Abstract

ROCHA, Carolina da Cunha. Blessed are you Among Bandits: The Cross-Border Cult of Jesús Malverde (19th-21st centuries). Frontera norte [online]. 2019, vol.31, e2029.  Epub Jan 01, 2019. ISSN 2594-0260.  https://doi.org/10.33679/rfn.v1i1.2029.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the religious aspect of the drug trafficking culture, in particular, the devotion to the popular saint Jesus Malverde in Mexico between the 19th and 21st centuries. The guiding hypothesis is that the worship of this saint has been resignified since the 1970s as a response to a stronger repressive apparatus against drugs due to the increase in drug use in the United States. The Malverdian cult was adopted by the drug trafficking culture in the most ostensive way, and it has crossed geographic and cultural borders.

Keywords : Jesús Malverde; drug trafficking; religiosity; northern Mexico; United States.