White Americans Turn to the Patron Saint of Mexico's Drug Cartels Rhys Blakely - The Times
go to original March 31, 2013

Nuestra Santisima Muerte (Opificio Ciclope)

The US Border Patrol agent took out what looked like a playing card.

“Found this thataway,” he said, nodding to where the red Arizona desert meets Mexico outside the border town of Nogales. “It was with some Mexican fellows driving a truck full of meth and marijuana.” He smoothed the card and held it in his palm: “Say hello to Holy Death, patron saint of drug smugglers.”

The picture was of a female skeleton, draped in black robes and clutching a scythe. Her followers know her as La Santa Muerte (St Death). She is, they believe, a formidable ally, a remover of obstacles, a powerful guardian and the great equaliser.

For centuries, she has been asked to intercede in matters of the heart by Mexican women. More recently, the violent cartels who traffic drugs into the US have left offerings — votive candles, glasses of tequila, lines of cocaine and vials of blood — at her shrines, hoping to win protection. But now, at a time of increasing economic inequality, she is attracting a new class of follower north of the border: white, working class Americans.

Read the rest at The Times

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