PEOPLE SEARCH
Santa Muerte’s influence in Laredo
By Adam Miller
Alongside statuettes of Jesus a stick-slender figure of a cloaked skeleton stands on a table with the world in her left hand and a scythe in her right. She is Santa Muerte, the Saint of Death, the protector of the under-world of Mexico and south Texas. “This is not something I knew about before I came here,” says NAMB church planting missionary Chuy Avila. “But Laredo is sort of the Santa Muerte capital of North America.”
The religion’s roots dig deep into the centuries-old Aztec cults of death. Its practices evoke Catholic sentiments, and many of its devotees still attend Catholic churches. But Avila says it’s simply Devil worship—the Catholic church agrees. It’s tied to drug cartels, nightlife workers and other people whose jobs involve dangerous situations. Even musicians and taxi drivers. The practice has reached the mainstream Hispanic community as well.
Laredo, Texas, is characterized by storefront shrines masquerading as shops and horrendous acts performed to appease Santa Muerte—a saint whose followers have a mission. In Laredo the cult recruits teenagers.
“They really want to take over the world,” says Avila. “And this is not something happening far away from the U.S. It’s happening right here.”
Mostly from low-income communities in Texas border towns and in Mexico, more than 2 million followers will visit Santa Muerte shrines each week where they offer food, tequila, cigars, money and even the promise of human life in exchange for protection, prosperity, fertility. Nearly every day a new shrine is built.
For missionaries working in these areas, the cult adds to the complexity of their work because it’s hard for followers to break out once they’re in.
“Pray God protects our young people. Pray second that Christians will learn more about this cult. Pray that they would come and see for themselves and support the work of people working in these areas,” says Avila.
Adam Miller is associate editor of On Mission.
10 Fall 2011 •
onmission.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52