Exploring the fastest growing popular faith in the Americas – La Santa Muerte
As devotional traditions surrounding Santa Muerte continue to evolve, it is fascinating to see what aspects emerge from both sympathetic and oppositional accounts in the media. A recent documentary short from MonsterTV, a media collective based out of Mexico City, provides a good view of how La Nina Bonita's strong roots in the realm of … Continue reading Short Documentary on Santa Muerte from MonsterTV
As a way to coordinate outside of official and orthodox channels, Santa Muerte has become a central social driver for many living in northern Mexico. Her altars, shrines and chapels have become meeting places where core community issues can be worked out and a tentative neutrality can be reached between otherwise contentious groups and individuals. Rising, … Continue reading Leader of the Templo de la Santa Muerte de Tultitlán Assaulted
(This interview was orginally published at the World Religion and Spirituality Forum, part of the World Religion and Spirituality Project at Virginia Commonwealth University) Dr. Chesnut, welcome to the World Religions and Spirituality Forum. WRSP: Reading about Santa Muerte in the media suggests that this devotionalism has just burst upon the scene. In your work … Continue reading SANTA MUERTE: THE NEW SAINT IN TOWN An interview with Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut
Independent researcher David Metcalfe recently appeared on the second episode of Invisible College Radio to discuss the growing popularity of Santa Muerte in the Americas with the show's host, Austin Gandy. The conversation covers some of the common misconceptions regarding the devotional tradition, Santa Muerte's magical aspects, and touches on a more nuanced understanding of … Continue reading Santa Muerte on Invisible College Radio!
The Santa Fe Radio Cafe recently featured Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Chair of Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, in conversation with host Mary-Charlotte.
(Originally published at ModernMythology.Net) When you stare into the empty eyes of La Nina Blanca do you feel the resonant warmth of a mother's love? It's there, if you look deep enough, at least for those who pay her true devotion. Even those coming from a more objective distance can't help but notice the prevalence … Continue reading A Mother’s Love and a Soldier’s Devotion – Santisima Muerte in Perspective
It was the declaration of Santa Muerte as an enemy of the Mexican state by former president Felipe Calderon that first sparked my interest in the skeletal folk saint. Identifying Santa Muerte as a "narco-saint" responsible for protecting certain drug cartels, the Calderon administration ordered the army to bulldoze some 40 shrines along the U.S.-Mexican … Continue reading Death to Santa Muerte: The Vatican vs. the Skeleton Saint
"For most devotees Santa Muerte is neither grim nor satanic. Instead, she is a saint who is as familiar to Mexicans as death itself. And her familiarity is reflected in her most common nicknames: Skinny Lady, White Sister, Godmother, Co-Godmother, White Girl and Pretty Girl. As godmother and sister, the saint becomes a supernatural family member, approached with the same type of intimacy Mexicans would typically accord their relatives. Much, of course, has been written about the uniqueness of the concept of death in Mexican culture. In his illuminating book on the subject, "Death and the Idea of Mexico," anthropologist Claudio Lomnitz even argues that death is totemic of the nation itself; that along with the Virgin of Guadalupe and 19th-century president, Benito Juarez, the figure of Catrina Calavera, the "playful skeleton." is one of the three great totems or powerful emblems of Mexicanness."
The battle between the Catholic orthodoxy and devotees of Santa Muerte has hit a high water mark with a visit to Mexico from the Vatican's Cultural Minister, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. Sarah C. Nelson, writing for Huffington Post UK, reports on the news that Ravasi has given a charge of blasphemy to Santa Muerte in a … Continue reading Vatican Cultural Minister Declares Santa Muerte “Blasphemous”
An episode from NPR's All Things Considered dedicated to Santa Muerte demonstrates a trend in reportage that has had an unfortunate effect on understanding the complexity of these faith traditions. Within three short paragraphs we already descend into a narrative laden with adjectives like dangerous, dark, shacklike (an authorial invention to describe just how shack … Continue reading Saint or Sinner? Mexico Debates A Cult’s Status (NPR – All Things Considered, 2009)
Most Holy Death 