Abstract

GAYTAN ALCALA, Felipe. Santa entre los Malditos: Culto a La Santa Muerte en el México del siglo XXI. LiminaR [online]. 2008, vol.6, n.1, pp.40-51. ISSN 2007-8900.

The cult of death has spread in the social imaginary from different regions of Latin America. Some people call it, San Muerte (Argentina), Muerte (Colombia), or Santa Muerte (Mexico). It is in the latter country where the cult is versatile, comprehensive and inclusive, with characteristics that make it unique. Believers re-invent the social time around the image of the Holy Death. Aware of the threat to the environment, violence, insecurity and uncertainty that nullify their safety and their everyday's ontological seeking refuge in a cult, the common citizen provides an alleged security in the present time, here and now, and transfers the future to a distant horizon. For a long time it was believed that only those people who live on the thres hold of their lives may profess such a belief: police, drug dealers, prostitutes and criminals. But the cults are cutting across social groups and socioeconomic levels, and now show their support for it publicly.

Keywords : Santa Muerte; risk; danger; contingency; future; inclusion/exclusion.