brook 27 The ad was an apologia, of course, a defense of their fanaticism. It stated that their mission was to Eradicate from the state of Michoacán kidnapping, extortion in person and by telephone, paid assassinations, express kidnapping, tractor-trailer and auto theft, home robberies done by people like those mentioned, who have made the state of Michoacán an unsafe place. Our sole motive is that we love our state and are no longer willing to see our people s dignity trampled on. Then they went out to kill, extort, kidnap and run drugs. The other cartels decided La Familia was on to something and soon, they too, embraced Santa Muerte. However, before the cartels all but institutionalized Santa Muerte, the White Sister was already at work, accomplishing her dark desires.