What prompted your interest in the Santa Muerte phenomena?* I am a specialist in the religious landscape of Latin America and was conducting research for a book project on the Virgin of Guadalupe when in March 2009 I saw the news that the Mexican army had demolished 40 Santa Muerte altars on the border with Texas and California. I have more than 3 decades of experience in Mexico so I was already familiar with the Mexican folk saint of death... Read more
“The Bible has returned to the palace,” Bolivian interim President Senator Jeanine Áñez said when taking office last week. A few days earlier, Fernando Camacho, one of the leading voices in the process that led to Evo Morales’s resignation, entered the Bible with his hands in the same building and said that “God” would return to “government.” Both are Catholic and have been supported by conservative sectors of the Church and evangelical leaders to weaken Morales. In recent years, mentions... Read more
Pachamama has become the latest lightning rod of division in the Catholic Church. She is an Andean fertility goddess representing Mother Earth, venerated primarily by Quechua and Aymara-speaking groups in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. During the recent Synod on the Amazon several statuettes of a naked pregnant woman which first appeared at an Indigenous prayer service held at the Vatican with Pope Francis in attendance became known as Pachamama. The Argentine pope himself referred to the fertility figurines employing the... Read more
As a specialist in the Mexican religious landscape I had visited the Saint Jude shrine in Mexico City several times, but this time I was fortunate to be in town for his annual feast day on October 28. I had come to Mexico City for research on Day of the Dead, but there was no way I was going to miss the annual fiesta of Mexico’s most popular Catholic saint, the patron of lost causes, so I headed to San... Read more
Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Professor Andrew Chesnut A widely circulated photo of Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of notorious narco kingpin El Chapo Guzman, wearing a pendant of the Holy Infant of Atocha reminded us that it’s not only Latin American folk saints who serve as narco-saints but also a number of Catholic ones. Last week the 28 year-old narco, who has taken on a leading role in the Sinaloa Cartel in his father’s stead, was briefly... Read more
By Professor Andrew Chesnut and Doctor Kate Kingsbury* While the Catholic Church adopts a preferential option for Amazonians, Amazonians themselves are opting for Pentecostalism. One of the most under-reported stories of the Amazon Synod currently taking place at the Vatican is the dynamic of religious competition in a region that included nine South American countries, most importantly Brazil. Since the 1970s the Church in Latin America, which is home to 40% of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, has been hemorrhaging... Read more
Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut Santa Muerte, Saint Death and Holy Death in English, is now the fastest growing new religious movement in the West. There are no surveys of the number of devotees, but with 10 years of research experience, we estimate some 12 million followers, with 70% in Mexico, 15% in the U.S., 10% in Central America, and the remaining 5% mostly in South America. There are also small groups of devotees surfacing in... Read more
Co-authored by Dr. Ana Keila Mosca Pinezi* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut Brazilian history since the Colonial era is marked by the enslavement of Africans and by institutionalized racism which has permeated the social fabric of the nation. As such, Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions are often seen as demonic, stigmatized as evil emanating from malignant spirits. Capoeira, samba, and maracatu, even if they are very popular, are seen as manifestations related to the world of evil. But it’s in the realm of... Read more
Having researched the Mexican skeleton saint Santa Muerte for the past decade I am quite accustomed to death imagery. However, when I first came across a photo of the Holy Child of Raffles (el Santo Niño de las Suertes) I was taken aback. As a specialist in Latin American religion I am used to seeing the myriad advocations of the Christ Child. There’s el Niño Doctor wearing a doctor’s smock who as one might imagine is most often beseeched for... Read more
Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut In a country with the world’s second largest Black population, it’s no surprise that many of the most popular religious figures in Brazil are conceived of as African or derived from Africa. For example, the Orixás or gods the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé are of Yoruban lineage presided over by Yemanja, the goddess of the sea. Likewise, one of the three major types of spirit guides in the less Afrocentric religion... Read more
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