SAN ANTONIO – KSAT Investigates recently examined a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination against a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office detention officer candidate over a Santa Muerte altar in their home.
What is the Santa Muerte and why do some people believe it has a negative reputation?
Santa Muerte is viewed as an “unofficial saint” often associated with the cartel, gangs, or sex workers.
Dr. Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, a University of Texas at San Antonio professor of Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies, said the Santa Muerte can be associated with organized crime, but there is much more behind it.
“This is not the whole story,” Oleszkiewicz-Peralba said. “I think the majority (of it) is because of lack of social justice and feeling of abandonment and that people look for her.”
Dr. Sean Viña, a sociology professor at the University of the Incarnate Word, highlighted that those who may feel marginalized by society or religion—such as members of the LGBTQ+ community or single mothers -- are not exclusively associated with illicit activity.
“Like for the LGBTQ(+), Santa Muerte can be seen specifically as loving everybody, having no judgment, and free for people to come and go,” Viña said.
The origin of Santa Muerte is deeply rooted in indigenous Latin American culture, along with Mictlan, the Aztec goddess of the dead and ruler of the underworld.
“Mictecacihuatl has a direct line to Santa Muerte,” Viña said.
According to Viña, Catholicism does not condone Santa Muerte nor does it recognize Santa Muerte as a saint.
“There’s no organizations, no leadership,” Viña said. “It’s just people who are kind of adopting it as their belief.”
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website, those who exemplify heroic value and martyrdom, after discernment and canonization process, are formally named “saints” by the pope. Catholics do not worship saints. Instead, they ask for their prayers and intercession so that their lives of faith may be as close to God’s as theirs.
Oleszkiewicz-Peralba described the Santa Muerte as a syncretic devotion, blending indigenous culture and Catholicism.
She said it is more of an individual belief system where anything can be asked of her for the good or bad. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba described her as transgressive.
“She may ask you for favors, and you have to do them,” Oleszkiewicz-Peralba said. “So, she continues protecting you. But of course, you know, the Catholic Church is against her because she’s not part of the canon.”
Oleszkiewicz-Peralba and Viña said the Santa Muerte has had a resurgence, especially since 2000 with the rise of violence in Mexico. It’s caused some people to turn away from the traditional Catholic Church and back to this indigenous practice, Oleszkiewicz-Peralba and Viña said.
“Here in San Antonio, I have not seen any public displays because, as far as I know, it has been forbidden,” Oleszkiewicz-Peralba said. “But that is not the case in Mexico at the moment. I have seen many manifestations on the streets and, you know, it’s more spontaneous and is changing constantly.”
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